Moses' Worship at the Burning Bush

Worship's Focus is the Light of Life

The Light of Life series

The Light of Worship is the Light of Life

My dear readers, there is a life lived under the circumstances, where there is no control over the things that we would rather not face, and at the time, we can't imagine there would be a good outcome. Then, there is life lived like the soaring of an eagle. The first way leaves us without hope, without faith, and, dare we say it, without God in our hearts. The second way leads us to God Himself.

My life, like everyone, has been filled with high and low experiences. God's sovereignty is always in everything encountered and our human responsibility. This post and the following series are about the worship that can drive us to the very highest place, where no matter what the circumstance, we will soar like an eagle.

Moses' Choice of Poor Treatment over Temporary Pleasure by Worshipping Christ

Moses lived one hundred and twenty years. During the first forty years of his life, he learned his place, portion, and prospects at the feet of Pharoah. During the second forty years, he walked away from "greatness" as an act of faith. During the final forty years of earthly existence, Moses experienced the God who spoke to Him in the desert from a burning bush:

The 1st Forty years: He learned about what he thought he was.

The 2nd Forty Years: He realized how wrong he was about himself.

The 3rd Forty years: He embraced who God was.

While everyone's experiences can be very different, there can be no salvation without an authentic repentant turn from sin to faith in the God who saves. Then comes the sanctification process that tears the world out of the hands of those who call Jesus Christ the Lord, the humbling that drives imperfect saints to their knees, asking forgiveness from God who suffered eternity on their behalf. Last, there is the war with an unseen enemy that hates them more than the world.

The Burning Bush of Moses' Worship and Calling

From Exodus chapter three, we learn, "The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed." Observe that the LORD was in the midst of the bush, but Moses did not know it at first. Moses' experience reads, "So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." It was not until Moses heard the voice of God that he realized what was happening. "When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" Only then did Moses respond to God. "And he said, "Here I am." As if to say, "I am here, where are you?"

The Burning Bush as an Object Lesson of Supreme Worship

As people, we are unaccustomed to speaking to someone invisible. More than that, the voice was coming from an incredible sight. We've all seen fires that start with kindling and how fast the wood burns up, but this fire did nothing to harm the bush, though it was aflame with fire. The writer gives us a similar picture to the Hebrews in 1:7: "And of the angels, He says, "Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire." From the Hebrews picture, we learn that angels are spirits sent to minister to those who inherit salvation, this also without ever being seen or at least recognized. Nonetheless, those who inherit salvation are recognized as ministers made a flame of fire.

Therefore, in answer to Moses' statement, God set forth an object lesson of all object lessons. Amid a bush that the fire should have consumed was the presence of God, who is an all-consuming fire. This characteristic of God can be read in such passages as (Ps. 18:8, Deut. 9:3, Isa. 33:14, Deut. 4:24, and Heb. 12:29). Worship begins when God lives within.

God revealed to Moses that the God speaking to him from a burning bush was Himself, a flame of fire and that the I AM THAT I AM would turn him into the same. What caused Martin Luther to stand against the most impressive power of his day, The Roman Catholic Church? Would he have enjoyed being burned at the stake? What caused Jonathan Edwards to preach Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and light the fire known now as The Great Awakening? What was the fire in the belly of a generation of self-sacrificing missionaries of the 19th Century? What has enabled more people to die for their faith in the 20th Century in the East than in all combined in 2,000 years? Must it not be a heightened reality of worship?

The Distinguishing Mark of Authentic Worship

When God appeared to Moses, Moses had walked away from his earthly prosperity forty years before. Moses literally gave away the world and, by the grace of God, did not lose his own soul but gained the presence of God, an all-consuming fire. There should be found no compromise in the heart where God dwells.

What Moses worshiped at the burning bush, he lived out in life by placing his success on the altar of God's fire.

TO BE CONTINUED