In the Old Testament there are many visions relating to the
chosen people of Israel. Through these visions, God reveals to us His plan for
His chosen people, and also shows that His faithfulness and love do not change
on account of factors such as personalities, time or circumstances.
In the old days God chose Abram, the forefather of Israel,
and instructed him to leave his country, his people and his fatherˇ¦s household
to go where the Lord directed him, and Abram obeyed and went out. Later,
through his faith, Abram received the blessing of Melchizedek but refused the
reward of the king of Sodom. He acknowledged the God Most High, Creator of
heaven and earth, as his God. (Genesis 14:22-23) So God bestowed further
blessings upon him, telling him in a vision, ˇ§Do not be afraid, Abram. I am
your shield, your very great reward.ˇ¨ (Genesis 15:1) The Lord promised Abram
that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and made a
covenant with him. He revealed to Abram in a vision of a smoking firepot that
his descendants would be strangers in a country not their own, and they would
be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. But later they would be
given the good and spacious land of Canaan as their inheritance. The promises
of God to Abram have now come into being one by one, showing that the
faithfulness and love of God has not left His chosen people.
Some years later Moses, who was similarly chosen by God, was
mired in feelings of dejection and a lack of physical strength and ability. God
chose him in a vision to go and see Pharaoh and bring the chosen people out of
Egypt. ˇ§There the angel of the Lord appeared to him
in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on
fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ˇĄI will go over and see this strange
sightˇXwhy the bush does not burn up.ˇ¦" (Exodus 3:2-3) This vision
concerning the chosen people has several precious messages: (1) Suffering and
persecution seared the chosen people of God like a blazing fire. The Egyptians
used severe methods to oppress the Israelites and made them perform hard
labour. Pharaoh ordered that their newborn male infants be killed as a policy
of gradual genocide. (2) The thornbush was not burned up, indicating that the
chosen people of God was not extinguished despite their many sufferings and
persecutions because of the protection of the Lord. Just as Jeremiah said,
ˇ§Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions
never fail.ˇ¨ (Lamentations 3:22) (3) The attitude of the chosen people was like
that of the thornbush, boastful and arrogant (Judges 9:14-15). The Bible always
uses the grapevine and the fig tree to signify Israel, and the thornbush to
signify the curse brought about by the sins of man (Genesis 3:18). From their
deliverance out of Egypt to the destruction of the kingdom of Judah, the
history of Israel has been page upon testimonial page of transgression,
betrayal of grace, and the forsaking of God. Yet God still blessed them with
preservation and protection.
This vision of the burning bush not just reveals
to us the wonderful attributes of God. From the words of the Lord to Moses, we
also learn of His unique name (Exodus 3:14) and the plan of salvation He had
for His chosen people. God said, ˇ§So I have come down to rescue them from the
hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and
spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.ˇ¨ (Exodus 3:8) We can clearly see from
history the protection and salvation that was bestowed by God upon the people
of Israel from the time Moses saw the vision to the present day.
What is more, the faithfulness and love
manifested by God upon the chosen people of the New Testament (The Church) will
last forever. He personally took on bodily form to come to this world, becoming
a Moses of the latter day, to die for us, deliver us from the curse and
punishment of sin, and rescue us into the Kingdom of God.
ˇ§ˇ¦Though the mountains be shaken and the hills
be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of
peace be removed,ˇ¦ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.ˇ¨ (Isaiah 54:10)
By: Daniel To