Burning Bush

Text and Content

The event is recorded in Exodus 3:1–4:17. In this scene God calls Moses and commissions him to lead Israel out of Egypt. While tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses came to "the mountain of God, even to Horeb." There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. When Moses saw that the bush burned yet was not consumed, he turned aside to take a closer look.

God called Moses by name from the midst of the bush and commanded him to "put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). God then identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, declared that he had seen the affliction of his people, and sent Moses to Pharaoh. When Moses hesitated, asking, "Who am I" (3:11), God promised, "Certainly I will be with thee" (3:12). When Moses asked God's name, God answered, "I AM THAT I AM" (3:14). In chapter 4 God gives Moses signs, such as the rod that becomes a serpent, and appoints Aaron as his spokesman.

Background

The Hebrew word seneh, translated "bush," is understood to refer to a thorny shrub. In the Old Testament it is said to occur only in this passage and in Deuteronomy 33:16. The text does not identify the plant, and various suggestions have been made about it. Because seneh sounds similar to "Sinai," some scholars see a wordplay. Horeb is generally regarded as the same mountain as Mount Sinai, though scholars differ on its actual location.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

This event marks the starting point of the Exodus. It is also regarded as significant because it is where the name of God is revealed (Exodus 3:12–15).

In the New Testament, Jesus cites the passage about the bush to the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection. He argues for the resurrection on the basis of God's having called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37). Stephen also recounts this event in his sermon (Acts 7:30–35). Many Christian interpreters read "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58) in connection with Exodus 3:14.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• The angel of the LORD: The angel who appears in verse 2 speaks as God himself from verse 4 onward. The Church Fathers and many interpreters in the Reformed tradition regard this as an appearance of Christ before the incarnation. Other interpreters see the figure as an angel acting as God's representative, or understand it as a way of expressing God's presence.
• "I AM THAT I AM": One tradition reads this phrase as a disclosure of God's aseity—that is, his self-existence and eternity. Because the Hebrew ehyeh can also be rendered in the future tense, another interpretation reads it as a promise: "I will be (with you)." Bible translations vary somewhat in their wording.
• The bush that was not consumed: The text does not explain what this symbolizes. In Jewish and Protestant traditions it is commonly read as a symbol of Israel or of the church, which is not destroyed even amid suffering. In the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions it is also sometimes read as a type foreshadowing the virginity of Mary. The Church of Scotland and many other Presbyterian and Reformed churches have used the burning bush, together with a Latin motto meaning "yet it was not consumed," as an emblem.
• Later traditions: According to one tradition, the bush still survives at Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. Neither this tradition nor accounts identifying the species of the plant are grounded in the biblical text.