BURNING BUSH

Victoria & Albert Museum

Moses and the Burning Bush

The shepherd Moses has led his flock out of the desert to Horab the mountain of God. In Blake's picture Moses turns his face to his right side. He holds a scroll in his right hand. Beside his right side is a ram. His attention is focused on the bush which burns and is not consumed. The right side of the picture is bright while the left side of the picture is darkened by an overhanging tree of the type which Blake used to represent error. Blake saw two sides to Moses.

Moses listens as the voice of God addresses him from the burning bush calling him by name. Moses is receptive to God's call and responds, "Here am I." 

The voice of God tells Moses that he is to go to the Pharaoh in order to deliver his people "out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land." Moses continues the conversation with God. His reluctance is overcome when God assures him that he will be with him.

Exodus 3:12

And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

Although Blake considered Moses a great prophet and an instrument of God, in Blake's estimation Moses entered into error on two accounts. First in promulgating the ten commands which intended to impose standards of morality. Blake says "Moses beheld upon Mount Sinai forms of dark delusion" (Song of Los, E 67). In Blake's opinion Jesus who was "all virtue,and acted from impulse, not from rules", violated in spirit every one of the ten Commandments. It was not the failure to follow the Law that offended Blake but the attempt to uniformly impose an absolute morality which perverted the "fiery joy" of life "to ten commands"(America, E 54). 

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 22, (E 43) 

"if Jesus Christ is the
greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now
hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten
commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the
sabbaths God? murder those who were murderd because of him? turn
away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of
others to support him? bear false witness when he omitted making
a defence before Pilate? covet when he pray'd for his disciples,
and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against
such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist
without breaking these ten commandments: Jesus was all virtue,
and acted from impulse: not from rules."

The second great error of Moses was massacring the nations who occupied Canaan before the Israelites arrived. "God never makes one man murder another nor one nation...To Extirpate a nation by means of another nation is as wicked as to destroy an individual. (Annotations to Watson, E 641) 

Exodus 3

[1] Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

[2] And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
[3] And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
[4] And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
[5] And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
[6] Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
[7] And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
[8] And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
[9] Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
[10] Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
[11] And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
[12] And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
[13] And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
[14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
[15] And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 

 

Letters, To Trusler, (E 702)

"The wisest of the Ancients considerd what is not too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction because it rouzes the faculties to act. I name Moses Solomon Esop Homer Plato"

Annotations to Watson, (E 617) 

"Of what consequence is it whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch
or no.  If Paine trifles in some of his objections it is folly to
confute him so seriously in them & leave his more material ones
unanswered  Public Records as If Public Records were True 
     *Impossible for the facts are such as none but the actor
could tell, if it is True Moses & none but he could write it
unless we allow it to be Poetry & that poetry inspired 
     [P 16] If historical facts can be written by inspiration
Miltons Paradise Lost is as true as Genesis. or Exodus. but the
Evidence is nothing for how can he who writes what he has neither
seen nor heard of. be an Evidence of The Truth of his history"

Annotations to Watson,(E 618) 

"I cannot concieve the Divinity of the <books in the> Bible
to consist either in who they were written by or at what time or
in the historical evidence which may be all false in the eyes of
one man & true in the eyes of another but in the Sentiments &
Examples which whether true or Parabolic are Equally useful as
Examples given to us of the perverseness of some & its consequent
evil & the honesty of others & its consequent good  This sense of
the Bible is equally true to all & equally plain to all. none can
doubt the impression which he recieves from a book of Examples. 
If he is good he will abhor wickedness in David or Abraham if he
is wicked he will make their wickedness an excuse for his & so he
would do by any other book."

Thanks to A Blake Dictionary by S. Foster Damon, page 286.