Christ in the Burning Bush

Exodus 3:2-4 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.


The burning bush is a picture of God's grace. Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions says the bush is a thorny bush which reminds us of the curse (Gen. 3:17-18), i.e. original sin. God is described as a "consuming fire" (Deut. 4:24, 9:3; Heb. 12:29), and fire is also typical of God's judgment (2 Pet. 3:7). So the burning bush is sin being judged but not consumed. It speaks of God's grace. We deserve to be judged for our sin and to be cast into eternal punishment. But God in His mercy sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice for sin and to become our substitute.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all...Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:5-6, 10-11)

Chuck Missler puts it this way: "It is always the grace of God that attracts us - not His righteousness. His holiness and righteousness terrifies us - as indeed it should. It was His grace that attracted Moses and changed the course of history." (from "A Book of Mysteries: The Book of Exodus")
Remember Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me." (John 12:32) And this is what happened. Moses essentially was attracted by the cross. ["By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." (Hebrews 11:24-26)] He was drawn by God's grace, and then God called Him. In other words, the only hope for humanity is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is the only thing between us and eternal perdition. But praise God for His amazing grace!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Coats of Skins

Genesis 3:7 "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
Genesis 3:21 "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned and realized their broken relationship with God, they tried to fix the situation themselves by making their own coverings. Later, God taught the lesson that their own efforts to achieve a right standing before Him would not succeed; nothing we do can ever be good enough to pay the penalty for our sins. Instead, He showed them the need for a vicarious atoning sacrifice through the shedding of innocent blood by killing animals to make the coats of skins and by clothing them Himself. Indeed, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22).

"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28)
"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:24-25)

It is interesting that, although their eyes were opened to the fact that they were naked, and although they clothed themselves, they were still, in a different sense, naked with blinded eyes. This was a state similar to that of the church of the Laodiceans.

"Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." (Revelation 3:17-18)

I think this is also the state of the majority of the Church today. We are trying to clothe ourselves with our own righteousness, and we think we're okay. But the truth is that "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) We desperately need to follow the Lord's command in Revelation 3:19-20: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Remember that the Lord is speaking to believers in the context of this chapter. If we are trusting in our own righteousness, we must repent. In fact, we must repent if we are trusting in anything but Christ and Him crucified.

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified." (1Corinthians 2:2)

The Cross of Christ

I intend to point out various false doctrines and heresies as I have been made aware of them by others. But I think it is very important to understand that which is genuine before we look at the counterfeit. The message of the Bible is the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I will end up repeating that phrase many times, but that's because you can't exhaust it. Understanding this concept really helped me begin to better understand the scriptures, especially the Old Testament. Some may have trouble with the thought of the O.T. being about Jesus Christ, but even Jesus Himself said this was so.

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39)

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me." (John 5:46)

"Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God." (Hebrews 10:7)

This is very important to understand. The cross, i.e. the blood atonement, is the foundational doctrine of the entire Bible. That is why Peter said "...ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold...But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." (1 Peter 1:18-20) By the grace of God, I hope to show Christ in the O.T. in various types and shadows in the near future.

More Global Warming

I just saw another in a seemingly endless procession of news stories concerning "climate change." It's interesting that these stories are always one-sided and obviously politically motivated. While most experts seem to agree that we are in a warming period, it is not politically expedient for them to admit that the earth has natural cycles of warming and cooling and that our burning fossil fuels adds very little to the warming phase. Later on, I may get more into the technical end of this discussion. Right now, however, I just wanted to show what the Bible has to say about this and point out that we do not need to succumb to the fear tactics used by proponents of the man-made global warming hypothesis. This text is immediately following Noah's departure from the ark after God had miraculously preserved his family through the global flood. In Genesis 8:21-22, the Lord promised:

"I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. (22) While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

We can confidently rest on this promise, and in the near future, I hope to give many reasons why we can absolutely trust that the Bible alone is the Word of God. So stay tuned.

The Disappearing Gospel

Is the gospel vanishing? Many are pointing out the shallowness of modern preaching. They say that true gospel preaching is taking a back seat to ear-tickling, feel-good, motivational messages which are designed to attract those who are now deemed "the unchurched." I have to say I agree with this assessment. The more I learn about movements within Christendom (purpose driven, seeker sensitive, government of twelve, word of faith, etc.), the more I see that true biblical preaching is falling by the wayside. Before you completely shut down, consider what Jesus asked: "...when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) Christ is not speaking here of any kind of faith or a general faith in God. There is an untranslated definite article* in the Greek manuscripts. It should read, "...shall he find the faith on the earth?" Also Paul told Timothy: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." (1 Timothy 4:1) Doesn't sound like the world gradually becoming more Christian as we're often told. Instead, it sounds more like the church of the Laodiceans who said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." But the Lord informed them that "thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Revelation 3:17) Too often, I hear pastors and teachers inviting people to begin a relationship with God or to come to Jesus without telling people why they need to do such a thing. It's not enough simply to tell people about God or even Jesus. Paul warned about another Jesus and another gospel (2 Cor. 11:3-4; Galatians 1:6-7). We must make sure that people understand just what the gospel is and why they need it. Paul stated it briefly in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 -- "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Jesus abbreviated our need for believing the gospel in John 3:36 -- "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Simply stated, the gospel (actually the principle message in the entire Bible) is the message of the Cross (1 Cor. 1:18); it is Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 1:23, 2:2). God willing, we will explore this message further in later posts.

*(In English, we have the indefinite articles, "a" and "an" and the definite article "the"; Greek has only the definite article. More on this subject later.)

Here is a related article at The Berean Call: "What's Happening to the Faith?"