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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Exodus 3:1:
Exodus 3:1-10
Excerpted from: The Angel of GodVerse 2 here positively identifies the burning bush to be an appearance of the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord was in the bush, and verses 4 through 6 positively identify the Personality in the bush as God. Later in verse 14 the Angel of the Lord Himself names Himself as the "I Am." So we have Yahweh there.
Again, I do not have time to go through all the things that are happening in this passage, but quickly, the Angel of the Lord formally calls Moses here to serve Him. It is His formal giving of a commission. And in doing so, He emphasizes His own holiness and identifies Himself as God. He is giving him His credentials and giving him a taste of what He is like. He makes sure He identifies Himself as the God of the patriarchs, the fathers of Israel. He is Israel's personal God, in other words. And He commissions Moses as His instrument to lead Israel out of its bondage to the Egyptians.
Now, the first thing He does with the burning bush sighting is impress upon Moses that He, the Angel of the Lord, is extremely powerful and can do the impossible. I mean, that is what he says. "Look, this bush is burning and it's not being consumed. That's impossible. I've got to look more closely at this." So his mind is immediately steered to believing the impossible. That this God who is now appearing to him can do great and wonderful things.
God also immediately and pointedly draws Moses' attention to His holiness, that He is other, He is special, He is sacred. And by doing so, He kind of lets Moses know that his task, Moses' task, is also a holy task. This is something that the God of his fathers wanted him to do, to set the nation of Israel apart. God also tells him here that He had come down to deliver Israel. That is, He will not be steering things from way up in heaven. He is going to come down and personally supervise and intervene and be personally involved in the whole process of leading Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. He is telling him, "I am going to be here. I will be with you." It is a momentous announcement delivered by God Himself as He moves events along in His plan.
Exodus 3:1-6
Excerpted from: Holy GroundHere, Moses is just going about his regular duties. He had been tending flocks for 40 years, and he sees this burning bush. And it is amazing! We should know that it was God that was drawing him to Him. That is why it was burning. And the reason why, because He was preparing to introduce Himself to Moses, because He had a great duty for him to do. And as Moses came closer, God warned him, "Moses Moses!" I believe it was a warning to stop for his own safety, not to draw near. And then He said, "Remove your sandals because this is holy ground."
Why was the ground holy? It is because God's presence was in that place. Why remove his shoes? Well, many scholars consider that the shoe represented sin, and removing his shoes signified putting off that which is profane and absolutely necessary upon approaching that which is holy. In fact, here the word holy is Strong's 6944. It is a noun and it means hallowed, sacred, special, a place set apart for God. When the word holy is used it is of God. It is clear whenever we see holy, it is of God—it is sacred, it is special. And here we see this burning bush and the ground around it was also holy. The dirt, the rocks, the vegetation, the wood, the metal, everything around it was made sacred because God's presence was there.
Another interesting point is that Moses could not discern that he was standing on holy ground. The ground, when he looked at it, looked like it did any other time. And I am sure that he had been in that part of the desert many, many times with his flocks. But it was only because God's presence was there—God's essence, His holiness—that it was holy And God demonstrated His Spirit and His power in the burning bush. And there is no doubt that Moses hid his face and probably also knelt to acknowledge his unworthiness to be before God. And it is true, His holiness demands that we have proper reverence and humility. At that moment, Moses recognized God's power and His holiness. Again, he hid his face.
Exodus 3:1-5
Excerpted from: The Fourth Commandment (Part 1)And so the Sabbath is different from what is common or ordinary. The other six days are common, and they are given for the pursuit of the common and ordinary things of life. On the Sabbath, we should strive to avoid those mundane things that promote the making of the Sabbath into an ordinary day. The Sabbath is a day for special things—different things. If you will turn with me to Exodus 3, we will see what makes the day holy. It is not merely proclamation by God. Here we have a biblical example of how something becomes holy.
This is what makes the Sabbath holy—different. Because God was present, the ground had to be treated in a different way—with respect and with deference that one would not give to something that is common. Until God put Himself in that area, the ground where Moses saw the burning bush was no different from all the other ground that was all the way around the area. But as soon as God put His presence there, it became sacred. It became holy.
It became holy by means of a spiritual action. It is something that is not physically discerned. And it is interesting to note, right in this context (in Exodus 3:1-5), that Moses was not aware that it was holy—until God told him! So the Sabbath is a spiritual thing. Its being holy is not something that is physically discerned. It is something that had to be revealed to you. (I Corinthians 2)
ArticlesThe Fourth Commandment
SermonsWhere Do We Go From Here?
The Commandments (Part Five)
The Fourth Commandment: Idolatry
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