40. Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 41. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Stephen here proceeds in his story of Moses; and let any one judge, whether these be the words of one that was a blasphemer of Moses; no; nothing could be spoken more honourably of him. Here is,
I. The vision which he saw of the glory of God at the bush; (v. 30.) When forty years were expired, during all which time Moses was buried alive in Midian, and was now grown old, and, one would think, past service, that it might appear that all his performances were products of a divine power and promise, as it appeared that Isaac was a child of promise, by his being born of parents stricken in years; now, at eighty years old, he enters upon that post of honour to which he was born, in recompense for his self-denial at forty years old. Observe,
1. Where God appeared to him; In the wilderness of mount Sinai, v. 30. And when he appeared to him there, that was holy ground, (v. 33.) which Stephen takes notice of, as a check to those who prided themselves in the temple, that holy place, as if there were no communion to be had with God but there; whereas God met Moses, and manifested himself to him, in a remote obscure place in the wilderness of Sinai. They deceive themselves, if they think God is tied to places; he can bring his people into a wilderness, and there speak comfortably to them.
2. How he appeared to him; In a flame of fire; for our God is a consuming Fire; and yet the bush, in which this fire was, though combustible matter, was not consumed; which, as it represented the state of Israel in Egypt, where, though they were in the fire of affliction, yet they were not consumed, so perhaps may be looked upon as a type of Christ's incarnation, and the union between the divine and human nature; God, manifested in the flesh, was as the flame of fire, manifested in the bush.
3. How Moses was affected with this; (1.) He wondered at the sight, v. 31. It was a phaenomenon which all his Egyptian learning could not furnish him with the solution of. He had the curiosity at first to pry into it; I will turn aside now, and see this great sight; but the nearer he drew, the more he was struck with amazement; and, (2.) He trembled, and durst not behold, durst not look wistly upon it; for he was soon aware that it was not a fiery meteor, but the angel of the Lord; and no other than the Angel of the covenant, the Son of God himself. This set him a trembling. Stephen was accused for blaspheming Moses and God, (ch. 6. 11.) as if Moses had been a little god; but, by this it appears that he was a man subject to like passions as we are; and particularly that of fear, upon any appearance of the divine Majesty and Glory.
II. The declaration which he heard of the covenant of God; (v. 32.) The voice of the Lord came to him; for faith comes by hearing; and this was it; I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and therefore, 1. "I am the same that I was." The covenant God made with Abraham some ages ago, was, I will be to thee a God, a God all-sufficient. "Now," saith God, "that covenant is still in full force; it is not cancelled or forgotten, but I am, as I was, the God of Abraham, and now I will make it to appear so;" for all the favours, all the honours God put upon Israel, were founded upon this covenant with Abraham, and flowed from it. 2. "I will be the same that I am." For if the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, cannot break the covenant-relation between God and them, (as by this it appears it could not,) then nothing else can: and then he will be a God,
(1.) To their souls, which are now separated from their bodies. Our Saviour by this proves the future state, Matt. 22. 31. Abraham is dead, and yet God is still his God, therefore Abraham is still alive. God never did that for him in this world, which would answer the true intent and full extent of that promise, that he would be the God of Abraham; and therefore it must be done for him in the other world. Now this is that life and immortality which are brought to light by the gospel, for the full conviction of the Sadducees, who denied it. Those therefore who stood up in defence of the gospel, and endeavoured to propagate that, were so far from blaspheming Moses, that they did the greatest honour imaginable to Moses, and that glorious discovery which God made of himself to him at the bush.
(2.) To their seed. God, in declaring himself thus the God of their fathers, intimated his kindness to their seed, that they should be loved for the fathers' sakes, Rom. 11. 28. Deut. 7. 8. Now the preachers of the gospel preached up this covenant, the promise made of God unto the fathers; unto which promise, those of the twelve tribes, that did continue serving God, hoped to come, ch. 26. 6, 7. And shall they, under colour of supporting the holy place, and the law, oppose the covenant which was made with Abraham and his seed, his spiritual seed, before the law was given, and long before the holy place was built? Since God's glory must be for ever advanced, and our glorying for ever silenced, God will have our salvation to be by promise, and not by the law; the Jews therefore who persecuted the Christians, under pretence that they blasphemed the law, did themselves blaspheme the promise, and forsook all their own mercies that were contained in it.
III. The commission which God gave him to deliver Israel out of Egypt. The Jews set up Moses in competition with Christ, and accused Stephen as a blasphemer, because he did not do so too. But Stephen here shews that Moses was an eminent type of Christ, as he was Israel's deliverer. When God had declared himself the God of Abraham, he proceeded,
1. To order Moses into a reverent posture; "Put off thy shoes from thy feet. Enter not upon sacred things with low, and cold, and common thoughts. Keep thy foot, Eccl. 5. 1. Be not hasty and rash in thy approaches to God; tread softly."
2. To order Moses into a very eminent service. When he is ready to receive commands, he shall have commission. He is commissioned to demand leave from Pharaoh for Israel to go out of his land, and to enforce that demand, v. 34. Observe, (1,) The notice God took both of their sufferings, and of their sense of their sufferings; I have seen, I have seen, their affliction, and have heard their groaning. God has a compassionate regard to the troubles of his church, and the groans of his persecuted people; and their deliverance takes rise from his pity. (2.) The determination he fixed to redeem them by the hand of Moses; I am come down to deliver them. It should seem, though God is present in all places, yet he uses that expression here, of coming down to deliver them, because that deliverance was typical of what Christ did, when, for us men, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven; he that ascended, first descended. Moses is the man that must be employed; Come, and I will send thee into Egypt; and if God send him, he will own him, and give him success.
