It’s a familiar story. Moses – escapes the infanticide of a deranged king but ends up being raised by that king’s daughter. 40 years as a prince in Egypt until he has to escape the king and spend the next 40 years tending sheep (a Hebrew occupation despised by the Egyptians).

An 80 year prelude to one of the most significant days in history. Theologians call it a theophany, a visible manifestation of God.

Moses doesn’t release this at first. What he sees is something that grabs his attention and intrigues him. A bush burning – not unusual in itself – but this one keeps on burning with the bush remaining intact. The bush is burning but it is not burning.

He goes nearer but is stopped by a voice calling him by name “Moses, Moses”. The repetition implies familiarity and affection. That stopped him in his tracks (the bush spoke to him!). And God begins to reveal himself to Moses. He starts with asserting his holiness “Don’t come any closer, take your sandals off, you are on holy ground”.

Our basic problem is that God is holy and we are not

Moses’ response was the only one that a man can make when he comes face to face with the holiness of God – he hid his face, he was afraid. That’s a theme that runs through the Bible, starting with Adam (Gen 3:10) right through to John who sees Jesus in his glory (Rev 1:17). It reflects our basic problem – God is holy and we are not.

God’s holiness is something we acknowledge, and we sing about, but I sometimes wonder if we really grasp what it means? The word itself has to do with separation. God is not like us, he is different and separate. And as becomes clearer later, when God reveals his name “I am”, he is different in being. He just is. He always has been and always will be. He is not dependent on anyone or anything else.

By way of contrast, we are finite and dependent. We change – we are born, live and die – and our existence is dependent on other things such as air, food etc. and ultimately on God himself. See Acts 17:24-25, and verse 28 “In him (God) we live and move and have our being”.

So when the fire appeared in the bush, it was separate from the bush in the sense that the bush was not burning. It was not providing fuel for the flames so was not used up. The fire was in the bush but not of the bush. 

This aspect of God is referred to as his Transcendence. He is above and beyond his creation, and not a part of it.

Moses found himself standing on holy ground. The ground wasn’t intrinsically holy – before God appeared it was just ordinary ground like any other bit of earth. What made it holy was the presence of God.

I wonder if this idea of ‘holy ground’ still applies to us today? If it is that the presence of God makes a place holy, then wherever we are is holy because God is with us and in us. That is a call to personal holiness (in the sense of separation from the world). See 1 Cor 6:19. A corresponding verse 1 Cor 3:16 has a plural ‘you’. So ‘we’ are the temple of God, which is holy. Here’s a thought: when we walk into church on a Sunday morning we cross over from the secular to the sacred. The building is not holy, but the gathering together of the people of God is. The corporate worship, prayers, proclamation of the Word and mutual encouragement of the people together is something special, set apart, holy. No wonder the writer of Hebrews tells us not to neglect that! (Heb 10:25).

But the voice from the bush tells us more about God. Firstly, the fact that there was a voice. God speaks to us, and what he says conveys that he knows us and cares for us (the affectionate address of ‘Moses, Moses’), but also that he warns us. Being in the presence of God is dangerous and potentially lethal, so can only take place on his terms.

God sees, hears and knows all about us

God goes on to show Moses that he sees, hears and knows about his people (Exodus 3:7) “I have seen their affliction … heard their cry… know their sufferings”. 

This aspect of God is known as his Immanence meaning he is present with us and not remote. 

The concepts of transcendence an immanence are important ones for us to think through. We are mostly concerned with the here and now, the affairs of the present world and time. So is God – he repeatedly assures us that he is with us (Emmanuel, God with us) – but when we pray to him, it’s good to remember that he is also the one who sits in heaven, above all things, seeing the beginning and the end with a perspective that is beyond our understanding.

Back to Moses. God sees, hears and knows, but is not simply a passive observer. He also takes action, “I have come down to deliver them… and to bring them to a good land” (Exodus 3:8). There were probably a hundred and one ways in which God could have done that, but the way he chose was to use Moses. That’s remarkable. But it’s exactly the same as they way God chooses to ‘deliver’ people today – by using his people to preach the Gospel and make disciples. We know from this story that in fact the people were brought out of Egypt by the power of God. The same applies today – we preach the Gospel, but people are saved only by the power of God working in them.

Moses responds with two questions, who am I, and who are you? (interestingly, the same questions Paul asked when confronted by Jesus on the Damascus road Acts 22:8,10).

Both questions are probably the most important ones anyone can ask.

I am with you

The first one, who am I, is highly relevant today. We seem to have a preoccupation with our personal identity – am I male or female? Both, neither? How, where do I fit into the world? How do I relate to others? Why am I here? And more. 

God’s answer is interesting. Moses is clearly worried about his suitability for the task ahead. But God doesn’t try to ‘big him up’. He doesn’t tell him that he has a unique background in his upbringing, so he’d know his way around the Egyptian courts. He doesn’t explain that his past 40 years in the wilderness has given him a detailed knowledge of the country that will be vital in leading his people.

He simply says, “I will be with you”. That’s enough. Of course there were more questions, and more to learn. But the starting point is ‘I am with you’.

Many years ago, in my teens, I found myself in hospital. I had broken my leg and was in traction, and in a considerable amount of pain. My parents lived 80 miles away and I was lodging with a vicar – who pinned this verse to the traction frame: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you”. I didn’t understand all that might have meant, but it was enough. It didn’t explain why this had happened, or what the future would now hold, but it was enough to know that God was with me. I found that verse some years later and, together with the surrounding verses, it became a significant passage for me (Isaiah 43:1-4).

The identity question is a big one. The world tells us to ‘look inside yourself’. But that is exactly the wrong place to start. God tells us to look to him first. The we see that we are made by him and in his image. We have become separated from him and stand guilty before him. But he knows us by name and cares about us. He sees, hears and knows all about our situation. He has come down in the person of Jesus Christ to deliver us and free us from our guilt and bring us ultimately to a good land.

That’s a fairly powerful place to start – and it’s from there that God will begin to deal with our questions as we walk with him and learn from him.

Moses second question, who are you, or who shall I say sent me, together with God’s response is big subject – so watch this space!