The Burning bush.

The story of God speaking to Moses out of the burning bush is found in Exodus 3:1-4:23. Through this remarkable event, Moses encounters God on Mount Horeb, and God reveals Himself (Deuteronomy 33:1..

The burning bush (or the unburnt bush) refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah (as also in the biblical Old Testament). It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb.

According to the biblical account, the bush was on fire but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name. In the biblical narrative, the burning bush is the location at which Moses was appointed by Yahweh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan.

The Hebrew word in the narrative that is translated into English as bush is seneh (Hebrew , romanized: səne), which refers in particular to brambles seneh is a dis legomenon, only appearing in two places, both of which describe the burning bush . The use of seneh may be a deliberate pun on Sinai , a feature common in Hebrew texts.

Imagine you’re taking a walk on a lonely hillside on a hot summer day. A furze bush catches fire, but instead of burning up it keeps on burning! That would take your attention and make you think, “What’s going on? Is someone trying to say something to me?” It could be a CALL OF GOD - to know him in a deeper and more intimate way and which could change the direction of your life.

It’s something which we need to have, often more than once, in our Christian pilgrimage – that call of God.

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.'"

This is the first time the Bible uses the word “holy” with reference to God (verse 5). At the burning bush God revealed His holiness in a way it had never been revealed before.

Moses was so awed by this experience that later when he wrote his famous victory hymn, he made sure to mention this divine attribute of God’s holiness: “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

There are several reasons why God revealed Himself to Moses out of the burning bush. First, God reveals Himself as a fire in that it is an image of His holiness. All through the Bible, fire is used as a picture of the purifying and refining quality of God’s holiness.

This is further evidenced when God commands Moses to remove his sandals “for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Here God was emphasizing to Moses the gap between the divine and the human. God is transcendent in His holiness, so Moses was not allowed to come close to Him.

Holiness involves separation. God’s holiness means that He is set apart from everything He has made. Holiness is not simply His righteousness (although that is part of it), but also His otherness. It is the distinction between the Creator and the creature, the infinite distance between God’s deity and our humanity. God says, “I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you” (Hosea 11:9).

His people respond by saying, “There is no one holy like the LORD” (1 Samuel 2:2).

Second, God revealed Himself to Moses out of the burning bush as an image of His glory. Though this theophany was frightening (Exodus 3:6; Deuteronomy 4:24), its purpose was to manifest the sheer majesty of God and to stand as a visible reminder to Moses and his people during the dark times ahead.

For it would be soon that God would manifest His holiness and glory to the entire nation of Israel. As Moses and the children of Israel soon learned, His glory is like a consuming fire, a pillar of fire that radiates light, a light so brilliant that no man can approach it (Exodus 24:17; 1 Timothy 6:16).

Then we see that God was also concerned for the suffering of His people Israel (Exodus 3:7-8). In fact, this was the first time God had ever called Israel “my people.” Under the oppressive bondage of Egypt, they had no hope but God, and they could do nothing but cry out to Him.

God heard them and was now going to meet their need by delivering them from their enslavement and suffering (Psalm 40:17; Isaiah 41:10; Jeremiah 1:8). Though God has revealed Himself as one who lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), the burning bush symbolized His intent not to consume or destroy His people, but to be their savior, to lead them out of bondage in Egypt and into the Promised Land.

Additionally, God gave Moses His own personal name: “God 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”’” (Exodus 3:14).

There are several reasons why God did this. The Egyptians had many gods by many different names. Moses wanted to know God’s name so the Hebrew people would know exactly who had sent him to them. God called Himself I AM, a name which describes His eternal power and unchangeable character.

“I AM THAT I AM,” declares God to be self-existent, without beginning, without end. This is also expressed in the term “Yahweh,” meaning “I Am the One Who Is.” It is the most significant name for God in the Old Testament.

By identifying Himself as “I AM,” God is declaring that He always exists in the immediate now. He isn’t bound by time like we are. There was never a time when God wasn’t. He has no fixed point when He was born or brought into being.

He has no beginning or end. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation 22:13).

Today, the only way for us to come into the presence of a holy God is to become holy ourselves. This is why God sent Jesus to be our Savior. He is our holiness (1 Corinthians 1:30). We could never keep God’s Law, but Jesus kept it for us with perfect holiness.

When Jesus died on the cross He took away all of our unholiness, exchanging His righteousness for our unrighteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). When we believe in Him, God accepts us as holy—as holy as Jesus Himself:

The grace that God has shown through the cross enables us to approach the Holy One—not as Moses did, hiding his face in fear, but by faith, trusting and believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Cross and Fire.

Fire is a common symbol of God’s presence -- we remember the burning bush from Exodus (Exo 3:2), God leading his people as a pillar of fire (Exo 13:21). Matt 3:11 also tells us Jesus Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. In Acts 2, this meant that God’s presence was with each one of these people individually.

Fire is often used as symbol or sign of God's presence in Christianity and, since it is held to be a creation along with water and other elements. In the New Testament, Jesus is depicted as the person who brings fire to the earth. The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the "tongues of flame.

Taking the original meaning of these two words shows the Flaming Cross represents the Crucifixion of Jesus. Through this symbol we can reflect on the meaning of the Cross and also the meaning of passion.

The Flaming Cross is a very potent symbol. The saints John of Damascus, Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian and Ambrose of Milan, all affirm that in the Burning Bush, God the Word revealed Himself to Moses to forecast His coming Incarnation.

God the Word is called the 'Angel of the Lord' because He reveals the Father's Will – God the Word also is the Will of the Father. As Isaiah called the Messiah, He is the 'Angel of Great Counsel' (Isa. 9:5).

The bush was on fire but was not consumed because the Son of God became Man to save man; not to consume him. The Angel also called Himself the 'God of Abraham, the God Isaac and the God of Jacob' thus showing that the Messiah, the Angel of the Lord, is truly God and reveals the Father in Himself. He who sees the Son (symbolized by the Cross in the flames) also sees the Father.

The Holy Spirit as Fire.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

— Acts 2:3.

The New Testament uses several unique images to represent the person and work of the Holy Spirit. One image shows the Holy Spirit as fire. On Pentecost, following the sound of rushing wind filling the house where the apostles were staying, what appeared to be tongues of flame rested on each of them .

They were immediately filled with the Holy Spirit, and their lives were changed forever.

A number of Old Testament passages help us understand the Holy Spirit as fire in the New Testament. Primarily fire represents the presence of God, as when Moses encountered God at the burning bush, and later when God appeared in a pillar of fire to lead his people in the wilderness (Exodus 3:2; 13:21).

In Acts, the tongues of fire represent the presence of God the Holy Spirit. This fulfills John the Baptist’s prophecy that the Messiah would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11-12). This also means that the purifying work of the Holy Spirit carries on in our lives today. The Spirit comes into our lives to transform us, cleansing and purifying us to become more like Christ in our daily living.

The thought of being purified by fire can be terrifying, but we can be assured that the same holy God who gave his only Son and poured out his Spirit at Pentecost wants to make us holy, just as he is holy.