The Burning Bush

Forty years had passed since the young Prince Moses of Egypt had fled his palace home after killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave. Now an eighty-year-old shepherd living in the wilderness of Midian, Moses had long ago given up any dreams of greatness or heroism. His life had settled into the quiet, predictable rhythm of caring for his father-in-law’s sheep in the harsh but beautiful desert landscape.

Moses the Shepherd

The desert of Midian stretched endlessly in all directions, a land of rugged mountains, hidden valleys, and sparse vegetation where only the hardiest people could survive. Moses had learned to read the desert’s moods – where to find water in the dry season, which paths were safe during sandstorms, and how to protect his flock from wild animals and desert raiders.

On this particular morning, Moses rose before dawn as was his custom, gathering his simple possessions: his shepherd’s staff, his water gourd, a small bag of dried dates and bread, and his rough woolen cloak. The sheep were already stirring, sensing that it was time to move to new grazing areas.

“Come along, my friends,” Moses said softly to his flock, his voice carrying the authority of four decades of experience. “The grass is greener on the western slopes of Mount Horeb today.”

His sheep trusted him completely. Through countless seasons, Moses had led them safely through the wilderness, finding water in times of drought and shelter during the fierce desert storms. His weathered hands had delivered their lambs, his staff had fought off wolves and lions, and his voice had guided them home through the darkest nights.

As the sun climbed higher in the sky, Moses led his flock along the familiar paths toward the mountain known as Horeb. The air was crisp and clear, and the desert flowers that bloomed briefly after the spring rains added touches of color to the rocky landscape.

The Strange Fire

It was midday when Moses first noticed something unusual. As he crested a small ridge with his sheep spreading out to graze in the valley below, his attention was caught by a bright light flickering on the mountainside ahead.

At first, he thought it might be other shepherds who had made a campfire, but as he looked more carefully, Moses realized that what he was seeing was impossible. There, growing alone on the rocky slope, was a thorny bush that appeared to be completely engulfed in flames – yet the bush was not being consumed by the fire.

Moses stopped walking and shaded his eyes with his hand, staring intently at the phenomenon. The flames danced and leaped around the branches, burning with an intensity that should have reduced the bush to ashes in moments. But the leaves remained green, the branches intact, and the fire continued to burn without diminishing the plant in any way.

“That’s impossible,” Moses muttered to himself, his shepherd’s practical mind trying to make sense of what he was witnessing. “Fire consumes whatever it burns. That bush should be nothing but charcoal by now.”

His curiosity aroused, Moses secured his flock in the valley where they could graze safely, then began climbing the rocky slope toward the burning bush. As he drew closer, the mystery only deepened. The fire was real – he could feel its heat and see its brilliant light – but the bush remained perfectly preserved within the flames.

“I must go over and see this strange sight,” Moses said aloud, talking to himself as shepherds often do after long periods of solitude. “Why doesn’t the bush burn up?”

The Voice from the Fire

As Moses approached within a few steps of the miraculous bush, suddenly a voice called out from within the flames – a voice of such power and authority that it seemed to shake the very stones beneath his feet.

“Moses! Moses!”

Moses stopped dead in his tracks, his heart pounding with sudden fear and awe. There was no one else on the mountainside, no other shepherd or traveler who could have spoken his name. The voice had come from the fire itself.

With trembling lips, Moses replied, “Here I am.”

The voice continued, and Moses recognized immediately that he was in the presence of the divine. “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Moses’ hands shook as he quickly untied his leather sandals and set them aside. The rocky ground felt cool beneath his bare feet, and he became acutely aware that he was standing in a place where heaven and earth had somehow met.

The voice spoke again, and this time Moses felt a chill of recognition run down his spine. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

The reality of what was happening crashed over Moses like a desert storm. This was not a vision or a dream – this was the Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who had made promises to his ancestors centuries ago. Moses quickly covered his face with his hands, for he was afraid to look upon God.

But the divine voice continued, and now Moses heard something unexpected in its tone – compassion and deep concern.

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

The Impossible Mission

Moses listened in amazement as God spoke of the Hebrew people’s suffering in Egypt. Though forty years had passed since he had fled Pharaoh’s court, Moses had never forgotten the harsh oppression he had witnessed, the cruel beatings, the impossible work quotas, and the despair in his people’s eyes.

But then God said something that made Moses’ blood run cold.

“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Moses raised his head and stared into the flames, hardly able to believe what he had heard. “Who am I,” he protested, “that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? I’m just a shepherd! I’m nobody important! Pharaoh will never listen to me, and my own people have already rejected me once before!”

Moses remembered all too clearly what had happened forty years ago when he had tried to help his people. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, Moses had killed the Egyptian and hidden his body in the sand. But the next day, when he tried to break up a fight between two Hebrews, one of them had challenged him: “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

The people had rejected his help then, and Moses had been forced to flee Egypt as a fugitive with a price on his head.

But God’s answer filled Moses with a peace he had never known: “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

The Name of God

Still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of what God was asking, Moses raised another concern. “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

Throughout their history, the Hebrew people had known God by many titles – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the Almighty. But they had never known His personal name, the name by which He called Himself.

God’s answer would echo through history for thousands of years: “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”

The name revealed the eternal, unchanging nature of God – He is the One who simply IS, who exists beyond time and circumstance, who needs no other definition than His own eternal being.

Moses’ Objections

Despite this incredible revelation, Moses still felt overwhelmed by the task before him. “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”

In response, God gave Moses miraculous signs to validate his mission. “What is that in your hand?” God asked.

“A staff,” Moses replied, looking down at the simple shepherd’s rod he had carried for decades.

“Throw it on the ground.”

When Moses threw the staff down, it immediately became a snake, causing Moses to jump back in alarm. Then God said, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” Though every instinct told him not to grab a snake by its tail, Moses obeyed, and as soon as his hand touched it, the serpent became a staff again.

God gave Moses a second sign as well. “Put your hand inside your cloak.” When Moses did so and then withdrew it, his hand was leprous, white as snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” God commanded, and when Moses did so, his hand was restored to normal health.

“If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign,” God explained, “they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

The Final Objection

Even with these miraculous signs, Moses raised one final objection, revealing the deep insecurity that had plagued him since his youth. “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

It was true that Moses had always struggled with public speaking. Perhaps he had a speech impediment, or perhaps he simply lacked confidence after forty years of speaking only to sheep in the wilderness. But this objection revealed that Moses was still thinking in human terms, forgetting that the God who created the human mouth could certainly enable it to speak His words.

The LORD’s response carried a note of mild reproach: “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

But Moses, overwhelmed by fear and self-doubt, made one last desperate plea: “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

God’s Provision

At this, the text tells us that the LORD’s anger burned against Moses, but even in His displeasure, God provided a gracious solution to Moses’ weakness.

“What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

And so, in His mercy, God accommodated Moses’ weakness while still accomplishing His divine purposes. Aaron would serve as Moses’ spokesman, but Moses would remain the leader whom God had chosen.

The Return to Egypt

With his calling confirmed and his fears addressed, Moses finally accepted the mission that would change the course of history. He returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”

Jethro replied, “Go, and I wish you well.”

But God had one more word of encouragement for Moses: “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are now dead.”

So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt with the staff of God in his hand. The shepherd who had tended flocks in the wilderness was now called to shepherd the people of God out of bondage and into freedom.

As Moses began the long journey back to the land of his birth, the flames of the burning bush continued to burn in his memory – not consuming but transforming, not destroying but revealing the presence of the God who turns ordinary shepherds into extraordinary leaders.

The encounter at the burning bush had changed everything. The man who had once fled Egypt as a fugitive murderer was returning as God’s chosen deliverer, armed not with weapons of war but with the power of the Almighty and the promise that the great I AM would be with him every step of the way.

The greatest rescue mission in human history was about to begin, and it all started with a curious shepherd who turned aside to see a bush that burned but was not consumed.