The Burning Bush

Moses had fled Egypt forty years earlier after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. Now, at eighty years old, he was living as a shepherd in Midian, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. He had gone from prince of Egypt to forgotten shepherd in the wilderness, his dreams of delivering his people seemingly dead. One ordinary day, Moses led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses looked, and though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. This defied all natural laws—the bush should have been consumed, yet it remained intact. Moses said to himself, 'I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.' What began as curiosity would transform into a life-changing divine encounter.

When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses answered, 'Here I am.' God commanded, 'Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.' Then He identified Himself: 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.

God spoke with compassion and purpose: '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. So 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.' Then came the call that would change everything: 'So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'

Moses immediately protested: 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' God's answer was simple but profound: 'I will be with you.' Moses continued with objections—the people wouldn't believe him, he wasn't eloquent, surely God should send someone else. But God patiently addressed each concern. When Moses asked for God's name, God revealed the sacred name 'I AM WHO I AM,' declaring His eternal, self-existent nature. God gave Moses miraculous signs and even provided his brother Aaron to speak for him.

Finally, despite his fears and feelings of inadequacy, Moses accepted God's call. The man who had spent forty years in obscurity would become the greatest deliverer in Israel's history—not because of his qualifications, but because of God's presence and power working through him. The burning bush encounter teaches us that God appears in the ordinary moments of life, calls the unlikely, and promises His presence to those He sends.