TOPIC:"The God of the Burning Bush"
"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" (3:2)
As we come to this portion of Scripture we find the Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt for four hundred years under the cruelty of Pharaoh the King. They had grown into a nation of over two million people. There in their slavery and oppression they cried out to the God of Heaven for deliverance from this wicked King. God heard the cries of His people through the calling of Moses His chosen servant. We read in verse 10 of this chapter these words of God to Moses: "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." God always has a man for the moment.
Moses was a child of divine Providence with a destiny to fulfill. He was born a Jewish slave, but through a miracle of God he grew up a prince in the royal family of Pharaoh. Later discovering that he was born of Jewish parents, he turned down the treasures of Egypt and deliberately cast his lot to help defend and deliver the children of Israel. He was their champion and their leader. At first Moses tried to do this task in his own strength. But he failed miserably! His anger got him into trouble causing him to flee into the land of Midian.
There in the desert Moses settled down for the next forty years until God finally confronted him in the experience of the burning bush. Out of the fire God spoke and Moses was never the same again. And for the next forty years of his life Moses became the great leader of Israel as he directed them through the wilderness towards the land God had promised them. Let us now take a closer look at this transforming experience that came to this man of God. I shall mention four things about this amazing event that has been called by someone the "miracle of the unconsumed."