Burning Bush
Today’s post is brought to you by the letter B and the number 2. Two B’s to be precise. Alliteration helps you remember things. My favorite Doctor Seuss line of all time has to be “O is very useful if you want to say: Oscar’s only ostrich oiled an orange oil today.” But I was talking about the letter B wasn’t I… Burning bush has a nice ring to it. That sounds very pyromaniacal of me doesn’t it? Beautiful burning bush blazing brilliantly. Bobbies (policemen in England) bring BJ bound to brison… um, prison. Ok, it’s not that I promote arson. The burning bush that Moses saw was very different than what any match could ever start.
Moses had run away from Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian task-master and after living abroad for a lifetime, God shows up. It’s the strangest thing. There is a shrub with flames dancing on it, but it’s still green beneath. This bush seems to be so alive that it can’t actually catch fire, but the fire is there nonetheless. It’s an impossible scenario. Wood is one of the most flammable substances on the planet. Fire and wood are just not good dancing partners. But there they were, making beautiful music together.
The question at this point would be, why? Why did God choose that image for Moses to see? We have a tree and we have fire. We could speculate, which might be fun, but it’s good to consider Jesus’ words in John’s account when the Lord is speaking to Pharisees. He says, “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” At the very beginning of Moses’ work for the Lord, he is given a picture of Jesus. Jesus is both God – the Son of God – and Man – the Son of Man, he called himself. He is divine and human. How can that be? It is as incomprehensible to us as a tree on fire that is not consumed. The tree is Christ’s humanity, and the fire is his divinity. In Mark’s gospel Jesus himself refers to the “burning bush passage” that Moses wrote about. He is discussing the concept of the resurrection with the Sadducees and in relation to that flaming shrub told them that God is the God of the living, not the dead. Jesus being God and Man means life for us. Otherwise, we are just tinder for the flames.
Jesus went through the fire of God’s righteous judgment and came out alive on the other side. We have no hope other than to trust that he took that journey for us. We would not have survived it. We would have been consumed. The burning bush is a perfect picture of Christ as to the one who redeems man, by being God and Man. He is the union – the reconciliation.
I have to give credit to my brother-in-law, Dan, who opened my eyes to this symbol. I stole this idea from him. I’m a no good plagiarist, really. Oh no – here come the Bobbies again!
BJ
Moses had run away from Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian task-master and after living abroad for a lifetime, God shows up. It’s the strangest thing. There is a shrub with flames dancing on it, but it’s still green beneath. This bush seems to be so alive that it can’t actually catch fire, but the fire is there nonetheless. It’s an impossible scenario. Wood is one of the most flammable substances on the planet. Fire and wood are just not good dancing partners. But there they were, making beautiful music together.
The question at this point would be, why? Why did God choose that image for Moses to see? We have a tree and we have fire. We could speculate, which might be fun, but it’s good to consider Jesus’ words in John’s account when the Lord is speaking to Pharisees. He says, “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” At the very beginning of Moses’ work for the Lord, he is given a picture of Jesus. Jesus is both God – the Son of God – and Man – the Son of Man, he called himself. He is divine and human. How can that be? It is as incomprehensible to us as a tree on fire that is not consumed. The tree is Christ’s humanity, and the fire is his divinity. In Mark’s gospel Jesus himself refers to the “burning bush passage” that Moses wrote about. He is discussing the concept of the resurrection with the Sadducees and in relation to that flaming shrub told them that God is the God of the living, not the dead. Jesus being God and Man means life for us. Otherwise, we are just tinder for the flames.
Jesus went through the fire of God’s righteous judgment and came out alive on the other side. We have no hope other than to trust that he took that journey for us. We would not have survived it. We would have been consumed. The burning bush is a perfect picture of Christ as to the one who redeems man, by being God and Man. He is the union – the reconciliation.
I have to give credit to my brother-in-law, Dan, who opened my eyes to this symbol. I stole this idea from him. I’m a no good plagiarist, really. Oh no – here come the Bobbies again!
BJ
posted by BJ at 3:41 p.m.
1 Comments:
Thank you Dave for pointing out the Dr. Seuss (Zeus!) typo!
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