Exodus chapter 3
The angel in the bush!
"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, Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush: and 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 from out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And He said here am I. And He said, draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am 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. 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; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey..."
As Moses led the flock out to the desert, an unexpected development happened. Suddenly, and without warning, he saw a burning bush on the slopes of a mountain. This was a common sight in the arid conditions of Sinai, but this one was different-the bush burned, but was not consumed! What thoughts must have flooded his mind! Reared in the royal palace of Egypt, now enacting a menial, if honest, occupation. Deep down, he wanted his people to be freed but they rejected him, and he was now an outcast, both from Egypt and from Israel. His feelings were expressed in the birth of his two children; Gershon was so called because Moses was a stranger in a foreign land-Exodus 2v22. In the forty years of exile, he was feeling quite an outcast, his life ebbing away to nothing. He had exchanged the glamour of Egypt for the commonplace of Midian. His potential was unrealised, his ambition was frustrated, yet he was content in his work and his family life. That is until God appeared to him in the bush. Something unique was taking place. He saw a bush burning, but not withering; no blackening of the leaves or wilting of the branches, yet the bush was burning. Moses was face to face with a phenomenon. Then an authoritative voice was heard, an unmistakable voice, it was the voice of God speaking to him and he was afraid.
It was the voice of the "angel of the Lord"-this was no mere human, it was the voice of God informing him he was in the presence of majesty, he was standing on holy ground. The term "the angel of the Lord" occurs 65 times in the Hebrew scriptures, and, according to the majority of scholars, it always refers to the second person of the Godhead, the one we now know as Jesus. The subject matter is the deliverance of Israel from Egypt's bondage, that God has seen their affliction, has heard their cry, knows their sorrows, and has come down to deliver them. The symbol of the burning bush is awesome; it is Jesus speaking from out of the burning fire. The fire burns but the bush is not consumed. To understand the force of this we consult other scriptures for the meaning. Fire, in scripture, always represents the judgment of God against sin. Only Jesus could bear the fire of God-the intense burning of untarnishable holiness against human sin. Expressions like "...fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.Heb.10v27; "...wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."-Romans 2v5; "...the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."-Rev. 19v15; "...whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming".-2nd Thess. 2v8; "...our God is a consuming fire."-Heb. 12v29. God's fire is His relentless and all consuming anger against sin. A compromising world, which makes light of sin, has yet to discover God's wrath against it. No mercy, no compromise, not even the slightest accommodation to sin. He will judge it, He will rid it from His universe, permanently. The fire of God, which consumes all in its pathway, burned in the bush, yet the bush was not consumed!! The bush went through the fire unscathed, untarnished. We could say the bush consumed the fire! What a picture of what the Lord suffered, and conquered, when He "became sin for us", at the cross. Moses' appreciation of that would only increase, as he, later received instruction for the altar. The fire was never to be extinguished, at the altar of burnt offering-Leviticus 6v8-12. All the way through Israel's journey, his understanding of the Divine fire on the altar would only grow, as he pondered the meaning of the perpetual fire as we should. Hymnwriters often catch the meaning, such as the hymn by K. A. M. Kelly 1869-1942,
Give me a sight, O Saviour, of thy wondrous love to me
Of the love that brought thee down to earth, to die on Calvary
Oh, make me understand it, help me to take it in
What it meant to thee, the Holy One, to bear away my sin.
Again:
"None of the ransomed ever new, how deep were the waters crossed
Nor how dark was the night, that the Lord passed through, e'er He found the sheep that was lost."
The bush burned, with the fire of God, but the bush was not consumed. Instead, the fire was consumed, the all-consuming fire of God was extinguished so far as His believing people are concerned. This pre-incarnate Theophany of Christ prompted the greatest Exodus of people in history, and, ultimately, the formation of the State of Israel, which will one day rule the world. What will consideration of this great sight prompt me to do in my little corner of the world, even today?
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