We are like Moses’ burning bush, vessels through which the Lord speaks. There was nothing special about that bush, yet God chose to use it for his glorious purposes! How much more so will he use us?
I love the book of Exodus, and let me tell you why.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and that book alone is filled with so many fascinating stories. But of all the stories, there’s nothing quite like the one shared in the third chapter of Exodus. Okay, now here’s the deal: Moses is out in the desert – he’s fled Egypt and is living with a tribe of Midianites; in fact, he married one - anyway, Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law out in the desert, and he came to Mount Horeb. It was there Moses was drawn to a very strange sight. It was a desert shrub, a bush that was glowing in a halo of fire, and yet it didn’t burn up. Now that was a weird sight. In verse 3, Moses says to himself, "I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up." As Moses drew closer, perhaps he thought it was a remarkable new kind of foliage unlike the rest of the desert scrub brush. Then, what a shock to see the glowing fire and hear the voice of God Almighty speak from inside the scraggly branches. Moses quickly took off his sandals. He was standing on sacred ground, holy ground. It was a never-before-encounter between man and the great I Am, the Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty.
And Moses would never be the same. Weeks later, though, I wonder what happened to that bush. Before Moses moved on, leaving the bush behind, I don’t think he broke off the branches to enshrine them in a little box on an altar. He did not uproot the bush to memorialize it. He did not erect an altar or a mausoleum to venerate the bush, as though it were now elevated to a sacred category above the average desert shrub. No. I think that bush just went back to being an ordinary scraggly bush. And that’s a powerful lesson, for as Major Ian Thomas has said, when it comes to God choosing the bush through which he would spoke, honestly, “Any old bush would have done. A scruffy, scraggly looking thing or a beautiful looking bush so shapely and fine. The bush is not important–only that God was in the bush!”
The burning bush is an Old Testament example of a New Testament truth: Christ in you, the hope of glory. You, friend, are his bush, you are his scrub brush, and God can set any life ablaze with Spirit‐inspired power. His Holy Spirit, the same God that spoke from the shrub on Mount Horeb, God lives within you. And God can choose whatever bush he wants. You could be a lowly outcast or an honored aristocrat. You can be an unskilled person with lackluster gifts, or someone with great talents who’s bright and beautiful. The “you” doesn’t matter. What does matter is Christ in you. Just like with Moses, the bush through which God chose to speak was not the issue; what mattered was that God was in the bush. And you are the same, dear friend. But unlike that desert bush, the Lord will not depart from you if you are a child of God, redeemed and forgiven, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. All because of Colossians 1. It says there that “God has chosen to make known [to you] the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Oh, what a privilege, what an honor to be the bush God chooses! So, join me in praying, “Oh, Jesus, please, let me burn for you. Set my heart aflame. Let your presence within me glow. Shine through me, Jesus. Today, let me burn for you.”
© Joni and Friends