Passage: Exodus 3:1-5

The Big Idea

Moses had the education, the age and the track record to lead, but none of it qualified him. God is looking for humility and faith. On the back side of the desert, alone with God, Moses meets the Angel of the Lord in a bush that burns but isn’t consumed: a picture of Jesus, who took God’s judgment on sin and wasn’t destroyed by it, rising in resurrection life. Before we can serve God, we need to see Jesus for ourselves, and come into His holy presence humble and expectant, sandals off.

Not Ready Yet

Moses was chosen by God for a special job: delivering God’s people. He’d been saved as a baby. But he wasn’t ready.

He was smart. Trained in all the wisdom of Egypt (Acts 7:22). That wasn’t enough.
He was the right age. Forty, in the prime of life. That wasn’t enough.
He was accomplished. Mighty in words and deeds. He could get things done. Isn’t that what makes a leader?

Jesus told the Pharisees, “You justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among people is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15).

What is God looking for? Humility and faith.

We so often want to bring something else: Look what I did! Look how hard I tried! Look how badly I want it! Look at my skills, my talents, my accomplishments.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things to shame the strong, the lowly and despised things, even things that are nothing, so that no one can boast before Him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

“But doesn’t God deserve my best?”

No. He deserves perfection, and your best isn’t perfect.

That’s a high standard. The Ten Commandments spell it out.
That’s how holy God is. If He accepted less than perfect, like our best, He wouldn’t be perfect Himself.
But Jesus was perfect. What the law couldn’t do because of our weak flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin, so that the law’s righteous requirement would be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).
Our perfection is given, not earned. Jesus gives us His life as we walk in the Spirit.
And how do we receive the Spirit? Jesus said the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13).

Moses was learning to think in a new way: less about himself, and more about the Lord.

The Back Side of the Desert (Exodus 3:1)

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

The back side of the desert is where you end up when you’re done trying to impress people. It’s just you and God.
It’s vital to get alone with God. Everything in our world seems to fight against that, but God is faithful to meet us when we go.
Moses learned how to have a real relationship with God for forty years, growing in grace. Elisha followed Elijah for years. Jesus Himself spent thirty years quietly walking with the Father before His public ministry.

Walking with God is the point of life. Not serving. Not learning. Communion with Him.

Horeb (later called Sinai) is associated with dryness and desolation. But it doesn’t matter where you are; God wants to walk with you. Just ask Enoch. He walked with God three hundred years, and then God took him (Genesis 5:22-24).

When we walk with God through deserts, we learn how useless our human resources really are, and we learn to depend completely on Him.

The Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2-3)

The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush. Moses looked, and the bush was burning, but it wasn’t consumed. So Moses said, “I’ll turn aside and see this amazing sight, why the bush isn’t burning up.”

Who is the Angel of the Lord?

In verse 4, this same Angel is called “the LORD” and “God.” Many Bible teachers see Him as the Son of God appearing before His incarnation.
The only other mention of “the bush” is Moses’ blessing on Joseph, which speaks of the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush (Deuteronomy 33:16). God’s glory was dwelling there.
Fire is often a symbol of divine things in Scripture: God’s presence, His holiness, His judgment.

Have you seen Jesus for yourself?

Before we can really serve the Lord, we need to see Jesus in His glory.

It’s not enough to know about Jesus.
You can’t be born a Christian, or inherit your parents’ faith.
You can’t just do it because it’s the right thing to do.

We need to encounter Jesus for ourselves.

“But I haven’t seen anything amazing yet. Where’s my burning bush?” Good question. Ask yourself:

Am I still in Egypt? Have I really left the world and what it offers, or am I still living there with my own dreams, plans and choices? Have I decided to walk with God through the desert, even when it feels hot, dry and uneventful? Yes, the Bible can seem boring. So can gardening, until something grows. Go there, meet the God of glory, and the Word will never be boring again.
Am I patient? An impatient farmer is a bad farmer. (I used to be impatient, but I just don’t have time for that anymore.) Moses waited forty years.

A picture of Jesus

The burning bush is another picture of the person and work of Jesus.

Fire often represents God’s righteous judgment.
The Hebrew word for this bush means a thorn bush, and thorns came as a result of the curse when man sinned (Genesis 3:17-18).
Dry bushes in the desert burn up in moments. That’s what sin deserves: swift and total judgment.
But this bush did not burn up.

Jesus took God’s judgment for us. He was nailed to a cross, wearing a crown of thorns, and God’s righteous wrath against sin was poured out on Him. And He was not consumed. He was pure and holy enough to bear it. He was in the grave only three days, and then He rose. Life endured through judgment. Life won.

As sin reigned in death, grace now reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21). Only Jesus can be alive in death.

Many people think resurrection is impossible. When the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, tried to trap Jesus, He pointed them right to this passage: at the bush, God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He’s not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him (Luke 20:27, 37-38). And Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Every other living thing on earth has died. But Jesus existed before everything and made everything alive. He’s the source of life. Death came into the world through man’s sin, so Jesus became a man to bring His never-ending life back into this world.

Turning aside

Moses “turned aside” to look. He turned away from his own plans and his own business. God had prepared him for this moment; in the desert, he didn’t have much to turn away from but sheep.

Holy Ground (Exodus 3:4-5)

When the Lord saw Moses turn aside to look, God called to him from the middle of the bush: “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am.” “Don’t come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you’re standing is holy ground.”

This explains the fire: it’s the holy presence of God.

Later, in the tabernacle and temple, this same glory would dwell in the Most Holy Place.
What does it mean that God is holy? Not only that He’s sinless and perfect. He’s other, utterly different from us.
He’s not just “more holy” than you. He’s the definition of holiness. The seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3). Repeating a word three times in Hebrew expresses the highest intensity: not just holy, but holy beyond all measure.

Why take off your sandals?

God told Moses to remove the shoes he wore for all his ordinary life.

When you meet God in His holiness, you can’t treat it like the rest of your life. He’s more important than everything else. He is to be honored, respected, feared and loved.

Is that how you come to worship? As a meeting with God? Or is it a burden? Do you sense the searching fire of His eyes, or have you grown numb to it?

Do you leave your sandals at the door?

This God is holy. He is the Judge of every person. And yet He calls to each one of us by name, in love. Are you ready to hear His voice?

Grace Takeaway

Your skills, effort and accomplishments can’t qualify you for God; only humility and faith receive what He gives. At the burning bush Moses saw a picture of Jesus: the One who took the fire of judgment for our sin and wasn’t consumed, rising to give us His endless life. Take off your sandals. Come into His presence humble, believing and expectant, and let Him call you by name.

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Take Off Your Sandals