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Exodus 3:1
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Moses at the Burning Bush

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of aJethro his father-in-law, bthe priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to cHoreb, dthe mountain of God.  
2 And athe Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  
3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this agreat sight, why the bush does not burn.”  
4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called ato him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  
5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. aTake your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”  
6 Moreover He said, a“I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for bhe was afraid to look upon God.  
7 And the Lord said: a“I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry bbecause of their taskmasters, cfor I know their sorrows.  
8 So aI have come down to bdeliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to ca good and large land, to a land dflowing with milk and honey, to the place of ethe Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.  
9 Now therefore, behold, athe cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the boppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.  
10 aCome now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  
11 But Moses said to God, a“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”  
12 So He said, a“I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a bsign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”  
Commentaries:


No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Exodus 3:1.

Exodus 3:1-10

Verse 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.

Excerpted from The Angel of God



Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Exodus 3:1:

Genesis 2:3
Exodus 20:8
Exodus 20:8


 
<< Exodus 2:25   Exodus 3:2 >>

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