Moses & The Burning Bush

Q: What does the Bible say about the burning bush?

The burning bush in Exodus 3 symbolizes God's holy presence and marks the beginning of Moses' mission to deliver the Israelites. In Exodus 3, Moses encounters a burning bush that is not consumed, representing the holy presence of God. God calls Moses from this bush to deliver His people from Egypt, highlighting the miraculous nature of His calling and the significance of holiness in God's revelation. This event illustrates the nature of divine communication and emphasizes that the ground Moses stands on is holy because God is there.

Q: How do we know salvation comes through Christ?

Salvation is affirmed in Scripture as being through Christ, who endured God's consuming judgment for His people. The concept of salvation is central to the Gospel, depicted in several Old Testament events like Moses' encounter with the burning bush. The bush, burning yet not consumed, symbolizes Christ who bears the judgment of God without being destroyed. Just as God calls Moses to deliver the Israelites, He has sent Christ to deliver His people from sin and death, ensuring that those in Him will not be consumed by judgment. This is supported by passages like Lamentations 3:22, which speaks of the Lord's mercies that keep us from being consumed.

Q: Why is understanding God's holiness important for Christians?

Understanding God's holiness is crucial as it underscores His nature and the seriousness of sin, leading to appreciation of grace. God's holiness is foundational to understanding His character and the nature of our relationship with Him. In the encounter at the burning bush, God instructs Moses to remove his sandals because he is standing on holy ground, a call to recognize the divide between a holy God and sinful man. This is paramount in comprehending the gravity of sin and the necessity of Christ's sacrifice. When we grasp how holy God is, we more deeply appreciate the grace offered to us through Christ, who meets the requirements of the law and atones for our sins, protecting us from the fiery judgment of God.

Q: What does 'standing on burnt ground' mean in a Christian context?

'Standing on burnt ground' refers to being in the safety of Christ's atoning work, where sin’s judgment has already been satisfied. 'Standing on burnt ground' captures the reality that believers are protected from God's judgment because Christ has already endured it on their behalf. The illustration of a wagon train escaping a prairie fire, where those standing on ground that has already burned are safe from future flames, embodies the assurance found in Christ's sacrifice. He faced the full wrath of God for our sins, ensuring that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Him. This profound truth offers comfort and assurance of our salvation.

Exodus chapter 3. I would like for us to look this morning at the story of Moses and the burning bush Moses and the burning bush in Exodus chapter 2 We looked at that last Sunday morning Moses was born and his mother put him into an ark a little boat that she made and put him into the river as it was commanded by Pharaoh that all male babies had to be cast into the river. So Moses' mother put him into the river and Pharaoh's own daughter was walking by and saw that ark, that little boat, and had her maid pull it out of the water And she opened it and there was a baby inside.

And Moses' sister, Miriam, who had been watching all of this, she came over and she asked Pharaoh's daughter, would you like for me to go find a woman who is capable of nursing and feeding this baby? And Pharaoh's daughter said, yes, I would. She said, I want this baby to be my own son. So if you find a woman who can nurse him until he's weaned, I'll pay the woman to do it.

So Miriam, Moses' sister, went and got their mother, and she nursed him until he was weaned, and then she turned him back over to Pharaoh's daughter, and Moses grew up in Pharaoh's house as his grandson. Now, the rest of chapter 2, we looked up into verse 10, and the rest of chapter 2 goes on to say that Moses was there in Pharaoh's house until he was grown.

Acts chapter 7 tells us he was 40 years old. So 40 years he was in Pharaoh's house. And at the age of 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew man. And it made him mad. And he killed the Egyptian man. Now, Moses killed a man. Moses was a murderer. This is something that we forget. We don't dwell on it. We don't think about it, you know. Moses was a sinner just like everybody else. He was a sinner just like everybody else.

You know David had a man killed, committed adultery with his wife and then had a man killed. Saul of Tarsus held the coats while other men stoned Stephen to death. But Moses actually killed a man. Moses is a picture of the law. That's what the law demands. The wages of sin is death. He saw this Egyptian sinning against a Hebrew. It's a picture. The wages of sin is death. The law made that judgment. But the reality of the situation is Moses killed a man. He was a murderer. And after he did this, he thought, Pharaoh's going to kill me for doing this. An eye for an eye.

So he ended up fleeing from Egypt to a place called Midian. And while he was in Midian, he met a woman and he married her and they eventually had two sons. And they stayed there with her family, they stayed with her father for 40 years. Acts chapter 7 tells us this. All right, so all of Exodus chapter two, that covers 80 years. That one chapter covers 80 years. Chapter three, verse one, begins with Moses being 80 years old. Let's begin reading in verse one.

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Moses was on the backside of the desert with this flock, and he sees this bush on fire.

And the longer he looks at it, he realizes it's not going away. It's not being consumed. All of its little branches and whatever leaves it may have had on it, they're all still intact. Verse three, and Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. God was inside that bush and called Moses to see what he was doing and to hear what he had to say about it.

Verse five, and he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. He said, Moses, take your shoes off. Humble yourself. Humble yourself, because where you're standing is holy. It's holy.

What you are witnessing, Moses, is holy. Now let me just break for one minute and interject that I cannot tell you how excited I have been to tell you this. I cannot describe to you how excited I've been to tell you this. Moses, just listen to this. Moses, what you're witnessing is holy. That's a key. What you're witnessing is holy. And the reason it's holy is because God is here. God is here. You are standing in the very presence of God Almighty. All right, verse six. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, this whole event of the children of Israel being delivered out of the bondage of Egypt. This is one big picture of salvation. This is salvation. It is a picture of God's chosen people being delivered from the bondage of sin, death, the adversary.

And what the Lord God is telling Moses right here and what he's telling us is this deliverance begins with fire. That's what he's telling him. This deliverance begins with fire. Throughout the scripture, we're going to see this over and over again. You'll see this over and over again.

Fire represents the judgment of God. It represents the judgment of God. It represents the judgment and condemnation of God on sin. And what the scripture makes clear to us, it makes it so clear time and time again, is this judging, condemning fire of God is a consuming fire. It is a consuming fire. Don't turn. Deuteronomy 4 verse 24, Deuteronomy 9 verse 3, and Hebrews 12 verse 29. They all tell us that the Lord our God is a consuming fire. This is where the announcement of salvation begins. Anything that His judgment touches Everything that falls under his condemnation is consumed. I mean, it's consumed. The judgment and condemnation of God fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. And it consumed those two cities. I mean, they were consumed.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah told some false prophets, he said, let's build two altars with two sacrifices, and you pray to your little G, false God, and I'm gonna pray to the true and living God of heaven and earth, and whichever one answers by fire, we'll all worship that God.

And the false prophets hooped and hollered and jumped on top of their altar and they did everything they could do and there was no fire. And Elijah said, you go start getting buckets of water and you pour buckets of water all over my altar, all over my sacrifice. And he said, I want the rest of you to start digging a trench around it.

You dig a moat around it and you keep bringing water and saturating this with water until the moat is filled. And once it was done, he prayed to God Almighty, and boom, the fire fell from heaven, and it consumed the sacrifice, and it consumed the altar, and the scripture says it licked up all the water that was in the trench around the altar. It consumed everything. There was nothing left.

There is example after example of this, and there's one still to come. There's one still to come. The word of God Almighty says that when he returns at the last day to gather all of his people to himself, after they are carried out, the scripture says, the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Consumed. Gone. The physical consumption of fire.

That is a spiritual picture of the judgment and condemnation of God on sin. The Lord God told Moses, you're standing on holy ground. You're standing on holy ground because you're standing in my presence. I am holy, and man is sin. And because I'm holy, I must punish sin. I must consume it. But he said, Moses, I want you to see this. Come here, Moses. I want you to see this, all right? There is a way. Now come here and look, now this is holy. This is a holy thing. A holy transaction, but come here and look at this.

There is a way for something or someone to endure the judgment of God, to physically endure the fire of God Almighty and not be consumed. There is a way, there is a way for a sinner to actually endure. Moses looked and he said, the bush is on fire. There is a way for a sinner to actually endure the fiery condemnation and judgment of God and not be consumed.

Now in this picture, this is what is declared to be standing here at this moment. There's a bush, there's fire, there's the Lord God, and there's Moses. That's what we have in this scenario. The Lord God is Christ. The angel of the Lord, it said. The messenger of grace, an angel's a messenger, the messenger of grace and truth, that's Christ.

The law came by Moses. Moses represents the law in this whole scenario. And God said to the law, I want you to come look at this. The law of God was looking on this. The law saw this. The law witnessed this. The holy law of God demands judgment. It demands fire on sin. The law of God does. Look at verse three.

It says, and Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Moses said, how could this bush not be burnt? And the law says, how could sinful man be just with God? The law witnessing man's sin, it has no choice but to say, how could a sinner endure the fiery wrath of God and survive it? Not be consumed. The Lord said, Moses, and Christ says to the law, here's the answer. Here's the answer. Look at verse eight. He said, I am come down to deliver them. That's the answer. That's the only answer. He said, I am come down. There is only one way. Christ had to come down. He had to be the deliverer of his people by enduring the consuming fire of God's wrath on their sin for them.

That was a holy transaction of God. And that holy transaction took place on the cross of Calvary. God was in Christ reconciling this sinful world to himself. God was in there. This holy place that the law was looking on is the cross of Calvary. That's where the fire of God's wrath met with the sin of his people in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ, at the cross, at the cross. A way was made for God's sinful people to endure his fiery judgment and not be consumed. And that way was Christ. That way was Christ. Christ being consumed in their stead. That was the only way.

Turn with me over to Lamentations chapter three. It's after Jeremiah. It's page 1027 in my Bible. Lamentations chapter three. The first 20 verses of this chapter, this is Christ speaking from the cross as the substitute for his people, him bearing the fiery judgment of God for them in their stead. Verse 1, he said, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned. He turneth his hand against me all the day. This is the relieving substitution of Christ for his people. Verse four, he said, my flesh and my skin hath he made old. He broken my bones. He hath builded against me, encompassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old.

He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. My God, my God, why is thou forsaken? He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone and made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places.

He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He made me drunken with wormwood.

Gaul, Wyrmwood, verse 16, he hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes, and thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the Wyrmwood and the Gaul, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. Now look at verse 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It's of His mercy. It's of His blood. It's of His death. It's of His cross. that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Malachi 3 verse 6 says, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Not consumed. What an amazing sight to see. That's a holy thing to see. When God reveals this to somebody, what wonder, what mercy, what grace. There is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. Once he was consumed, there was nothing left to consume.

I've got, this is an old story. I used to tell it a lot, and I put it away for a while. I have a whole batch of illustrations that are coming due again. And I like this one. Back in the days of this country when men and women were settling out west, they used to travel in wagon trains. They would all go together in a wagon train because it was safe. There were a lot of dangers between here and there. And so they would travel together in a long wagon train.

And one of the dangers was prairie fires. They would get out into the Midwest and they had these big prairies and these amber waves of grain, this tall grass. If it caught fire and the wind was sweeping, the fire would rage and it would sweep quickly and this was a great danger. So they would travel in a wagon train and the front, they would have a wagon master and he would send a scout on a horse, one man on a horse up ahead to just scout for danger. a good ways up, maybe a mile or so up, and just scout for danger. And there was a trip. There was a wagon train headed out one time, and the scout up in front came upon a prairie fire. And it was big, and it was raging, and it was sweeping. So he turned around and hightailed it back to the wagon master and told him, there's a prairie fire. It's coming right toward us, and it's huge.

So the wagon master told the men, all right, let's scrape the grass behind the whole wagon train. Let's scrape a bare area. And then he said, let's set fire on the other side of that and let it burn away from us. So that's what they did. They scraped, they set fire, and they waited. And watch that fire take off, and it went away. And once it was gone, he said, OK, let's ease the wagons back. So they all eased their wagons back, and they just sat there waiting.

And all of a sudden, here it comes, coming over the hill. And it's raging hot, and it's coming fast. And it started to get close enough where a little boy was sitting in his dad's lap, and he turned and grabbed his dad and buried his face in his dad's neck. And his dad said, it's OK, son. There's nothing to worry about. He said, you look down. He said, do you see all that black stubble right there?

We're standing on burnt ground. The fire has already been here. It cannot come again. And that's where God's people are standing. We're standing on burnt ground. Christ has already suffered the fire. Christ has already suffered everything that needs to be suffered. He's already been consumed of everything that needs to be consumed. In Him, there's nothing left to consume. It's a wonderful sight to see.

And the Lord telling Moses, You are going to go tell my people this. That's what we read. You're going to go tell my people this. That represents Christ telling the law. This is the law. You're going to go tell my people this. You're going to go tell my people this.

The law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. The law of God is the very thing that tells God's people in Christ You're not going to be consented. Out of Christ, there's no hope. But in Christ, there's no condemnation. In Christ, you live. In Christ, you're delivered. In Christ, you're free. You're free. That's a glorious sight to see, isn't it? That's a great sight. Thank God for that. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.

Moses & The Burning Bush

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the burning bush?

How do we know salvation comes through Christ?

Why is understanding God's holiness important for Christians?

What does 'standing on burnt ground' mean in a Christian context?

Sermon Transcript

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Moses & The Burning Bush

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the burning bush?

How do we know salvation comes through Christ?

Why is understanding God's holiness important for Christians?

What does 'standing on burnt ground' mean in a Christian context?

Sermon Transcript

About Gabe Stalnaker

Comments

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