Exodus 3:2-4
"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. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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."
This is a key moment in Bible history of Redemption, when Moses encounters God through the miraculous sight of “the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” This passage marks the beginning of God's direct call to Moses, setting the stage for the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Moses was a type of Christ the Mediator sent by God the Father to save His spiritual people yet in bondage of their sin and condemnation under the law.
As Moses tended to his flock in the wilderness near Mount Horeb, he witnessed a bush that burned but was not consumed. Intrigued, he approaches, and God calls out to him by name from within the flames. This encounter signifies both the revelation of God to Moses and God's commissioning of him as the leader who would bring His chosen people out of Egypt to freedom.
What lessons do we learn, then, from Moses’s encounter with God in the burning bush?
“The Angel of the LORD appeared unto him...” Was this a created angel, or was this the Messenger of the Covenant, the LORD Jesus Christ Himself appearing to Moses in a pre-incarnate appearance? Doubtless, this was the LORD Jesus Himself, as He would often appear in mercy to His people or His prophets even before He came in the flesh. This was an extraordinary revelation of God through the mediation of His Eternal Son. Notice that it says, “the Angel of the LORD appeared unto him,” and then, “the LORD saw that he turned aside to see.” The Angel (Messenger) of the LORD is the same LORD who saw Moses turn aside. The word "angel" means "messenger," and Christ is the Angel (Messenger) of God the Father for the salvation of His chosen ones (Judges 6:22, Zechariah 3:1-10).
“A flame of fire out of a burning bush...” The flaming fire represents the holiness and justice of God, Who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). When Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was promised to Abraham, he saw a burning lamp, which signified the light of joy that the deliverance would bring (Genesis 15:7). But now, it shines even brighter as a flame of fire, for in that deliverance, God brought terror and destruction to His enemies, light and warmth to His people, and displayed His glory before all (Isaiah 10:17).
“The bush burned with fire but was not consumed.” This fire was not in a tall and stately cedar, but in a bush—a thorny bush, as the word means. Here, we see a beautiful picture of the work of God in pouring out His wrath on His Son in the flesh. The LORD Jesus would bear the wrath and justice of God for His people, but He would not be consumed. As the God-Man, He did not appear as a tall, stately tree to be admired. Rather, He was like this insignificant thorny bush in the middle of the desert, something that Moses and others would easily pass by unnoticed—until the LORD revealed Himself from the midst of the bush as the living God and a consuming fire.
The bush represents the human nature of the LORD Jesus. The prophet Isaiah compared Him to “a tender plant and a root out of dry ground,” in which, to the eye of the world, there was “no form, comeliness, or beauty” (Isaiah 53:2). The flame of fire typifies His divine nature, which is evident when we consider how often fire, in Scripture, is an emblem of God. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29, Deuteronomy 4:24).
The union of the flame of fire with the bush denotes the union of the Godhead with human flesh in Christ. Moses was caused by the Spirit of God to see the God-Man in the burning bush when, in his dying benediction, he declared “the God who dwelt in the bush” (Deuteronomy 33:16). Does this not show that the flame of fire in the bush, which continued to burn for a short time, was a type of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling forever in the Man Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:9)? As the bush was in the fire, and the fire was in the bush—yet they remained distinct things, though joined in one—so it is with the Man Christ Jesus: He is in God, and God is in Him, though both natures, so mysteriously united, retain their distinct persons.
Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight.” When God first reveals Himself to one of His chosen ones, there is a curiosity about who He is. Being drawn by His Spirit, we come to see that He is an inapproachable God because of His holiness. This is the central attribute of God. It is not His love that is foremost, but His holiness (Isaiah 6:1-4), and none can approach Him without a proper Mediator (1 Timothy 6:16).
Moses could not draw near apart from God in Christ (the Angel) drawing him. Yet even then, he was not to approach rashly. It was God, in the Person of the Angel (Messenger), who called Moses to draw near—but with caution, because he was on holy ground (Exodus 3:5). He had to draw near, yet with care, lest he come too close without reverence.
God gave Moses a gracious call, to which he returned a ready answer: “Here am I” (Exodus 3:4). This is very similar to God's call to Isaiah through the revelation of His holiness, which caused him to cry out, “Woe is me, I am undone” (Isaiah 6:5). Just as God sovereignly called Isaiah to declare His glory to the people, so too did He call Moses, and each responded, “Here am I.” Before God ever commissions a servant to preach Christ to others, He must first reveal Himself in them (Galatians 1:15). Anyone who has not had an encounter with God, a revelation of His holiness, and an utter emptying of self before Him—being cast entirely upon Christ the Mediator—has never been sent by God and is not His servant.
“The LORD saw that he turned aside to see.” The LORD God saw that Moses took notice of the burning bush and turned aside to see it—yet it was the LORD Himself who drew him aside. So it is for all whom the LORD has chosen. He directs their steps to Himself and then reveals Himself in them with all His glory, in the face of Jesus Christ. There is no other way for any sinner to draw near.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
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