The Bush That Burned and Wouldn't Burn Up

Moses stayed on in Midian a long, long time. He kept the sheep of his father-in-law, Reuel, who was also called Jethro. (Forty years is long enough to forget how a palace smells and to learn the name of every sheep.)

One day Moses led the flock across the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, in a thornbush, a fire was burning. The flames crackled, but not one leaf turned black.

"That's strange," said Moses. "I'm going to see why that bush doesn't burn up."

"Moses! Moses!" called a voice from the middle of the fire.

"Here I am."

"Do not come any closer," said God. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." (Those sandals had spent forty years walking behind sheep. Holy ground was no place for them.)

"I am the God of your father," said the voice, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

"I have seen my people suffering as slaves in Egypt," God said. "I have heard them crying, and I have come down to rescue them and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. So go. I am sending you to Pharaoh."

Moses gulped. "Who am I to go to Pharaoh?"

"I will be with you," said God.

"But when the people ask me your name, what do I tell them?"

"I AM WHO I AM," said God. "Tell them, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Like that fire, God needed nothing to keep him going. He always was, and always would be.

Moses tried again. "What if they don't believe me?"

"What is that in your hand?" asked God.

"A staff."

"Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it down, and it became a snake. Moses ran from his own walking stick!

"Reach out and grab it by the tail," said God. (Anyone who catches snakes will tell you the tail is the wrong end.) Moses grabbed it, and it was a stick again.

Still Moses argued. "Lord, I have never been good with words. My tongue gets tangled."

"Who made people's mouths?" said the LORD. "Go. I will teach you what to say."

"Oh, Lord," said Moses, "please send someone else."

Then the LORD was angry with Moses, but he did not give up on him. He sent Moses' brother Aaron to help him speak.

God told Moses that the men who wanted to kill him were dead, so Moses set out for Egypt with the staff of God in his hand. In Egypt, Aaron told the leaders of Israel everything God had said, and Moses did the signs. The people believed, and when they heard that God had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Even on holy ground, Moses had to keep his distance, sandals off and face hidden. God had come down, but only as far as a bush. For more than a thousand years his people kept back from his fire and waited.

Then one day, in Jerusalem, a teacher stood arguing with leaders who were proud to be Abraham's children. Yet this same teacher let children climb into his arms, sandals and all. "Before Abraham was born," he told the leaders, "I AM." They picked up stones, because they knew exactly whose name he had just used.

It was Jesus, the same I AM who spoke from the fire, come close enough to touch.