Writer: Wang Chu Qiao

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Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight - why the bush does not burn up." When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then He said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
(Exodus 3:1-6)

The Burning Bush by Norman Nicholson

When Moses, musing in the desert, found
The thorn bush spiking up from the hot ground,
And saw the branches, on a sudden, bear
The crackling yellow barberries of fire,
He searched his learning and imagination
For any logical, neat explanation,
And turned to go, but turned again and stayed,
And faced the fire and knew it for his God.

I too have seen the briar alight like coal,
The love that burns, the flesh that's ever whole
And many times have turned and left it there,
Saying: "It's prophecy - but metaphor".
But stinging tongues like John the Baptist shout:
"That this is metaphor is no way out.
It's dogma too, or you make God a liar;
The bush is still a bush, and fire is fire."

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Our God Is A Consuming Fire
The Paradox Of A Burning Bush That Does Not Burn Up

I have only one point to make.

The point I am about to make is a simple one.

But it is not an easy one.

Many of us hail the burning bush a miracle.

It is not a miracle by any stretch.

In the arid Midianite backside of the desert where Moses roamed as a shepherd for forty years, burning bushes were commonplace.

The burning bush is. But it is not the point.

"Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up." (Exodus 3:2b) The transfiguration of the despised commonplace - that turned it into a miraculous God-encounter - was the fact that the burning bush was not consumed. Not consumed.

For many of us who have learnt by heart that "our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29), what may it mean for us personally that He chose to appear to Moses in a bush that defiantly burnt - and in a sense - still burns in the present continuous tense; refusing to be consumed?

Pleasure And Punishment
The Two Faces Of God's Fire In The Old Testament

The Old Testament has countless references to the manifestation of God as a fire that consumes and brings judgment upon His people for their sins.

At Taberah, the murmurers were destroyed by fire (Numbers 11:1). When Korah, Dathan and Abiram chose to oppose Moses and rose up in rebellion against him, offering strange incense, "fire came forth from Yahweh, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering incense" (Numbers 16:35).

An almost uncannily similar incident happened in the Levitical account, where Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense to offer unauthorised fire before the Lord. Their end? "So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the Lord" (Lev 10:2).

However, the same fire that was used as a sign of judgment was also a sign of acceptance and pleasure from God.

I was struck by this observation: Under the same Old Testament Aaronic priesthood, there are numerous references to God showing His acceptance of the priestly offerings and sacrifices by the priesthood on behalf of Israel through fire - by extension, this affirmed His honouring of the covenant He had cut with Israel through Abraham.

"It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord" is a refrain that litters the Book of Leviticus. In those days, the total burning up of the offerings by fire was the sure sign that God has been pleased with His people.

Is there a modern-day equivalent of this in our age? I think there is, in the 'living sacrifices' we are all called to be through the New Testamental exhortation by the apostle Paul.

Living Sacrifices
The New Testament Equivalent Of The Burning Bush That Is Not Consumed

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship" (Romans 12:1).

Rick Warren once wryly observed that the problem with living sacrifices is they are always trying to run away from the altar.

Absolutely.

We often try to justify that prodigal dash from the altar-place with the prevarication that the term "living sacrifices" is rather abstract. We shuffle our feet and mumble something about "metaphors".

What metaphors?

Was the burning bush merely a metaphor or the literal truth?

The Burning Bush
Metaphor Or Dogma?

Perhaps we can take instruction from Biblical precedents of actual historical persons rising to the occasion as literal living sacrifices in real historical contexts, times and places.

Let us take a look at the ones who did not run away from the altar.

In Genesis 22:1-24, Aaron was the antecedent type of Christ in his willingness to be the living sacrifice upon the altar of God.

In Daniel 3, we see a variation on the theme of living sacrifice with the three friends of Daniel - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - who were literally sacrificed to the fires; yet like miraculous human burning bushes, were not consumed.

That the burning bush or living sacrifice are metaphors is no way out.

Dearly beloved, I leave it to our consciences as to whether there is any wriggle-room on this one. If we would only stand still and know God for God Himself and no One else, there will yet be room.

Oh yes.

Not room to negotiate out of the clear call to be a living sacrifice, but room for One more to stand with us in the fire - the Lord Himself shall stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the fiery furnace of persecution and destruction.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, O king." He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." (Daniel 3:24-25)

We must first and foremost remember that the original burning bush was not a metaphor. It was literal. It's dogma too, or you make God a liar; The bush is still a bush, and fire is fire.

Gold, Silver, Precious Stones Or Wood, Hay And Stubble
The Litmus Test By Fire

"He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi... that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness." (Malachi 3:3)

Today, nothing has changed.

Our God is eternal, unchanging. He is a consuming fire and forever will be.

Today, we face the same two choices as the Israelites did in the Old Testament.

We can either choose to have the zeal of our Father’s house utterly burn us up, earning His pleasure and acceptance forever; or we can face the fire of His rejection, wrath and punishment upon the worthless wood, hay and stubble in our lives (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

The fire is the litmus test for us in the final judgement of God.

Will you let Him be your purifying refiner's fire, burning away the dross and distilling the precious jewels for Him and only Him? Will you burn up for Him, in every sense of the Word?

'For The Zeal Of Thine House Hath Eaten Me Up'
Holocaust And Our Total Burning Up

The point I have been meaning to make is a simple one.

But it is not an easy one.

Throughout history, for better or for worse, it has been amply demonstrated how God's people have incarnated every single meaning of the word 'holocaust' below:

1. A great or complete devastation or destruction, esp. by fire
2. A sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering
3. (Usually initial capital letter ) The systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by the)

I reiterate my first question: What may it mean for us personally that He chose to appear to Moses in a bush that defiantly burnt - and in a sense - still burns in the present continuous tense, refusing to be consumed?

The miracle of the burning bush is not that the bush is burning; it is that the bush is not consumed. The bush that burnt, is still burning and will continue to burn in the audacity of the present continuous tense paralleled the Jewish people who burnt in the chambers during the Holocaust but were reborn as the nation Israel in 1948, refusing to be utterly consumed.

The love that burns, the flesh that's ever whole.

Like the Crucifixion, the hideous reality of the Holocaust will one day see total and triumphant redemption of this 'burning up' - and that is, as the final irrevocable proof and symbol of utter acceptance by God.

Similarly, I exhort us to ever burn for Him as living sacrifices until the day we die - then holocaust - a 'total burning up' in the perfect acceptance of our persons and the total works of our hands by our Deliverer and Redeemer.

And turned to go, but turned again and stayed,
And faced the fire and knew it for his God.

Moses turned back to the fire and faced it and knew it for his God.

Do we turn away or turn back to this fire, our God?

And the point I shall make is this: Do not shirk from the holocaust* - this total burning up - for this is our calling too.

Amen.

*Ed : Chu Qiao uses holocaust here in the strictest sense of the historical and etymological sense. Historically, it refers also to a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned completely on an altar. Etymologically, the origins of the word come from Middle English : from Old French holocauste, via late Latin from Greek holokauston, from holos 'whole' + kaustos 'burned' (from kaiein 'burn' ).