And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thorn-bush and he looked, and behold, the thorn-bush burned with fire, and the thorn-bush was not being consumed.
Moses turned aside to look at a thorn bush that was burning but would not burn up. The sight raises the question the chapter answers. How can God, who is a consuming fire, come near a people without destroying them?
God could have stopped Moses in a hundred ways. He chose this one on purpose.
We are never to suppose that the manner of the revelation of God is an unimportant consideration. He is sovereign, no doubt. But for that very reason His sovereignty is wise. He always shows Himself in the way that best fits the purpose in hand. So it was in no casual way, or merely to catch attention by wonders, that Jehovah here appears in the burning bush. The bush is weak and ready to vanish away, yet it remains. Where God reveals Himself in pity as well as in power, He sustains the one He is dealing with. Whatever the siftings and judgments, whatever the trials, He uses them for nothing but good. It is for His own glory, and so for the very best interests of those who are His.
One writer takes the scene apart piece by piece.
There are three parts to the vision granted here — the Lord, the flame of fire, and the bush. Notice first that it says the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses (v. 2). Then the Lord saw that he turned aside, and God called to him from inside the bush... So the angel of the Lord is identified with Jehovah, yes, with God Himself. In all these appearances of the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, we see, pictured in advance, the coming of the Son of God in human flesh. In each case it is God the Son... The flame of fire is a symbol of the holiness of God... The bush was meant to be a figure of Israel. Nothing is more easily consumed by fire than a bush, and it was chosen for this very reason to represent the nation.
The word used is not for a fine tree.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the word used means a bush of thorns, or bramble bush. It is a bush of little worth, and fire would soon burn it up. But God was in the bush, and therefore it was not consumed.
Thorns are not a neutral detail. They trace back to the first pages of the Bible, where the ground was cursed after man's sin.
You remember that thorns were the sign of the curse at the beginning. Botanists tell us that thorns (at least the kind we are dealing with here) are really stunted leaves. They are parts of a plant that cannot do what they were first meant to do. Sinners are in this symbol naturally connected with the curse upon sin. And we can view the thorn-bush itself, without forcing the picture, as the type of sinful flesh. This is what the people are, and so the fire comes. But the bush is not consumed, because the Angel of Jehovah, their covenant God, is in that fire.
The fire means more than holiness. Israel was already in a furnace.
The fire is the symbol of their suffering and tribulation... Later God called Egypt the "iron furnace" (Deut. 4:20). The thornbush, however, is not consumed. All the fires of persecution and tribulation could not consume Israel.
Who was in the bush? One writer answers, and points to a later furnace.
But the Son of God was in the bush. That was the secret. He was with Israel in Egypt, just as He was later in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The bush burned, and the furnace was heated seven times hotter than usual. Yet the smell of fire did not settle on them.
The wonder is not that fire burns, but that this bush lived. Another writer sees in it God living among a redeemed people.
What a fitting, solemn, and beautiful picture of Jehovah living among His chosen and redeemed people! "Our God is a consuming fire" — not to consume us, but to consume everything in us and around us that is against His holiness. Such things destroy our true and lasting happiness.
The bush points forward. One writer sees its full answer in a manger, quoting an older translation of 1 Timothy 3:16.
The Baby in Bethlehem's manger was the great fulfilment of the burning bush. "God was manifest in the flesh and seen of angels." God was in the midst of men and they were not consumed.
- Bush. A worthless bramble, thorny from the curse on sin. It pictures a people that fire could burn up in a moment.
- Fire. Two things at once: Israel's affliction in Egypt, and the holiness of a God who is a consuming fire.
- Angel. The one in the flame is identified with Jehovah Himself; the bush survived only because God was inside it.
- Purpose. He consumes what is contrary to His holiness, not the people He has redeemed for Himself.
- Fulfilment. The unburnt bush finds its answer at Bethlehem — God in the midst of men, and men not consumed.
And Moses said, Let me now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt.
Moses is far from Egypt, keeping another man's sheep, when a bush on fire refuses to burn up. He steps off his path to ask why. That turn makes an ordinary day the moment God speaks his name.
Fire consumes what it touches. Moses watched that law fail in front of him. The lesson went far beyond one bush.
Here was a sight that directly contradicted everything natural, and Moses was drawn to it. He had to learn that although "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29), He could live among a people who in themselves were thorny and fit fuel for the flames, and yet not consume them. It was indeed a "great sight." For forty years in the wilderness the LORD dwelt as a pillar of fire among rebellious Israel. In those years Moses must have thought back on the way God had revealed Himself to him at the start, in His great kindness.
The bush is a thorn bush; some translations read "thorn-bush" here. Each part of the picture means something, and the reason the bush survives is not in the bush.
The burning bush is a picture of the suffering people, the wretched slaves in Egypt. It was a thornbush. Thorns are the result of sin, so the bush pictures the sinfulness and worthlessness of the people. The fire is the symbol of their suffering and tribulation… The thornbush, however, is not consumed. All the fires of persecution and tribulation could not consume Israel. In the flame of the fire in the midst of the burning bush the angel of the LORD appeared. This was the secret of the bush's preservation; God was there and kept them.
Moses wanted to know why the bush was not burnt. Turn that into a question about God and man, and it becomes the largest question there is.
Let us repeat this expression of wonder — "Why is the bush not burned!" Put it another way. God is a "consuming fire," burning up all that is contrary to His Holy Being. How then can He reveal Himself without consuming? Here was the great question. Can He "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity" deal with man in any way except by judgment in righteousness? Yes; most surely He can, and He has done so. He has revealed Himself in Christ! And grace now reigns, through righteousness, to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord! That is the gospel.
Note the order: Moses turns, then God calls. His stopping was not a delay before the real event. It marked him out.
Moses turns aside to see why the bush is not consumed. "And when the LORD saw that he turned aside," God called him, to reveal Himself as the God of holiness, who was like a consuming fire. Yet in grace He could take up such a people as Israel — a frail, useless bush of the desert. He would not destroy them, but purify them and glorify them with His own presence. This is the whole central plan and idea of redemption. What shows Moses to be a seer is that he turns aside to study it, instead of passing by in indifference. "When the LORD saw that," He called him to the prophetic office.
Walking on would have cost Moses the blessing. He stayed and listened, and found out who was in the bush.
It was a great and mysterious sight that Moses turned aside to look at; yet barefoot he could still look and listen. Had he not done so, he would have gone away unblessed. But he listened, until he discovered that the "I AM" was in the bush; and further, that "the God of Abraham" was there too. A strange place for such glory to house itself! But so it was. In a burning bramble bush, the Lord God Almighty was found.
God was about to send Moses out on a commission. The place He chose to speak from was itself part of the message.
He was about to give Moses his commission to lead His people out of Egypt. They were to be His assembly — His dwelling-place, in the wilderness and in the land of Canaan. And the place from which He speaks is a burning bush. What a fitting, solemn and beautiful symbol of the LORD dwelling among His chosen and redeemed people! "Our God is a consuming fire," not to consume us, but to consume everything in us and around us that is contrary to His holiness.
- Great — fire that burns and does not destroy. The sight broke the rule of nature, and Moses stopped.
- Thorny — the bush was a worthless desert bramble. It pictured slaves in Egypt with nothing in themselves to survive the fire.
- Why — Moses' question is the gospel question: how can a holy God come near to man and not consume him? The answer is Christ.
- Turning — God called only after He saw Moses turn aside. Stopping to look at God is what fits a person for His service.
- Dwelling — the God who spared the bush lives among His people. He consumes not them, but what is contrary to His holiness.