Monday, July 28, 2025

Word of the Day: The Burning Bush

The story of Moses and the Burning Bush is about God revealing himself to Moses, by speaking to Moses from a 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. (Exodus 3:2)

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. (Exodus 3:4)

Many Christians understand this to mean that God took on the form of the Burning Bush to speak, or spoke through the burning bush. An alternative explanation for this event is that the Angel of the Lord was the one taking on the burning bush form, and God then spoke through the angel, in much the same way God spoke through a donkey in Numbers 22:28:

And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?

In Exodus 33:20, the reason for God not appearing directly before Moses is revealed:

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

This meeting between Moses and God would begin Moses' journey to free his people from Egyptian slavery, as documented in the Book of Exodus. 

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