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Exodus 3:2-6

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

2. 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. 3. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4. 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. 5. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. 6. 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.

Exodus 3:2-6 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Exodus 3:2

Theological / Devotional

The angel of the Lord. The context (vs. 4-6, 14) makes it clear that this “angel of the Lord” was the Lord Himself, the second person of the Godhead (see PP 252, 311, 366). Already in Abraham’s time the Lord had revealed Himself under this form and name (see Gen. 22:11).

A flame of fire. The Hebrew text reads literally “out of the midst of the bush,” not that there was only one bush near Mt. Horeb, but rather that it was the only bush to which particular significance attached. The burning bush was an appropriate visible representation of the message God there imparted to Moses. In contrast to the more noble and lofty trees (Judges 9:15), the thorn bush may be compared to the people of Israel in their humiliation, despised by the world. The fire, burning but not consuming the bush, may be thought of as representing the refining affliction of slavery. But the bush was not consumed; and in the chastening flame the Lord does not give His people over unto death (Ps. 118:18).

By SdaBc