If Only God...

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Chapter 6: The Burning Bush

Whereas the first two chapters covered 400 years of tribulation, the next thirty-eight chapters describe the year of liberation, when Israel came out of Egypt.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory The Fire in the Bush

Even before God told Moses who he was, he showed him who he was.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory The Fire in the Bush

According to Gregory of Nyssa (330-c.395), what Moses saw in the burning bush was nothing less than “the transcendent essence and cause of the universe, on which everything depends, alone subsists.”

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory The Fire in the Bush

For a few brief moments in time and space, the bush was the temple of the living God, the place of his presence on earth. Since the time of the early church, Christians have wondered whether perhaps this was a revelation of God’s pre-incarnate Son, who brings God’s saving message to humanity. Whether or not Christ was in the bush, one thing is certain: Moses was in the presence of God.

Sees What I See

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people

Exodus Excursus: Fire Theophany

“I have indeed seen” (rāʾōh rāʾı̂tı̂) involves the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction, which connotes the sense “I have carefully watched” or “I have paid very close attention to,” thus by itself indicating the intensity of God’s interest in the misery of his people. Note also that God called Israel “my people,” echoing but also more grandly superseding Moses’ reference to “his own people” in 2:11.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Stand Back!

I tell you this: I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One. I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY. I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy. I don’t want Him to change or modify His requirements. Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe.

Hears What I Hear

English Standard Version Chapter 3

have heard their cry because of their taskmasters

Cares When I Hurt

English Standard Version Chapter 3

I know their sufferings

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 3:4–10

I have come down (3:8), an idiom describing divine intervention. God would (a) deliver them from Egypt and (b) take them to a good and spacious land, unlike the Midianite desert.

Holman Concise Bible Commentary Purpose and Theology

Yahweh’s name is thus associated with God’s faithfulness, by which He binds Himself to His covenant promises. In the familiar words of Psalm 23:1, the Hebrew reads, “Yahweh is my shepherd.” A reader of the English Bible can enter more deeply into the spirit of closeness and personal fellowship that existed between Yahweh and His ancient covenant people by substituting the name Yahweh for “the LORD.” In Jesus’ use of “I am” (ego eimi), He claimed to be Yahweh in the flesh (John 8:58).

English Standard Version Chapter 2

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

English Standard Version Chapter 64

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

2  as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

Exodus Excursus: Fire Theophany

Two great challenges to Moses’ faith appear here implicitly, at either end of these verses. The first (v. 7) is a challenge shared by all believers: to trust that God has always and continues to be concerned about their suffering since in the present fallen world, God allows suffering. That the Israelites had been suffering oppression such a long time without rescue begs the question of God, “If you are willing to help now, why didn’t you help earlier?” The Bible provides clear answers in principle to such a question, but individuals or groups cannot normally know why their particular suffering is so severe or has gone on as long as it has. The second challenge (v. 10) involves Moses’ past: how could one who tried and failed to help his fellow Israelites on an individual scale forty years before (2:11–14) now, in his late years, be God’s choice as deliverer of the whole nation?

English Standard Version Chapter 43

But now thus says the LORD,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3  For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.