Make Me a Burning Bush
In Exodus 3 we read about an account of Moses encountering a bush that was aflame, yet was not being consumed by the fire on Mount Horeb. As we look back we recognize the significance of this experience in which Moses encounters the Divine Message through this bush and the surrounding holy ground. It was a launching ramp for him to fly into the calling of liberating the Jewish people from the oppression of the Egyptians.
I recently read an article in which the author argued that the burning bush was a presentation of the Gospel in the Old Testament. It was a marker moment of revealing the Lord’s message on the earth. It was the joining of Heaven and earth through a bush that was on fire, yet not being consumed. They continued to argue that this incarnate metaphor continues through Mary bearing the Son of God in pregnancy. She is, in fact, another burning bush: filled with God’s Holy and Fiery Presence, yet not burnt to a crisp.
I love this idea. I love that even further, we recognize that the goal of these metaphors, and the purpose of the Incarnation is to reveal that God’s plan is to make God and humanity one. This is why Jesus reveals both God and human beings together perfectly. His lifestyle beckons this understanding; His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His promise to return does as well.
Not only this, but He lays down His life to give us life eternal and abundant: relationship with the Trinity, now and forever. In doing so, He fills us with the Holy Spirit, and we are now called the temple, the building, and the dwelling place of the Living God (1. Cor. 3, 6). With this being stated, we are, in fact, another burning bush. We are filled with the Consuming Fire (Heb. 12:29) that God was, is, and will always be, and we are yet not burnt to a crisp. Instead, we are unleashed as fiery emblems of rebirth, of empowering and covering grace, and finally, as lights to this world of the passionate and emboldening love of our Lord.
This thought is beautiful, it’s empowering, and it’s certainly entertaining. Yet, the reality, as with most theological thought, is that it is just deism (belief about God with no relationship) until we actually believe it, experience it, and live it. We can theologize and believe correctly about almost every aspect of life, but what does it mean if it just words? As Christians we are called to a posture of meeting our faith with action and our action with faith. This means that we are not called to be more puffed up with knowledge than we are humbled by service and love. This means that our prayers are not just words and thoughts, but blood, sweat, and tears as well.
This is the wholeness of being a burning bush: that we don’t trust our thoughts about God, as much as trust God Himself. The burning bush doesn't make sense. To have a flammable object engulfed in flames, yet not being consumed by the fire: that is incredible. It is the same with our lives in that we are those who are filled with an indescribable and glorious joy because cannot see and don’t see God right now. Our belief is met with encounter, our theology is met with experience, and our heart and mind are met in the matrimony of the Incarnate God.
This year, I feel like the Lord is communicating something extravagant and necessary: that we are to be the people of God who are a burning bush to the world around us. We are to be those ignited with the passionate, fiery love of our Savior King so that when we come to those brothers and sisters who have been abandoned by their parents, have fallen into oppressive ways, or have even gone as far as murdering, we can reveal to them the goal, the purpose, and the destiny of all people through the fire that is aflame within and upon us: God and humanity together.
Let us therefore take the step forward to ask God for His fiery love, to ask God for the boldness of those who have encountered a love that sets free, empowers, covers, and embraces all people. Let us walk and pray as those before us: “Now Lord, grant to Your servants to speak Your Word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your Holy Servant Jesus (Acts 4:29-30).” Such prayers have shaken buildings. Why can’t they shake our buildings, our temples, our foundations to be the fiery, bold people of God we are called to be?
God, shake us. God, empower us. God, embolden us. Make us burning bushes, that everywhere we go Your fiery love would be shown, Your Word would be spoken and demonstrated in boldness, and in all things we would be One with You. Amen.
