A Burning Bush

Exodus chapter 3, and I'm reading the first 12 verses. If you are not careful, you make these verses into a Sunday school story, which is fine for children, but tonight we'd like to delve a little deeper and discover what this has for our hearts. Beginning tonight and for the next three Sunday evenings, the Lord willing, we'll be looking at four instances in the Bible where God made use of fire, some of the fires in the Bible.

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside or the west side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb, 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. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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. And he said, Draw not near, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land unto a large and good land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me.

And I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee.

When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. The place whereon thou standest is holy ground. That must have come as an amazing statement to Moses because he was standing in the pasture land where he was feeding his father-in-law's sheep.

If he'd been standing on Mount Sinai with thunders and lightnings and fire, I could have understood God saying it's holy ground. Or if he were crossing through the Red Sea on dry land when God was delivering them from Egypt, I can understand God saying, Moses, you're standing on holy ground. But Moses was just an ordinary shepherd taking care of ordinary sheep, and he had led those sheep out to an ordinary pasture.

It was just another ordinary day. And then something amazing happened, and Moses discovered he was standing on holy ground. This points up one of the big problems that we have in our lives.

We don't see things the way God sees them. Many people have the idea that what they are doing is secular. Moses thought, I'm just a shepherd taking care of some sheep.

I'm a fugitive from justice. Forty years ago, I murdered a man. Forty years ago, I fled from Egypt to save my neck.

I can never walk on holy ground. And yet God said to Moses, the land whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moses, in spite of the fact that you don't see it and you don't feel it, in spite of the fact that you're a fugitive and a failure in your own eyes, I want you to know something.

You're standing on holy ground. Now, Moses made three discoveries that day. And because he made these three discoveries from that day on, he walked on holy ground.

I don't know about you, but that's the kind of a life I want to live. I want so to live that wherever I walk, it's holy ground. Not that I have made it holy.

That's impossible. But I want so to walk, and I believe you want so to walk, that as you follow the Lord, you're walking on holy ground. I have been in hospital rooms and stood on holy ground.

I have been in little apartments in Chicago and stood on holy ground. You have too. Because doing the will of God leads us into the path of God, and the path of God is always holy ground.

It's possible tonight for a dear mother to go home and do the dishes and in that kitchen be standing on holy ground. It's possible tomorrow for some man to go get into his truck and in that truck be on holy ground, because you're in the will of God. Moses made three discoveries.

Discovery number one, he discovered God. Now in a strict sense, God discovered him. God revealed himself to Moses, but Moses never expected to find God that day.

He'd known the nearness of God back in Egypt. Moses had made a tremendous decision back there in Egypt, and it cost him his reputation, almost cost him his life. And now for some 40 years, Moses has been just an ordinary shepherd.

Do you remember the old candid camera television program? They used to do some of the craziest things. One of the funniest things they ever did was go to an exclusive prep school in New York where each of the students was possessing a high IQ, and they'd given all the students vocational examinations. This had all been plotted beforehand, and they chose one of the most brilliant students in the school.

And here was the principal, the headmaster sitting behind his desk, and this young man came in, you're watching all this, and this young man's anxious to find out what his vocational guidance test said about him. Should he become president of the United States? Should he become a great trial lawyer? What should he do? And he's sitting there, and the headmaster says to him, well, we've gone over your examination, we found exactly the right job for you. The fellow said, what is it? He said, we think you ought to be a shepherd.

And this boy got the strangest look on his face. He says, you've got to be putting me on, a shepherd. It doesn't take any brains to be a shepherd.

Of course, then they told him the whole story and said, congratulations, you're on Candid Camera. But he didn't think it was so funny. You see, if someone came to you and said, I'm going to make you a shepherd for 40 years, you'd say, well, what a waste of time, but it wasn't for Moses.

You see, Moses hadn't lost his faith in God. He had two sons during this period of time. One of them he named Gershom, which means I am an alien in the land.

In other words, Moses said, I don't belong here. I really belong back with my people. The other one he named Eliezer, which means the help of God.

You put the two boys together and you have Moses, by faith, saying, with the help of God, I'm going to go back and be with my people. But you see, Moses had to meet with God first. And God revealed himself to Moses as fire.

Now, this is not unusual. Often in the Old Testament, God reveals himself to people by fire. Sometime later, when Moses was up on Mount Sinai, God revealed himself by fire.

In fact, the people were so frightened, they said to Moses, you go talk to him. Come back and tell us what he said. We're not going to go near.

When God led the people out of Egypt, he led them by fire, a pillar of fire at night. And that fire was the reminder that God was going before them. One of the most beautiful revelations of God anywhere in the Old Testament is Ezekiel chapter one, where Ezekiel saw that amazing vision of God and he saw fire being enfolded into fire and wheels within wheels and eyes and a throne.

Oh, what a devastating thing that was. And he saw the fire of the presence of God. And that day, Moses discovered God.

Now, what did that burning bush teach Moses about God? You see, my friends, the most important lessons we ever learn are lessons about God. If you and I would put as much time into learning about God as we do about how to grow geraniums and how to play better golf games and nothing wrong with these things, but sometimes they take a greater amount of our energy than God does. And God was saying to Moses, Moses, before I can use you, I've got to reveal myself to you.

And in that burning bush, Moses saw God. Now, what did he learn about God? Well, he learned that he's the living God. You see, Moses was about to confront the dead gods of Egypt.

It looked as though the gods of Egypt were the true gods, because after all, the Jewish people were under the bondage of Egypt. And I can just see those Egyptian slave masters saying, where's your God today? Now, there was a tomb in Egypt that the Jews used to see, the tomb of Joseph. Joseph said, I know that one day God is going to bring you out of Egypt.

And when he does, you carry my bones with you. And I can just see these Jews going past the tomb of Joseph and saying, one of these days, God will deliver us. And that taskmaster would say, how are you trying to get? Why, look at the gods of Egypt.

The gods of Egypt have made Egypt a great nation. We rule and we reign and you are under our control. Don't tell us about Jehovah God.

What's he doing for you lately? And God said to Moses in that burning bush, I want you to know, Moses, I'm the living God. I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac.

I am the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers. I am the God of individuals. I am the God of every generation.

I have been watching over my people, and I am the living God. He revealed, secondly, that he is the holy God. I think we've lost some of that sense today.

He's the holy God. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 29 says, our God is a consuming fire. When they laid the sacrifices on the altar, it was fire that consumed the sacrifice.

The fire is a picture of the holy judgment of God. And Moses learned that God was a holy God because you see the Egyptian people, their gods were rather unholy. And God had to teach Moses and teach the people of Israel that he was the holy God.

Now, would you learn this tonight? No one is going to accomplish very much for the Lord who doesn't recognize the holiness of God. When God called Isaiah, what did he call Isaiah to see and hear? I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Not the man upstairs, not somebody up there likes me.

I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And he heard the seraphim who were calling back and forth, holy, holy, holy. And Isaiah had to learn the holiness of God.

So did Moses. And so do you and I. Peter had to learn it. He learned it in a different way.

Jesus took Peter out fishing one day when nobody was catching any fish, and he enabled Peter and James and John to catch a great host of fish. And when Peter saw what Jesus did, Peter fell at Jesus' knees and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. I tell you, if God blessed your business the way he blessed Peter's business that day, would you say that? Peter did.

When Peter saw the blessing of God and recognized the holiness of Jesus Christ, he said, Depart from me, I'm a sinful man. I think one reason we have such shallow service today is because many people don't recognize the holiness of God. That same passage in Hebrews chapter 12 says, seeing we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, let us have grace and reverence as we serve him, for our God is a consuming fire.

He taught him that he was the holy God. But thirdly, he taught him he was a gracious God. And someone says, Preacher, you're contradicting yourself.

How can that fire in that bush teach that he's a holy God and also teach he's a gracious God? It's very simple. To think that God would condescend to come down and reveal himself in a bush. I can see God coming as he did to Ezekiel in a great chariot with wheels within wheels and fire enfolding upon fire.

I can see that. But coming down in a bush in a desert of just a little old thorn bush in a desert and notice something else. Our God is a consuming fire, but that bush was not consumed.

That's what attracted Moses attention. I'm glad Moses had some curiosity. It led to his call to become a great man of God.

And Moses said, why is this bush burning but not being consumed? And one answer is this is the grace of God. If the holiness of God gets a hold of something, it consumes it. That's why one of the sacrifices on the altar at the tabernacle was the burnt offering.

Holy consumed before God in the fire. And God was saying, Moses, I'm a gracious God. It's possible for me to come down and share my holiness with bushes and people.

And they're not consumed. You see, this is what Jesus did. Our Lord Jesus is revealed here.

He's the one who brought down to this earth the holiness of God in a bush. He was a root out of a dry ground. No beauty that anyone would desire him.

The word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. Let me show you something interesting. In the Old Testament, when God's glory came down, God said, take your shoes off your feet.

In the New Testament, when Jesus came down and he told that story about the prodigal son, he said, put shoes on his feet. In the Old Testament, when Moses saw that fire in that bush, God said, don't get too close. In the New Testament, when God's bush came, the Lord Jesus, he told a story about a God who is a father who ran and embraced a sinner and kissed him.

You see, all of this is Jesus. And if somebody here tonight does not know the Lord Jesus, oh, my friend, you need to know him. Moses discovered God that day, the living God, the holy God, the gracious God.

The concerned God. Now, for centuries, the Jewish people had been in Egypt and for years now they had been suffering. And I'm sure some little Jewish boy said to his father one day, why doesn't God do something? Dad, you've been a slave in Egypt as long as I've been here, as long as you've been here.

Dad, you've been spending your whole life pushing one big rock building. Why doesn't God do something? Doesn't God care? One of the hardest things for a mother or a father to explain to a child is that God does care. And God said to Moses, I've heard the cries of my people.

I've seen the affliction. I know what's going on down there. I am the concerned God.

Centuries later, Peter was going to write, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. But Moses learned something else about God that day. He's the powerful God.

He's a God who has fire. Back in those days, fire was the most powerful thing that they knew. And actually, every kind of explosion that we have today, including our atomic and hydrogen bombs, is just another form of fire.

God takes a basic element here, fire. And God says, I am the God of fire. I am the God of power.

And Moses, I want you to know that my power is greater than the power of Egypt. Moses began to walk on holy ground because he discovered God. That's the marvelous thing about being a Christian.

When you receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Savior and you start to walk with him, all of the ground becomes holy ground. He made a second discovery that day. He discovered himself.

That's a good discovery. You know, most of us don't even know ourselves. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? And Moses didn't really know himself. Now, follow this. Moses had been trained in the universities of Egypt over in Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is giving his great defense.

He tells the whole story of the Old Testament. He gives the history of the Jews from Abraham down to the end of the story. And he said, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt.

Here was Moses whose head had been prepared. Nothing wrong with that. Good education.

And then the next verse, he says, it came into his heart to do something for the people of Israel. So his head was prepared and his heart was prepared. His heart was burdened to do something for Israel.

The trouble was his hand wasn't prepared. Remember that? Moses thought that by his hand, God would deliver the people from Egypt. And so when Moses saw those men fighting, he took and killed one, his hand.

He killed a man. He buried the man. The next day, when he found two Jews fighting.

Now, you'd think Jews would get along with each other. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Here were two slaves suffering.

They'd get along together. They didn't. They were fighting.

And Moses tried to help them. They said, oh, you're going to kill us like you killed that fellow yesterday. And Moses realized that he was in trouble and he ran.

And God spent the next 40 years not teaching his head. He had all the wisdom of Egypt, not teaching his heart. His heart was burdened for his people, but teaching his hand.

You know what he made him? Made him a shepherd. What's a shepherd do? A shepherd gets a hold of a shepherd's crook, a rod, and he uses that rod to take care of sheep. And God watched Moses for 40 years as he took care of sheep.

And he said, now, Moses, one of these days, I'm going to take that very rod. And my hand is going to get a hold of your hand. And by my mighty outstretched hand, I will deliver Israel.

The biggest mistakes and the biggest messes I have made in my life, I have made because I've trusted my hand. And the greatest blessings and the greatest victories we have seen have come when we've put our hand in his hand. And God's power has gone to work.

You see, in that burning bush, Moses saw himself. He was a bush, just a bush. In fact, he argued and said, Lord, you got the wrong man.

How about Aaron? How about a committee? Lord, I can't speak. Lord, who am I? That's a good question. I think here in verse 11, Moses is showing genuine humility.

Now, in the rest of the chapter, he may be arguing from pride, but I think in verse 11, he's showing genuine humility. Who am I? A renegade, a fugitive. They've got my picture up in the post offices down in Egypt.

My own people wouldn't even listen to me. Here I am working for my father-in-law, taking care of sheep. Who am I that I should go to Egypt? God finally said, Moses, what have you got in your hand? Aren't you glad God will take what you've got and use it? What have you got in your hand? He said, I've got a rod.

He said, all right, let me have it. And from that day on, Moses' rod became the rod of God, not the rod of Moses. It's as though God said, Moses, you're just like this bush.

If that fire were not in that bush, it would be just an ordinary bush. And Moses, without me, you're just another ordinary failure. But if you'll give me a chance to ignite your life.

Moses, Moses, listen to me. I want you for fuel. I want to ignite you.

I want to put power in you. I'm the living God. I'll give you life.

I'm the powerful God. I'll give you power. I'm the gracious God.

I'll give you grace. I'm the holy God. I'll give you holiness.

Moses, will you let my fire move into your life? And I won't consume you. I'll just use you. You know, many times those who serve the Lord look at themselves and they say, who am I? Who am I? Who am I that I should preach? Who am I that I should sing? Who am I that I should even bear the name of the Lord? Who am I? God said, I'll tell you who you are.

You're a bush. You're just an ugly, useless bush until I ignite you. And you let me grant you what you need.

My dear friend, God's will will never lead you where God's grace cannot keep you and God's power cannot use you. Would you remember that? You say, well, I'm called to such a difficult thing. The work that I have and my family situation.

I'm called to such a difficult thing. Moses was called to a difficult thing, to stand before the greatest ruler of that day. To confront the greatest empire of that day.

To take a motley group of slaves and mold them into a mighty nation. You think you've got a hard job. And I wonder if many times in that wilderness when they were giving Moses a hard time, Moses didn't remember that day back in the desert and say, Lord, I can't do it.

All they do is gripe and complain. And what I do, they don't appreciate. But you told me you'd ignite me and you wouldn't consume me.

Here I am, Lord. Here I am. He discovered himself.

He discovered that no person is too weak for God to use. But he made a third discovery. And here we hurry.

He discovered God. He discovered himself. And he discovered his people.

The people that he was going to minister to. You see, that burning bush is a picture of the nation of Israel. I have a dear friend.

We don't see each other often. We do correspond. And when I do see him, he runs up and puts his arms around me and kisses me the way Jewish people do.

Dr. Jacob Gartenhaus. Dr. Gartenhaus is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute for over 50 years. He's been out winning Jews and Gentiles to Christ around the world.

He used to preach on the street corners over here on Halstead Street, where I better not point. I always point in the wrong direction. Over on Halstead Street, he used to preach on the street corners and the Jewish neighbors used to throw eggs at him and throw rotten vegetables.

He stood there and preached. He was knocked down and beaten up one day. He said to me one day, he says, Brother Voren, did you ever stop to think of how indestructible the Jew is? I said, no, Jacob, tell me about it.

Well, he says Pharaoh could not drown him. Nebuchadnezzar could not cremate him and the whale couldn't digest him. I said, Jacob, you are right.

The indestructible Jew. Now, what is the nation of Israel? A little bush. God said, I didn't choose you because you were a great big sycamore tree.

I didn't choose you because you're a great California redwood. You're the least of the nations. When I found you, you were just out there in the desert and you were ugly and there was nothing about you anybody'd want, except for one thing.

I loved you. He said, I called you. And I want you to remember this, that I've not chosen you because you're the greatest of the nations or the best of the nations.

I've chosen you because I love you. And so God got ahold of a bush. And you know what God did to that bush? He gave it his glory.

He gave to the nation of Israel what he didn't give to other nations. He gave them his law. He gave them his priesthood.

He gave them his temple. He gave them his prophets. He gave them his holy presence in the temple.

And he gave them his son. Jesus Christ, who came of the seed of David, of the seed of Abraham, and God took that little bush and he ignited it. Now he said, burn.

You'll not be consumed. They'll try to they'll try to destroy you. Egypt will try to destroy you.

Babylon will try to destroy you. Germany will try to destroy you. They'll try to destroy you, but they won't.

That bush is going to burn and not be consumed. What an encouragement this must have been to Moses. Oh, how many times he came to God praying and saying, Lord, these people, all of these people, two million gripers.

And God would say, Moses, you're forgotten about that bush. Oh, yeah, they're a bush. They're human.

But remember, Moses, they're my people. They're my people. And the devil is going to try to put that out.

But he'll not be able to do it. Now, Moses, just keep going. Just keep going.

Just keep going. My people, Israel, are a light in this dark world. They are going to give to the world the concept of the true and living God.

They are going to give to this world the Old Testament. They're going to give to this world the New Testament. They're going to give to this world my son, the Lord Jesus, the light of the world.

Now, Moses, just keep on going. Moses discovered that he was working with the people of God. And that changed everything.

I thank God for the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. God didn't call me to be a prophet to the nation of Israel. He called me to be a preacher to a church.

I'm grateful for God's people. It always cuts me just a little bit when I hear someone criticizing God's people. We're bushes.

That's all we are. We're just a bunch of bushes. But nothing beautiful about a thorn bush.

You wouldn't give your wife a thorn bush for your anniversary. You might do it once. Many times I get phone calls from pastors and letters from pastors, or I'm out in conferences and pastors come and say, oh, those people.

And I'll confess that sometimes I say, oh, those people. And God comes along and says, you know what? They're my people. They may be thorn bushes.

And sometimes those thorns may prick you, preacher. But I want you to know something. I've lit a fire down there.

And that fire is going to glow and lead people out of darkness into light. And so Moses discovered God and Moses discovered himself. And Moses discovered the people he was working with.

And when God put all of this together, he said, Moses, do you know what? What, Lord? You're standing on holy ground. Whenever you do the will of God, you're walking on holy ground. Whenever you do something for the people of God, you're walking on holy ground.

And that changes everything in life, doesn't it? That changes our dishwashing and our driving and our typing and all that we have to do. Because we're walking on holy ground. Oh, have you met the Lord? Have you come to that burning bush experience in your life where you met the Lord? And you said, I'm a sinner.

Oh, God, I'm not holy. And he said, but I can make you holy. Just trust my son.

Believe in him. I'll give you my righteousness. Have you discovered yourself? Have you discovered the ministry God has for you? Now, when you do, you'll find yourself walking on holy ground.

Moses kept right on walking. The way wasn't easy. There were many times when he felt like he was going to quit and give up.

I sympathize with him. You do, too. But Moses kept right on going.

Because even though the path was upward, it was holy ground. Even though the path was down through a valley, it was holy ground. Even though it was surrounded by enemies.

Even though the future looked dark. Even though every one of his plans collapsed and nothing was going the way he wanted it. It was still holy ground.

That's a good truth to take with you this next week. We're walking out into an unknown future. But when the child of God is in the will of God, walking on the path of God.

It's holy ground. And when you least expect it, God is going to show up and say, that's right, I can bless you. You've done my will.

And one day we're going to look back. One day God's going to put the real of your life in the projector up there in glory. And it's going to be not some little old eight millimeter thing.

He's going to spread it out across the horizon. It'll be more than 3D. It'll be 10D.

And he's going to say, look, this is your life. Now watch what I did. And as we look back over life's story.

You know what we'll be doing? You know what we'll be doing? As you watch your life unfold to see what God did. You know what we'll be doing? We'll be saying, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Lord, I remember when that happened. I was so disappointed. I wept for weeks, Lord.

But now I see. I see. Praise the Lord.

When God has run the real all through, he'll turn to us and say, didn't I tell you? It's all holy ground. Oh, my friend, it is holy ground, isn't it? To walk with him.