The Bush

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the account of Moses’ conversation with a bush, a story Jesus entitled simply, “The Bush” (Luke 20:37). 

This is the way Moses tells the story (Exodus 3). 

He was trudging through the desert trailing his father-in-law’s little band of sheep when he spied a bush. On fire. 

That in itself was not unusual for dry lightning often set fires in the desert. Nor was there anything special about the bush. It was a scraggly, old desert sage or creosote bush, one of millions, barely subsisting in the wilderness. But extraordinarily, the bush was not consumed by the flames. 

So Moses turned aside to see the sight, whereupon, he encountered a talking bush (or rather God talking in a bush) and entered into one of history’s most remarkable conversations.

God (in the Bush): “Moses, Moses!”

Moses: “Here I am”

God (in the Bush): “ I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians have oppressed my people… I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my children, out of Egypt.”

Moses: “Who me? WHO AM I?” 

(I think, had God called Moses forty years before he might have answered. “I’m your man!” for he was then a young man, a mighty warrior, full of self-confidence. But there’s nothing like trailing a band of moronic. malodorous sheep for forty years to draw down one’s sense of worth and well-being.)

God (in the Bush): “It doesn’t matter who you are. I will be with you.”

Moses: “Well then, WHO ARE YOU?

God (in the Bush): “‘I AM’^[1] is who I am. ’I AM' is the name I have given myself. What do you need, Moses: wisdom, love, courage, righteousness, power, patience?  ‘I AM’ all you need! … And that’s all you and I need to know. 

But, I ask you, why this indirection? Why speak to Moses in a shrub and not “face to face” as was God's custom. 

Because, you see, the medium (the bush) is the message: "If God is in it, any old bush will do.” 

David Roper
2.21.22

^[1] God’s name, probably pronounced Yahweh, is based on the Hebrewverb "I am."