The Angel of the Lord Appears in a Burning Bush -- Exodus 3:1-2

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

So Moses stays in Midian, marries Zipporah, daughter of Reuel, has a son they name Gershom and he works as a shepherd taking care of his father-in-law’s flock.  In this particular text, Zipporah’s father is referred to as Jethro, not Reuel.  Why is that?  The commentators are all over the place on this one.  First there is the possibility that people had more than one name as per the ancient Near Eastern practice.  (That would mean Jethro and Reuel were one and the same.)  Then there is the idea floated by some that Reuel was really a title or a “family patriot” who actually gives the younger women his blessing.  As the chief patriarch (grandfather, or great-grandfather), he arranges or approves the marriages for the female descendants of his clan.  (This would mean that Jethro was Reuel’s son.)

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that the different names of Jethro puzzled the Talmudists (authors of the Talmud, comprising some of Judaism holy books).  Some of them thought that his real name was "Hobab," (whom we will come across much later in the Scriptures) and that Reuel was his father; others thought that his name was "Reuel," interpreting it "the friend of God”.  Some modern scholars hold that his own name was "Reuel," and that "Jethro" was a title, meaning "his Excellency". According to Simeon b. Yoḥai, a famous 1st-century sage in ancient Israel and active after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, he had two names, "Hobab" and "Jethro".  The Jewish Encyclopedia goes on to say that it is, however, generally accepted that he had seven names: "Reuel," "Jether," "Jethro," "Hobab," "Heber," "Keni" (compare Judges 1:16; and 4:11), and "Putiel".  Somewhere in these options lies the truth and one day we’ll know.

In any case, Moses leads his father-in-law’s flock to the west end of the Midianite wilderness or desert and comes to Mount Horeb, the “mountain of God”.  This is the first time we come to hear the name of this mountain, but it is understood to be another name for Mount Sinai from which God (much later) gave the law to Moses and the Israelites.

It is there the “angel of the Lord” appeared to him.  This is the third record that we have to one called the “angel of the Lord”.  The first was in Genesis 16 when he appeared to Hagar.  The second was in Genesis 22 when he appeared to Abraham.  And now he appears many years later to Moses.  The term is used later in Scripture as well.  There is much that has been written about who this angel is and a search on Google will give you much of that.  Generally speaking, especially as his presence progresses through Scripture, there is agreement that this “angel”, for many reasons, is none other than the Lord or God Himself.

We then have here the famous reference to the “burning bush” (a misnomer) in which the angel of the Lord appears.  In actuality the bush was not burning at all.  The Scriptures correctly state there was a “blazing fire” in the midst of the bush, but it did not consume the bush.  It is understood that the bush was a thorn bush (with all the symbolism that can present and which many draw on) and because of the very dry desert environment and the acacia (thorn) being brittle, it is possible for it to easily be lit by any small spark, which would start a blaze.  The event was very rare and Moses was clearly attracted to it.  The equivalent for us would be to see what we think was a log fire but the logs were never burning.  Upon closer examination, we could detect that in fact what we thought was a wood fireplace, was a gas fireplace being fed by a continuous supply of natural gas.  The logs are never consumed.

So what then is the application for us today?  Let me suggest that we need to stop long enough and ask ourselves the following questions: “Am I aware of the ‘burning bushes’ that God places in my life, especially in my desert?  Do I realize His presence in them and am I attracted to it?  Do I realize the continuous availability of His power and sustenance to my life?  Am I dependent on it?”

I challenge you today to realize that without Him, you have no power to live a victorious life.  With Him, and in Him, and through Him, you have already won against the enemy.

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Joseph’s Death & the End of Genesis - Genesis 50:24-26

And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you, and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”  Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.”  So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

With this passage we come to the end of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  In it, we find Joseph himself, in a manner similar to what his father experienced, being aware he was about to die.  I believe more of us know when our time is just about up than we may want to admit.  There are those who die suddenly in an accident or via a heart attack, of course, but more of us seem to get some warning, than those that do not.  Assuming you and I may get such a warning, the question arises as to whether or not we will be able to handle it as well as both Jacob, and later Joseph, did.

Joseph’s biggest concern as death approached him was the welfare of his brothers and their families.  He wanted to assure them that God would indeed take care of them.  He wanted to remind them that the goal was for God to lead them up from the land of Egypt to the land the Almighty had promised their father Jacob, their grandfather Isaac, and their great-grandfather Abraham.  This was an “oath” of God – a promise that would be kept not only because it was a promise, but also because it was God Who made it.  With this statement and his subsequent request to his brothers, Joseph is showing the depth of his faith in the God of his fathers.  And with it, an understanding that even he who had risen to the position he had in Egypt realized he was just a “wayfarer” there and not a citizen.  His real home was the land that God had promised his people.  That is the understanding that all of us need to have, exhibit, and share with those that come after us.  As true believers, we realize we are only journeying through life on earth, and our destination is the home that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us.  If you are a Christian and reading this, and don’t feel that way – may I humbly suggest that something is out of kilter and you need to find out what it is.

In Joseph’s days, promises were very serious things.  Once made, people did all they had to in order to deliver them.  Would that we would take our ‘promises’ to others and to God as seriously.  Would that we would go out of our way, to any extent necessary, to keep our oaths.  To be a disciple of Jesus or to be like Jesus, to be like His Father, keeping promises made becomes one of the highest priorities.  And that goes from keeping a promise that simply says, “I’ll call you,” to one that says, “Until death do us part.”

Sometimes promises are requested from us.  In this case, Joseph asked his brothers to promise to carry his bones with them to the land God was going to give them when they went – whenever that would be.  And that was it; no more was said.  Given how well the people of God honored oaths and promises, we could be certain that Joseph’s brothers would both accept and deliver their promise to him.

My dad, in his 91^st year, and as he was knew his remaining days were very few due to his advanced cancer, asked a favor of me.  His one desire was that I, being an only child, would not sell the home he and mom had bought in 1953 – the home from which I was married, the home from which mom died, the home his three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren loved to visit, and the home from which he died.  He did not care if we rented it, used it, or left it empty – but he just did not want it sold until I had died.  He realized the generation after me would likely not value it for its historic or sentimental value.  He never posed it as a promise I had to make, but I knew that doing so would make him happy.  I, on the other hand, chose to ‘promise’ him that I would keep his request.  And so I did.  When dad died, we wondered what we would do with the house.  It turned out God had His plans already lined up; we just had to come in line with them as He brought His desire, and something that would have made my dad so pleased, to our minds and then, our pursuit.

My wife and second daughter spent the first year after dad’s death working with an architect to design a home that would allow three generations (my wife and I, my daughter and her husband, and their three children) to enjoy as one family.  And what a home they designed.  They hired a contractor and we watched as dad and mom’s home bought almost six decades ago was taken down, a new larger foundation was built, and a new house was erected.   As I pen this we have all enjoyed the benefits of living together (and yes, dealt with and still face some of the challenges) for close to four years already.  We all know we are in God’s will -- for us at least -- and we have all been able to keep the promise I made to my father.

I was not emotionally attached to the land my father had bought when I was five years old.  But I treasured it for what it meant to our family since my youth.  And when I saw it still had a role to play in the rest of my life and then in the life of one of my children and some of my grandchildren, I learned to really love it.  And I know I will love that way it until my own dying day.  Bible commentator Chuck Smith suggests the love the Jews have for Israel even today was not something that they latched onto in recent years, it was there from the time of Abraham forward, even before they possessed it the first time.

Joseph made his request of his brothers and then he died after having lived one hundred and ten years.  The Scriptures say he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.  There is no evidence that he was ever buried.   He lay in a coffin in probably some austere room for all the years between his death and when God took the Israelites out of Egypt.  Some commentators say that was 300 years, others say it was over 400 years.  It all depends when we start counting.  Either way, it was a long time.  And in that coffin, he lay above ground as, according to David Guzik, “a silent witness for all those years that Israel was going back to the Promised Land, just as God said.”  When a Jewish child would see the coffin and would ask why the corpse in it was not buried, the parent had an incredible opportunity to tell him/her about the Promised Land.

We do not know if Joseph had any indication from God as to how long it would be before the Jews were to leave Israel, but his faith in what God had promised could last as long as it took.  That is what real faith is all about.   It does not have a “limited time application” sticker on it.  If I believe in God and what He said, time is not an issue.  It will happen.

Joseph died, and even though the Egyptians whom he served so well would have wanted him buried in Egypt, he was likely given a royal funeral but then preserved in a coffin as per his wish, until he could be carried to the land God was giving his people.  While we focus on the hope that such a coffin would bring to the generation of Jewish people for the next 400 or so years, we must also be aware of the fact that its exposure was a thorn in the flesh to many Egyptian rulers that followed between Joseph’s death and the Exodus.  The idea of loosing all that population and later slaves was not an easy one to accept.

Matthew Henry points out “Joseph died looking forward to God’s unfolding plan of redemption”.  What a fitting ending for Genesis, the Book of Beginnings.  Henry writes, “It (Genesis) concludes looking forward to the continuation of God’s eternal, loving, wise plan.”  Are you in it?

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The Blessing - Genesis 48:15-16

And he blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; And may my name live on in them, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Joseph was expecting his father, Jacob, to bless his two sons when he put his hands on their head, but instead, the text says, “he blessed Joseph”.  I like that.  I understand it.  The love and blessings that my aged father bestowed on my children were indeed a blessing to me.  And so it should be.  We are to view the continuum of family through adjacent generations and beyond as a gift from God.  This is reinforced when Jacob talks about his “fathers Abraham and Isaac” seemingly describing them as belonging to one and the same category, “my fathers”.

The joy of remembering one’s fathers or ancestors is multiplied when we can say like Jacob, that they walked before God.  And it is exponentially increased when we can honestly declare that this same God has been and still is the “shepherd of my life”.  Jacob was able to do just that.  I can only say this about my father; I do not know of my grandfather’s faith.  It is my desire that my son and daughters can say it about their “fathers”.  That would be a great delight for any man or woman.  Some are blessed with the knowledge of that assurance for even more generations.  Others will never share that joy.  Their only recourse at this point, is through their own faith, they see to it that their children get a chance to say that about their ‘father’.  Whatever your situation is, you can resolve to walk before God and cling to Him as your shepherd.

And Jacob’s blessing, interestingly enough, seems to suggest how we can do just that. It includes the fact that it was God who had “redeemed (him) from all evil.”  Even in the Old Testament, before the human birth of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, God Himself could redeem us.  Jacob had given his life to obeying God and God redeemed him.  It is the same for us today.  We obey God when we accept His Son as our Savior.  At that point we are saved. We then continue to serve Him throughout our lives.

And with that saving God as his Redeemer, Jacob blesses his son Joseph and Joseph’s sons.  The blessing that Jacob bestows on Ephraim and Manasseh is twofold.

First, it is his desire that the boys keep the memory of their grandfather (Jacob himself), their great-grandfather (Isaac) and their great-great-grandfather (Abraham) alive, as they live.  This is, first and foremost, a human attempt at what most of mankind pursues – the desire to be remembered after one is gone.  My dad would often respond to my question, “Dad, why are you doing that for the kids? They have enough; they don’t need it,” by simply saying, “Because I want them to remember me.”  Almost everything he did for his grandchildren was with that sole purpose in mind.  I see that same attitude popping up occasionally in my own dealings with my grandchildren.  It is natural.

In Jacob’s case, however, his desire to be remembered was also expressed on behalf of his own father and grandfather.  Thus, I am led to believe that it was more of the honorable desire to keep alive their memory with respect to how they “walked with God”.  Jacob believed that God’s promise to his grandfather was dependent on the children of Israel continuing their walk with God.  He wanted to do all he could to ensure that would happen.  That is a very normal desire.  As Christian parents and grandparents, we so much want our children and grandchildren to walk with God throughout their lives because we know from experience that the alternative leads to either emptiness or destruction, or both.

Before we leave this section, we would be amiss not to mention the great commentator Matthew Henry’s take on this verse.  He writes: “Though they were born in Egypt, and their father was then separated from his brethren, which might seem to have cut them off from the heritage of the Lord, yet Jacob takes them in, and owns them . . .” Henry continues, “It is as if he were saying ‘Let them not succeed their father in his power and grandeur here in Egypt, but let them succeed me in the inheritance of the promise made to Abraham.’” Henry believed that Jacob looked upon that promise as much more valuable and honorable, and would have his grandchildren to prize and covet it accordingly. Henry writes: “Thus the aged dying patriarch teaches these young persons, now that they were of age . . . not to look upon Egypt as their home, nor to incorporate themselves with the Egyptians, but to take their lot with the people of God . . . Jacob will have Ephraim and Manasseh to believe that it is better to be low and in the church than high and out of it, to be called by the name of poor Jacob than to be called by the name of rich Joseph.”  I will leave it up to you to settle for yourself as to how much of this Jacob actually thought out.  Personally, I do believe that as grandparents we often look at what our own children have aspired to and accomplished, sometimes without the help of God and sometimes allowed by God, and we feel that their priorities were, in our estimation, a little off.  And we pray that things won’t get even further off kilter with their children, our grandchildren.  We pray that they will arise above the seduction of the physical world and move even closer towards God.  My wife’s mother expressed that sentiment just this week as we were talking about success and one’s income.  She was right in suggesting that while we need funds to live, money is not the purpose of our living.  Jacob wanted his grandchildren to understand that.

The second thrust of his blessing on Joseph’s sons had to do with their growing and multiplying on the earth.  That was partly for them and partly for the part that they would play in the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.  What we do note is that although Israel went to the extra trouble of crossing his arms over so that Ephraim would get blessed with his right hand, the blessing to both of his grandchildren was identical.  What remains to be seen is how Joseph reacted to what had just taken place.  We discover that in the next few verses of this chapter.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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The Relating of the Promise Is Altered and Why God’s Exact Words Matter - Genesis 48:3-4 (part 2)

Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’

As we look closely at this section of scripture again, it is important that we stop and realize its significance in the big picture so far.  Jacob is now relating to Joseph his own personal experience at Luz, which is another name for Bethel, in the land of Canaan, where Jacob had his encounter with God.

You will remember that God, first to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then to Jacob, personally spoke the covenant He made to the Israelites.  In reality God’s promise only needed to be made once, as He did to Abraham.  He is God and does not need to repeat Himself especially when making a promise.  He may do so for our benefit, but not out of necessity.  His speaking to Isaac and Jacob after that was mere confirmation of that original promise.  But nevertheless God spoke to directly to all three generations.

Now Jacob’s son, Joseph, is hearing of the promise – not from God, but from his earthly father.  And Jacob is very careful to use the same words that God used with him so that the promise is clearly understood exactly as God meant it.  God used similar words that He had used with Isaac before that, and then with Abraham before him.  The exact words of God are very important.  They are important in passing on divine teaching.  They are not to be added to or subtracted from.  Doing so, leads us, and those that we teach, into errant doctrine.

The exact words of God are also important as we try to interpret and match what we see unfolding before us in world history to what the Bible says.  This is especially true both with respect to the minds and evils of man in the end times before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as in the matter of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians today.  As the hired vendors say at major events often held in sports stadiums or in large theatres these days, “you can’t tell the players without a program”.  We are fortunate enough to have the program written by the Master Manager and Playwright Himself.  He’s got it right and He shares it with us.  Many world leaders would do well to merely recognize His existence.  Many would do much better to heed His words when it comes to these matters.

Finally, the exact words of God matter when we, as mere humans will ultimately do, come up against matters on which we disagree.  We need to get back to the exact words of God.  If it is critical to life, God has addressed it in His word.  If it is not in His word, or can be clearly traced and attached without doubt to something He has spoken on, then it should not be cause for division.  We should agree to disagree and for the sake of the Gospel being shared with others, stop pushing our own perspective exclusively.  When will Christians, especially those in a local church, learn that people do not want to join a divisive group?  They have enough strife in their personal lives.  They are looking for peace and solace as they seek to adopt a faith that gives them comfort and hope.

And if God has addressed a matter in His word, we need to agree to what is there, not what we want it to say, hope it means, interpret to mean, and so on.  With our God-given ability to think and reason, we should be able to agree on what is clear and adhere to those principles, promises, and instructions.  Failure to do so is not the fault of God or His word.  It is clearly our human stubbornness and dare I say pride, either which can be interpreted as sin.

Jacob was sharing this promise of God with his son Joseph so that the younger man may be encouraged in his life.  Jacob’s two grandsons, perhaps hearing this promise for the first time, may well have been perplexed, depending on their ages.  Here they were living in Egypt, with an Egyptian mother, and their father second in command in all of Egypt, and now they hear their grandfather talking about a promise God made to their father’s people, the Israelites, about a land in Canaan.  I am sure Joseph had some explaining to do before they all returned home.  And can you imagine the surprise of Joseph’s wife when she heard the account from her sons later?

Jacob’s intent here was clear.  As the commentator Robert Jamieson puts it, Jacob wanted “to engage Joseph’s interest and preserve his continued connection with the people of God, rather than with the Egyptians.”  Any immigrant, who has moved his or her family to a new land, knows that challenge that Jacob faced.  As I grew up in Canada, I could always sense the daily challenges we faced as to whether or not we would do something the Canadian way, or the way my parents did it back in Greece.  Would we associate with more Canadians, or try to find the other Greeks that immigrated to Canada like us?  We spoke Greek in the home so that I would not forget it (for which I am thankful) and left the English-speaking for school and the playground.  In my particular case, the challenge was complicated as we were clearly a Protestant family while all our Greek friends were Greek Orthodox and at all social events it was assumed we were too.  Jacob was trying to make it clear to his son and his grandsons that their true heritage was that of the people of God.  And perhaps that is the lesson for us as well.  It is not so much about where we live, but it is more about ‘to Whom we belong’.  I trust understanding that and living by it ourselves as models and examples will be our true legacy to the generations that follow us.

Relaying this promise of God to his son Joseph, Jacob commenced a very critical tradition and necessary practice for the Jewish people which, if followed, would enable them to survive all they had to go through for thousands of years before the promise could be fulfilled in its entirely.  Without it, the Israelites would have disappeared over time.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention that all do not interpret this promise the same way.  For some, these words are to be considered in a limited sense, that is, applying only to the immediate few centuries that followed when the Jews did occupy the Holy Land.  Others attribute an understanding to this promise as speaking ultimately about all the Jews of the diaspora (the scattered tribes) being reinstated in the land God promised them as an “everlasting possession”.  Some within this latter group accept the formation of the accepted State of Israel in 1948 as the fulfillment of that promise and that all the conflict since then is simply one of maintaining that land as their own.  Still others within this second group hold to the view that the “everlasting” aspect of the possession promise is yet to be fulfilled when Israel regains full control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and re-establishes a holy temple on the site.  All we can do is wait with anticipation to see how God intended to fully seal the delivery of His promise.  In the meantime, we read the “program” and try to follow it as closely as possible.  But for starters, we know the words do say, “everlasting possession”.  Politicians, who claim as many do during election years that they are ‘God-believing’, never mind ‘God-fearing’, should remember that.

 [Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Palestinians Now Appealing to Evangelicals; they got Bill Hybels' wife.

Now is the time for all good evangelicals to come to the aid of their spiritual family tree. Read on.

Palestinians To Evangelicals: Zio... JPost - Opinion - Columnists

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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