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.
And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him out of the midst of the thorn-bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.
For forty years Moses kept sheep in the desert. Then a bush burned without burning up, he stepped aside to look, and God spoke his name out of the flame.
God's call comes the moment Moses stops to look. One writer sees a pattern in that:
Then one ordinary day the extraordinary thing happens, and he turns aside to see the "common bush aflame with God." "When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him." To a definite call and commission He adds the gracious confirmation, "Certainly I will be with you." But first He had to gain his attention. How often this same pattern has repeated. God waits to use and bless us, as soon as He can gain our interest in what He is doing, is about to do, or is willing to do through us.
The waiting had a purpose. Egypt taught him, and the desert had to unteach him.
The moment Moses had so long desired came. His long training in the wisdom of the Egyptians did not bring it. An equal stretch in the desert, spent unlearning, had to run out first. Only then did God give him the effective call.
Verse 2 says the angel of the LORD appeared; verse 4 says God called. That difference matters.
Notice first that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses (v. 2). Then the Lord saw that he turned aside, and God called to him out of the bush. So the angel of the Lord is identified with Jehovah — yes, with God Himself. There is no doubt that in all these Old Testament appearances of the angel of the Lord we see the coming incarnation of the Son of God foreshadowed.
God calls the name, and says it twice. That doubling runs right through Scripture:
God's greatness and majesty produced a striking response when He spoke in grace to saints of old. When He called, "Abraham, Abraham," at once the answer came, "Here I am." When He said, "Jacob, Jacob," the reply came at once: "Here I am." To Moses He spoke, "Moses, Moses!" and Moses answered at once: "Here I am." … The same One speaks as before, in the same way, but now come down in lowly grace: "Martha, Martha!" and "Simon, Simon!" Once again, after His ascension, "Saul, Saul!"
The place God chose to speak from carries the message.
The Lord 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 picture of the Lord living among His chosen and redeemed people! "Our God is a consuming fire." He does not consume us. He consumes everything in us and about us that is contrary to His holiness.
The voice answered the question the sight had raised.
Moses could now know why the bush was not consumed: God was in the midst of the flame. God was in and with Israel in their furnace of affliction; He was in their midst sustaining and keeping them.
The first words after the name are not the commission but a warning about the ground. Being called near is not the same as being casual.
His presence is the true power of sanctification. Forms He could and did use under the law, in tabernacle and temple. But He Himself is more than any or all of them. What a support this was for Moses! He had to go in to Pharaoh, lead His people out, and bear with their waywardness in the wilderness.
This is not an isolated episode but part of a series of divine calls running through Scripture:
In the garden, out of heaven, and for a third time out of the bush, God's call is heard. This time He calls not as the truth that exposes sin, nor as the love that provides a substitute, but as the Holy One who redeems His people. He takes His place among them without lessening His glory, and He makes them able to bear it. The call implies that man had wandered from God, as Adam had. It comes from the heart of God, and it invites us into His own heavenly presence, as it did Abraham.
- Attention. God waited until Moses turned aside; the call came the moment He had the man's interest.
- Voice. The One who called is the angel of the LORD, identified with God Himself. Writers see the coming incarnation of the Son foreshadowed here.
- Name. He calls "Moses, Moses" — as He did with Abraham, Jacob, Martha, Simon and Saul. The doubled name draws out the reply, "Here I am."
- Fire. God speaks from inside the flame, and that is why the bush survives. A consuming fire dwells among His people without destroying them.
- Presence. His presence itself, not any form or ritual, is what sanctifies. That presence is what sustained Moses before Pharaoh.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither loose thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moses turns aside to look at a bush that burns without burning up. God's first words to him are not about Egypt or Israel. They are about the ground under his feet. Before the commission comes the check: the man God is about to send must first learn what God is.
God calls Moses by name, then stops him. One writer reads this halt as the first lesson of every relationship with God, and the condition for hearing anything from Him.
God must remind him of the holiness of the divine presence. "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." This is the first lesson that all who approach God must learn: to recognize His holiness. True, He is a God of grace and mercy, and He is love; but He is all these because He is a holy God... But we must take our shoes off, remembering the holiness of the God we deal with. Otherwise we can never receive the gracious communications of His mind and will.
Nothing about that patch of desert made it different from the sand around it. The holiness came from who was there. The same holds for any place God chooses to dwell.
The place of God's presence is holy, and can only be trodden with unshod feet. God dwells among His people. That gives their assembly a character of holiness, and it is the basis of every holy affection and every holy activity. The character of the dwelling place takes its stamp from the character of the Occupant.
The presence that demands holiness also supplies it.
His presence is the true power of sanctification. Forms He could and did use under the law, in tabernacle and temple. But He Himself is more than any or all.
The command targets the feet, and sandals had a job to do.
Shoes are to protect the feet from injury and defilement. The feet are our point of contact with the earth. How important that shoes guard them from its thorns and its soil! In the presence of God the shoes came off, for the ground was holy. Earth must not defile in that holy Presence.
Bare feet also said something about the man himself. One writer reads the removal as an admission:
Moses' shoes must be removed as a confession of his own dependent weakness before God.
The order to stop marks a boundary. One writer sets it beside a later scene, where a father puts shoes on the feet of the son who comes home.
It showed that as yet there was no welcome for man into the presence of God. God had not yet made a standing for him, however much goodness and kindness He might show him. Under grace a standing is found. The son who came home received shoes; he was welcome and at home.
The two commands are not in conflict; they belong to two different footings before God.
"Put shoes on his feet," too. The law said, "Take off the sandal." Grace says, "Put shoes on" — that is, "I will provide him with fitness to tread those courts above." The law says, "Take your shoes off, you are not fit." Grace says, "I will make you fit."
Yet the boundary did not send Moses away.
Long ago, anyone entering that presence had to take the shoes off his feet, to express the sense of holiness that suited it. But that was all. God did not require Moses or Joshua to withdraw; only to tread softly. They were welcomed and encouraged, while being taught the holiness of such closeness.
The holiness of the spot is tied to the sight in front of Moses. Commentators read the bush as Israel under Egypt's fire, and then look further:
But the fact of this being holy ground points to a much deeper lesson than this, for it is a reminder of the cross of Christ, where all the awesome fire of God's judgment fell upon the Lord Jesus because of our sins. But that fire did not consume Him.
- Holiness first. God tells Moses where he stands before He says a word about Egypt. Holiness is the first lesson.
- The Occupant, not the location. Desert sand becomes holy ground because God is there. A dwelling takes its character from the One who fills it.
- Bare feet. Shoes carry the soil of the road. Taking them off confesses the earth's defilement and the servant's own weakness.
- Stopped but not sent away. "Do not come near" set a limit, but God did not send Moses away. He told him to tread softly.
- Shoes given back. What law removed, grace supplies. The fire of judgment fell on Christ and did not consume Him, so the son comes home and receives shoes.
And 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 at God.
At the burning bush God names Himself to Moses by three men long dead. Moses covers his face. Why that name, at that moment? And why did the sight of God frighten him?
God did not name Himself from Sinai and the law. He named Himself from the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That choice shaped how near Moses could come.
Moses had to keep at a distance and remove his shoes, as a sign that the place was holy, and he was only a servant. There had to be distance. But it was far less marked than later, when God gave the law. This was doubtless because at the outset the Lord revealed Himself to him as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." The God who set up the covenant of promise was not so awesome as when He gave the law from Sinai.
The name itself was old. What was new was that God was now about to act on it.
The name He gave Himself was not new — people had heard it before. But now He was about to act on its reality and present value. There was to be accomplishment up to a certain and evident point, and not promise only. So the stress falls on "the God of your fathers," explained as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
Before the three great names comes a smaller one: "the God of your father." That phrase reached Moses himself.
The words that Moses heard out of the middle of the fire in the bush must have awakened in his heart the memory of God's goodness towards the fathers. But they must also have shown him that he had a personal link with the God of Abraham. For God had said to him, "I am the God of your father."
The same meeting shows two things at once: grace and holiness.
If God's holiness is infinite, His grace is infinite also. The way He revealed Himself to Moses declared His holiness. The very fact that He revealed Himself at all showed His grace. He came down because He was gracious. But having come down, He would reveal Himself as holy… God's presence must always make nature hide itself. When we stand before God with bare feet and covered head — the attitude of soul which those acts so aptly and beautifully express — we are ready to listen to the sweet words of grace. When man takes his proper place, God can speak in the language of unmixed mercy.
Moses' fear marks where he stood — before the exodus, before God had redeemed His people.
Before redemption, even a saint trembled when brought into God's presence. His voice does declare Him the God of promise, the God of the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, "Moses trembled, and did not dare to look." Until redemption, peace is impossible.
Jesus used this sentence to prove that the dead live. His argument turns on what it would mean for God to name Himself after men who no longer exist.
If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ceased to exist, could God still have taken their names, the names of nothing, to describe Himself to Israel? … God describes Himself by them. He is not ashamed to be called their God… He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But this truth went further. Abraham was dead, his soul separated from his body. He was living for God, yet he was not what God meant him to be as his God… He was to be complete, and so raised from the dead.
Everything turns on one small word — the tense of the verb.
Our Lord stresses His point in that God said, "I AM." The strength of His argument lies in the present tense of the verb "to be." So exact is verbal inspiration.
Moses could not look. Believers now can. The difference is how God has since made Himself known.
This is a great sight for us to turn aside and see. It is greater than what Moses saw, as the substance is greater than the shadow. In Jesus, God is made known to us and brought near. In His presence our souls can stay without a fear, unlike Moses, who "hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" — for "GOD IS LOVE."
- Name — God names Himself by the fathers and the covenant of promise, not by the law. The distance is real, but gentler than Sinai's.
- Personal — "the God of your father" gave Moses his own link to that promise, not just an inherited story.
- Holy — He came down because He is gracious. Having come down, He shows Himself holy, and human nature hides.
- Living — God still names Himself their God. "I AM" is present tense, so Abraham, Isaac and Jacob live to Him and must rise.
- Near — The bush was the shadow. The substance is God made known in Jesus. There the soul that once hid its face can stay without fear.