The Burning Bush, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter 3. And today, as we embark on the third chapter of Exodus, you got to realize that this is probably.

If not the most familiar episode in the life of Moses, it comes close to the most familiar episode. We think of Moses, we think of the Ten Commandments. We think of Moses, we think of the parting of the Red Sea. When we think of Moses, we think of a great leader. And when we think of Moses, we think of the burning bush scene. And this story is very familiar to us. But what it does is open up to us the greatness of our God. By helping us see two things. Number one, the manifestation of God and the message from God.

And this morning we're only going to cover the manifestation of God. And next week, when we gather together, we'll talk about the message that God gives. Through his manifestation in the bush in Exodus chapter 3. Let me read the first nine verses for you this morning, and then we'll spend some time talking about them.

It says in verse number 1 of chapter 3, Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why the bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, Here I am. Then he said, Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. He said, Also, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite. and the Hitt, the Amorite, and the Pez Per Periz, excuse me, and the Hiv and the Jebus. And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. This morning, I want to see you to see with me five or six aspects of the manifestation of God. We're going to begin by looking at the activity. Before the manifestation. That is the activity of Moses before the manifestation of God. There is a lot to see in just the first verse of Exodus chapter 3.

It says, Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro. Jethro. You'll notice back up in verse number 18 of chapter 2, it says that his name is Ruel.

Now that's important to note because Ru means friend of God and Jethro means excellence To understand the significance of this man, you must come to realize that in order to have an excellent life, you must be a friend of God. And that's what Jethro was. You need to understand that Moses had fled Egypt and had gone to Midian, the backside of the desert. He has been there 40 years. What has he done for 40 years? What has happened in the life of Moses Over those years. In the weeks ahead, we're going to be able to describe to you what takes place in the life of Moses.

You can get a hint by just looking at chapter 3 and chapter 4 in his discussion with God. Here was a man who, by faith, the Bible says in Hebrews 11, fled Egypt and went to Midian.

So we know that God told him to do it. Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So God moved into Midian. As far as we know, God has been silent in his conversations with Moses. For forty years. But you need to note in the activity before the manifestation. That Moses is involved in something. He is tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. He is pasturing she. And the text tells us that that's what he was doing on this day that the bush would burn. That is, that day in which God would manifest him to Moses.

Now that tells me something. It should tell you something. That this was a vanilla day. It was a brown paper bag day for Moses. In other words, it was an ordinary day. It wasn't a special day. It wasn't like he was anticipating God to come that day. It wasn't like he was looking to do something new that day, get a new job, move his family someplace, buy a new home. It was just an ordinary day. He was just doing the ordinary task that he'd been doing. For forty years, same old, same old, same old thing.

Nothing changed. Yet, he was busy doing what he was supposed to be doing. That tells me. That it's important for us to be faithful in whatever responsibility we have. And Moses was faithful. Maybe God put him on the backside of the desert to see how faithful he would be at the menial task. Maybe it would take him 40 years of pasturing sheep to understand how he would lead the nation of Israel, who are like sheep, for the next 40 years. I don't know. But he was faithful to do what he was supposed to be doing.

So here he was, faithfully fulfilling his responsibility. It wasn't even his sheep, his pasture. It was his father-in-law. It was almost as if he was renting them. It wasn that he went out and purchased some sheep and he grown his own and he was making some money and things were growing, things were going good. No, it was somebody else's sheep. And God comes to him on that day in a burning bush. The activity before the manifestation should teach you a lot about what you're doing today, right? Your faithfulness in your job.

No matter how menial you think it is, in the mind of God, it's not menial at all. I don't care what it is you do, it's important to God. Because God wants to teach you to be faithful to fulfill your responsibility no matter where you are. From the activity before the manifestation, I want you to notice number two the area of the manifestation.

The text says That he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Now, Horeb you would know as Mount Sinai. It's called the west side. It's called the back side of the desert. It's in a place that's completely dry and barren. It's a wasteland. You can go there today and it's hot. And there's nothing there. But that's where he was. And what God does in Moses' life is so significant. Because he teaches them so many valuable lessons in those 40 years. We're going to see them in weeks ahead.

But he was on the back side of the desert. Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai. He calls it the mountain of God. Now I want you to notice something.

He calls it the mountain of God not because at that time it was the mountain of God. He calls it the mountain of God in anticipation of what it's going to be because who wrote Exodus? Moses did. Who wrote Genesis? Moses. Who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament?

Moses wrote them. So Moses writes them as God tells him what happens before he lived, as well as God telling him what to write. As he writes about his own experiences, it's the God-breathed word of God. And so he was writing about this mountain. God in anticipation that this is what it was going to be called because what happened here? Well, we know that on this mountain, Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, was the burning bush incident. We also know that this is where Moses would receive the law. We also know that this is where Israel would receive the ordinances for how they are to be governed as a nation.

There are many significant things that happen on this mountain. That's why it's called the mountain of God. God would speak to Moses face to face on this mountain. So this area of the manifestation is extremely important. You will note, number three, the angel in the manifestation.

The text says in verse number two, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.

And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire. Yet the bush was not consumed. The angel of the Lord. Now we have studied this. We studied it way back in Genesis chapter 16 with Hagar when the angel of the Lord appeared to her. And she was able to help us understand that this angel of the Lord was God Himself because. God said to her, You name your first son Ishmael, meaning God hears.

We saw the angel of the Lord again in Genesis chapter 22. With Abraham and Isaac, there on the mountain. And the angel of the Lord would appear to him, and it was the great God Himself we saw that appeared. To Abraham. Gideon had the same thing in Judges chapter 6. Manoah, the father. Samson, along with his wife, in Judges chapter 13, had the angel of the Lord appeared to them, it was none other than the great God Himself manifesting Himself to Moses. And you will note that the text says in verse number 4: When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush.

So we know that the angel of the Lord is the Lord who is God, the great Jehovah of the Old Testament. And the great Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Redeemer in the New Testam How do we know that? Isaiah chapter 43. Says this in verse number 11: I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me. It tells us that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Redeemer in the New Testament. And it's important to note that this Redeemer would manifest himself to Moses because he was going to bring about the freedom or the redemption of his people.

And you will note, and we'll not it next week, it says this in verse number 8. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians. Who came down to deliver the Israelites from the power of the Egyptians? God Himself. Who came down to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan? Jesus Christ Himself. It's the manifestation of our great Jehovah God. It's the manifestation of the Redeemer of the people of God. It's Jesus Christ Himself. That's the angel of the Lord. Who would manifest him in the bush that would burn?

The fourth thing I want you to see is the agency for the manifestation. The agency for the manifestation. You will notice that it's a bush that's burning.

You say, Well, what kind of bush is it? I don't know. I don't even think that's important. But it's a bush. It's just a normal bush. And it begins to burn. Now, you'll note that God didn't choose some majestic tree to burn. It was just an ordinary, sim little bush. And it reminds us how God would manifest him in the New Testament by coming to a lowly, cold gr. The bush would burn. It'd be on fire. And that's important to note. Because it was a manifestation of the holiness and purity of God. He says, Moses, remove your sandals, because the ground you're on is holy ground.

This is an important time in the life of Moses where he comes to grasp the holy character of his God. And that's why God would manifest himself through fire. It says over in Exodus chapter 19, these words. In verse number 18, now Mount Sinai, which is Mount Hore, the same mountain in Exodus chapter 3, was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in Fire, and his smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. It was about fire. It was about the brightness.

It was about the trueness of our God, His great character. And so God would manifest him in this bright, fiery light that did not consume the bush because it wasn't fire as we know fire. It was fire because it was the presence of Almighty God. It was like Manoah and his wife in Judges chapter 13 when the angel of the Lord appeared to him. And Manoah, you know, he just wanted to know, you know, what it is you want my son to do. Remember, his wife had been barren for years, and the angel of the Lord came to her and, You're going have a child.

And she went to go tell her husband. This man of God came to me and told, I'm going to have a child. He said, Well, where is he? I don know. He's gone. Well, let's pray that he comes back. So one day Manoah's out in the field. Again, Manoah's doing the task he's supposed to be doing. He's faithful at doing his work. He doesn't quit his work and pray for the angel to come back. He continues to do his work, and the angel of the Lord comes back. So his wife says, Stay right here. Don't move. I'll be right back.

She runs out to the field to get her husband. And Manoah and she run back to the house to Judges chapter 13. You got to read it. It's all right there. And Manoah asked the question: He says, You know, what is my kid going to do? What specifically do you want him to do? And the angel of the Lord doesn't give him specifics. But the angel of the Lord helps him understand generally what he's supposed to do. And you will note that it says this: for it came about. When the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar.

Again, it was fire. Again, it was a flame. And now the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah or his wife. Then Manoah knew that he. Was the angel of the Lord. So Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. Remember, Manoah asked him, Tell me your name. Just give me your name. Who are you? And what was the name that the angel of the Lord gave Manoah that day? Wonderful. That's why in Isaiah 9:6, he's not wonderful counselor, he is wonderful counsel. Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father.

He's wonderful. He's incomprehensible. That's who He is. It's the angel of the Lord. And when he went up in that flame of fire, he knew he had seen God. Oh man, we're going to die. We've seen God. And his wife said, No, honey, if he wanted to kill us, he'd have killed us. But we offered a sacrifice like he asked. We were obedient to him. Go to Revelation chapter 1, and what do you have? You have John the island Patm all by himself, exiled. There he is. And he hears a voice. He hears a voice. He says, And I heard behind me a loud voice.

Verse 12, and I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstand. In the middle of the lampstand, one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across his breast with a Golden girdle, and his head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. And his feet were like burnished bronze when it has been caused to glow in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters. And in his right hand he held seven stars, and out of the mouth came a sharp, two-ed sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as a dead man. He said, Who are you, Lord? The bottom line is that John would hear. He turned, he saw, he fell. Moses would hear. He would turn to see this bush that would burn and not be consumed. And upon hearing the voice of God, he would hide his face because of extreme fear. Fear. Because it was the presence of Almighty God. Amazing scene. The fifth thing I want you to see is the attentiveness to the manifestation. How attentive Moses was. It says Verse 3, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous or this great sight, why the bush is not burned up.

Moses now became attentive. Now, how big was this bush? I don know how big it was. Maybe it was a small bush. Maybe it was a medium-sized bush. I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. But God was getting Moses' attention. And Moses could have walked on by. Oh, the bush is on fire. Well, sorry about that bush. And went on ahead. But he looked, turned, because he heard the voice of God, Moses. Mos and he became very attentive to the voice and to the bush that burned I must see. I must look. I must examine.

I must find out what is happening here. Now, you notice what the text says. Look at this, verse 4. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the bush. God wasn't going to call him until he turned to look. Once he got Moses' attention, and Moses demonstrated the fact that he really wanted to know, that he really wanted to see, that he really wanted to hear, God would. Then speak. That's important to note. Why? I like what John Butler says in his commentary on Exodus. He says, This turning aside to see the burning bush said much about Moses' interest in the things of God.

It said Moses was willing to take time, even in the midst of his many duties, to concern himself with God and to learn more about God and his way. How this rebukes us today. For people are interested enough in, or excuse me, few people are interested enough in spiritual matters to turn aside and take notice at any time.

They would not have viewed the Burning Bush as, quote, great in importance, and would have ignored the Burning Bush and gone on their way. Others will not turn aside to attend to spiritual matters unless it's convenient. They would have been too busy with the things of the world to take time to turn aside to see the bush. These are the kind that are always too busy to read and study the Word of God and to attend the services of the church. They profess to be Christian. But their priorities are not Christian.

You see, this is important because this will lead us to the application of this manifestation, our last point. Moses saw, he turned. When God saw Moses turn, God spoke. You see, it's important to note that the more you want from God, the more He will reveal Himself to you. And you've got to realize that God reveals him to those who want to know. You see, maybe it's you don't want to know that bad. You don't really want to know your God that bad. So, God's not going to reveal Himself to you unless you really want to know who He is.

Listen, God wants to get your attention. Now, how is he going to do that for you? I don't know. I don't know what God's going to do to get your attention, but he wants your undivided attention. And if you turn. And you desire to know who he is, he will manifest him to you. You see, if we look at Moses and we look at Moses, you know, Moses was a great man, and God came to him in the burning bush, and the Bible says that God spoke to Moses.

Face to face, Numbers chapter 12. As a man speaks to his friend, so God spoke to Moses face to face. It's no wonder Moses was the greatest leader that he was. It's no wonder Moses was as faithful as he was. But let me tell you something.

Christ said it very clearly to you and me in John chapter 14 when he said this. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that love me, and I will manif myself to him. Now listen, that word manifest is used in Matthew chapter 2 to speak. of the resurrection of the saints at the time of the crucifixion of Christ and how that which was hidden in the grave was now disclosed in Jerusalem for all to see. Meaning that that which most people can't see and don't understand, you will see and you will understand.

Because God promises: if you love me and you keep my words, if you're attentive to me and you respond to me, I'm going to Going to make myself known to you. That's what God promised to you and me. That's important. See, because God wanted to show him to Moses. God wanted to reveal him to Moses, just like God wants to reveal him to you. How is God going to do that? Right here. Right here. In his word. That's how. But you got to be like Moses. You got to turn. You got to see. You got to be open and you got to want what God offers.