The story begins as Moses is shepherding his father-in-law Jethro's sheep in the land of Midian, he is witness to a burning bush on Mount Horeb. When Moses approaches the bush, the voice of God calls out to him to remove his sandals in the presence of the holy ground. God explains to Moses he has a plan for him to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land of Canaan. Moses is doubtful of his ability to do this at first and asks God who he should tell the Israelites has sent him. God answers with the famous line of "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
1. Meaning and Use:
The scene at the burning bush reveals God to the world in one of the visible manifestations with fire, of which there are four mentioned in the Bible found in Exodus and 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (the King James Version, yet to be fulfilled). Many other Divine manifestations were associated with fire. The Burning Bush is mentioned elsewhere in Deuteronomy 33:16; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37; Acts 7:30-31.
2. Identification:
The exact identification of the particular kind of bush in which God appeared to Moses is impossible. Attempts have been made to identify it with the blackberry bush, as by the Septuagint and also by the monks of the Convent of Catharine on Mount Sinai who grow the blackberry there in token of their tradition. The cassia has also been suggested. Both identifications are failures, the former because the blackberry does not grow in that region unless imported and tended, the latter for philological reasons. Nothing in the language used gives any clue to the species of the bush. The generally accepted view that it was some kind of thorn bush is an assumption with scarcely other ground than that there are so many thorny bushes in that region. This fact does, however, give to the assumption much probability.
3. Interpretation:
The old Jewish commentators have many things to say in the explanation of this theophany (compare Jewish Encyclopedia). That one thing which will meet with much response from the Christian heart is that the unconsumed bush with the fire in the midst of it indicated that the Israelites would not be consumed by the afflictions in Egypt. The application of this view to God's people under affliction in all ages is often made by Christian homilists. But this cannot have been the primary meaning of theophany. Of the many theophanies and other Divine manifestations with fire, the specific signification must be learned from a careful study of the circumstances in each case. The fire does not seem to have any singular fundamental meaning running through them all. In addition to the references already given, compare Psalms 18:8-12; 50:3; Ezekiel 1:4; Micah 1:1-4; Habakkuk 3:3-6; Hebrews 12:29.
Read the full story of Moses and the Burning Bush from the scripture text below and find articles, videos, and audio sermons on this remarkable story of trust and courage.
1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
15God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
16“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
17And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’
19But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.
20So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.
22Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
1Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
2Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
3The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
4Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
5“This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous —it had become as white as snow.
7“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.
9But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
10Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.
15You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.
16He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
17But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
18Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
30“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
31When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:
32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
35“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
37“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’
38He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39“But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
40They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’
41That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.
42But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
44“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
45After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
46who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
49“ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?
50Has not my hand made all these things?’
51“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
52Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—
53you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
54When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
8Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
9He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
10He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
11He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
14He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
16He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
17He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.
19He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
1The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign LORD may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.
4The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
3God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
4His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.
5Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.
6He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed— but he marches on forever.
7I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish.
8Were you angry with the rivers, LORD? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory?
He is a cross pendant.
He is engraved with a unique Number.
He will mail it out from Jerusalem.
He will be sent to your Side.
Emmanuel
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