Description of the animation: The burning bush at the center of Scotland's church flag has a special meaning that is found in the Book of Exodus. The burning bush was located on Mount Horeb; according to the narrative, the bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name. In the narrative, the burning bush is the location at which Moses was appointed by Yahweh (God) to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan.
As a powerful religious symbol, the burning bush represents many things to Christians
such as God's miraculous energy, sacred light, illumination, and the
burning heart of purity, love and clarity. From a human standpoint, it
also represents Moses' reverence and fear before the divine presence.
In the narrative, an angel of the Lord is described as appearing in the bush, and God is subsequently described as calling out from it to Moses, who had been grazing Jethro's flocks there. When Moses starts to approach, God tells Moses to take off his sandals first, due to the place being holy ground, and Moses hides his face. Some Old Testament scholars regard the account of the burning bush as being spliced together from the Jahwist and Elohist
texts, with the Angel of Yahweh and the removal of sandals being part
of the Yahwist version, and the Elohist's parallels to these being God
and the turning away of Moses' face, respectively
 |
God Appears to Moses in Burn-
ing Bush. Painting from Saint
Isaac's Cathedral, Saint Petersburg |
When challenged on his identity, Yahweh replies that he is the God of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - and that he is Yahweh. The text derives Yahweh (יהוה) from the Hebrew word hayah (אהיה), meaning he who is he, or I am that I am.
The text portrays Yahweh as telling Moses that he is sending him to the Pharaoh
in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, an action that Yahweh is
described as having decided upon as a result of noticing that the
Israelites were being oppressed by the Egyptians. Yahweh tells Moses to tell the elders of the Israelites that Yahweh would lead them into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a region generally referred to as a whole by the term Canaan; this is described as being a land of milk and honey.
According to the narrative: Yahweh instructs Moses to confront the
Egyptians and Israelites and briefs the prophet on what is to take
place. Yahweh then performs various demonstrative miracles in order to
bolster Moses' credibility. Among other things, his staff was transmuted into a snake, Moses' hand was temporarily made leprous, and water was transmuted into blood, In the text, Yahweh instructs Moses to take this staff in his hands, in order to perform miracles with it, as if it is a staff given to him, rather than his own;
some textual scholars propose that this latter instruction is the
Elohist's version of the more detailed earlier description, where Moses
uses his own staff, which they attribute to the Yahwist.
Despite the signs, Moses is described as being very reluctant
to take on the role, arguing that he lacked eloquence, and that someone
else should be sent instead;
in the text, Yahweh reacts by angrily rebuking Moses for presuming to
lecture the One who made the mouth on who was qualified to speak and not
to speak. Yet Yahweh concedes and allows Aaron to be sent to assist Moses, since Aaron is eloquent and was already on his way to meet Moses. This is the first time in the Torah that Aaron is mentioned, and here he is described as being Moses' mouth piece.
The Hebrew word used in the narrative, that is translated into English as bush, is seneh (סנה), which refers in particular to brambles; seneh is a biblical dis legomenon, only appearing in two places, both of which describe the burning bush.
All flag animations are made by the staff at our blog and are
created with graphics attributed to the public domain at both Wikipedia
and by some visitors that have requested that flag animations be made
for their own Denominations or church groups.
To read about how we make the flags go the the
index page. To request animated flags for your own church:
- Visit
your churches denominational pages to request that they contact our
gallery staff via email to make inquiries about including their own
versions on our web pages. Many logos are copyrighted and are only free
to use under special permissions. So if you do not see your
Denomination's flag represented here, it may be because it has not been
filed at Wikipedia under "fair use" or tagged as public domain.
- If
your flag design is for a church youth group or a missions organization
we will make the animation for you. However, if we make it, it will be
included on this blog for others to download.
- There are no fees for the making of flag animations.
- You may contact Kathy Grimm at pickandprintgallery@yahoo.com and she will pass on the information.
