The burning bush

A bush burns and is not consumed. A man takes off his sandals. The ground he is standing on is holy.

Exodus 3 is one of the great theophany scenes in Scripture. Moses is tending sheep in Midian — eighty years old, a refugee, no platform, no following. He sees a bush on fire. The bush is burning, but the bush is not being burned up.

Already the picture is doing work. Fire. Tree. Presence. The image-grammar of Eden returning at the moment of Israel’s deliverance. The Father is going to dwell among His people again, in a fire that does not consume what He inhabits. Watch this image come back at Pentecost — tongues of fire resting on every disciple, burning without consuming. The bush was the seed.

Moses approaches. The voice from the bush calls him by name. “Moses, Moses!” (Ex 3:4). Twice — the way the Father calls those He is about to commission. Take off your sandals. The ground you are on is holy.

And then Moses asks the question that changes the whole story.

“If they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?” (Ex 3:13)

God answers with the most loaded sentence in the Old Testament. “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14). The name is YHWH. The Father is naming Himself to a stuttering shepherd in the wilderness. He is the I AM. The self-existing One. The God above gods who has stooped to give His own name to a man who is going to lead people out of slavery.

Notice the four verbs that come right before the name. “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt… I have heard them crying out… I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them” (Ex 3:7–8). Observed. Heard. Knew. Came down. The God above gods is also the Father who comes down. The most-high one is also the most-near one. Both, at once.

Moses, of course, has five excuses ready. Who am I? Who are You? They won’t believe me. I’m slow of speech. Please send someone else. The Father patiently dismantles each one. He does not let the excuses keep the people in slavery.

Centuries later, Jesus will be standing in the temple and say one of the most controversial sentences in the Gospels. “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). He is taking the Sinai-bush name and putting it on Himself. I am the bush. I am the fire that does not consume. I am the One who came down to rescue.

The Father has been making His name known since Exodus 3. He has not stopped.

Today: take off your sandals — wherever you are standing. The ground is holier than you think. The Father is closer than you have been telling yourself. Listen for your name.