Revelation through a shrubbery

When reading through Scripture, I tend to be drawn to passages where God provides a direct revelation about Himself.  Part of why I love these passages so much is that whenever God reveals Himself to a person (or people), He sets things into motion that shape the character and identity of those to whom He is revealed.  Naturally I love passages like Genesis 3 when God prophetically speaks to the victory of Eve’s offspring over the offspring of the Serpent, or Genesis 12 where God speaks to Abram and radically alters the history of his descendants and all of mankind.  Perhaps I just find it refreshing to see tangible examples of God revealing Himself in a manner that directs history and sustains those whom He chooses. 

One of the most significant examples of God revealing Himself takes place in Exodus 3 with the burning bush.  Moses is forced to leave Egypt after murdering an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew, so he moves to the wilderness, gets married, and tries his hand at being a shepherd.  While tending to his flock, Moses comes upon a bush that burns but is “not consumed.”  As if Moses was not confused enough to begin with, the bush starts talking to Moses.  As God begins to reveal Himself to Moses, He makes a few things very clear: that He is holy, that He is aware of the suffering of the Hebrews and willing to liberate them, and that He intends to bring the Hebrews to their own land.

Apart from these things, I want to focus on one fascinating element of this revelation to Moses.  When Moses asks who he should tell the Israelites sent him, God says the following:

 “I AM WHO I AM.”  “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever,

And this is my title for all generations.

To me, this statement makes it quite plain that God wants Moses to understand His transcendence.  He creates the link with the ancestors of the Hebrews (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), and then goes on to explain that He has a plan for their future, and that His name is the same for all generations.  Unlike the fickle and limited gods of the Egyptians, God asserts that He is unchanging and possesses the power to bring about a good future for His people. Many places in Scripture cite God’s faithfulness in the past as evidence of His faithfulness that is yet to come.

 Part of what makes Exodus 3 beautiful is that while God points back to his faithfulness toward the patriarchal figures of the Hebrews, the Exodus itself turns out to be the most dramatic example of God’s faithfulness for future generations.  In the face of conquest from the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, the Jews looked back to God’s faithfulness in Egypt with the hope and confidence that He would again be faithful.  Echoes of this confidence show all over the New Testament as well in the writings of Paul, Peter, and John as they look forward to Christ’s final victory at the culmination of human history.  Through Moses’ encounter burning bush, God revealed Himself to be powerful, compassionate, faithful, and unchanging in the past, present, and future. Exodus 3 is truly a wonderful passage because this revelation from God sets into motion motifs that continue in the entire arc of Scripture, serving as an evidence of God’s faithfulness in all times and epochs, and He did all of this through a freaking shrubbery.   Anyone who thinks that God isn’t creative is a total idiot…