Commentary - Exodus 3:1-6

Bird's-eye view

In Exodus 3:1-6, we have the account of God's sovereign and startling interruption into the life of Moses. After forty years of preparation in the wilderness, a time of humbling and training, God determines that the time is right to initiate His great work of deliverance for Israel. This is not a committee meeting, and Moses is not applying for a job. This is a divine summons. The central theme here is God's absolute holiness and His covenant faithfulness. He reveals Himself in a paradoxical way, in a fire that burns but does not consume, a perfect picture of His self-existent life and His presence with His afflicted people. He is the God who remembers His promises to the patriarchs, and He is the God who demands reverence and awe. This encounter sets the stage for the entire Exodus, establishing the character of the God who is acting and the nature of the man He has chosen to use.

This passage is foundational for understanding the nature of a true call from God. It is initiated by God, it reveals the holiness of God, it is grounded in the promises of God, and it produces a right fear of God in the one who is called. This is not just historical narrative; it is a paradigm for how God deals with men.

Outline

Context In Exodus

Following the brutal decree of Pharaoh and the miraculous preservation of Moses in chapters 1 and 2, Moses has fled Egypt and has spent four decades in Midian. This is his postgraduate work in the university of God's providence. He has been stripped of his Egyptian royalty and has become a humble shepherd, a necessary prerequisite for shepherding God's flock, Israel. The silence of those forty years is now broken. The groaning of Israel has ascended to God (Exod 2:23-25), and God, remembering His covenant, now acts. This passage is the hinge upon which the entire book of Exodus turns. It is the transition from the problem (Israel's bondage) to God's divinely initiated solution (the call of a deliverer).

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Moses is engaged in his ordinary, mundane work. He is a shepherd, a common occupation, but one that God frequently uses as a training ground for leadership. David was a shepherd before he was a king, and Christ is our Good Shepherd. Moses is faithfully doing his duty in the middle of nowhere, on the "west side of the wilderness." It is often in the midst of our faithful, plodding obedience in small things that God breaks in with a call to do great things. He comes to Horeb, which is another name for Sinai. It is called "the mountain of God" here by way of anticipation. This will be the place where God descends in fire to give His law. But before God gives the law to the nation, He gives Himself to their leader.

v. 2 And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

The "angel of Yahweh" is no mere created angel. This is a theophany, and more specifically, a Christophany. This is the pre-incarnate Son of God. We know this because this "angel" speaks as God in the first person just a few verses later (v. 4, 6). He appears in a blazing fire, a common biblical symbol of God's purifying presence and holy judgment. The bush itself is a picture of Israel in Egypt, afflicted and in the fires of persecution, yet not consumed because God is in their midst. It is also a picture of the Church, which will perpetually undergo fiery trials but will never be destroyed. But most fundamentally, the unconsumed bush is a picture of God Himself, whose life is within Himself. He is the self-existent one, the I AM, who needs no fuel from the outside to sustain His being. He simply is.

v. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burned up?”

The miracle gets his attention. God often uses signs and wonders not as an end in themselves, but to arrest our attention and prepare us to hear His word. Moses's curiosity is piqued. This is not natural. This is supernatural. His response is the correct one: he turns aside. He stops what he is doing to investigate the work of God. We are often so busy with our own flocks and our own agendas that we fail to turn aside when God is doing something marvelous in our periphery. Moses shows the heart of a true seeker; he wants to understand what God is doing.

v. 4 And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, so God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Notice the sequence. God waits for Moses to respond to the sign before He speaks. When Moses turns aside, God calls him by name. The call is personal and direct: "Moses, Moses!" The repetition of the name indicates urgency and intimacy, much like when God called to Abraham (Gen 22:11) or Samuel (1 Sam 3:10), or when Jesus called to Martha (Luke 10:41) or Simon Peter (Luke 22:31). This is not a vague spiritual impression; this is a direct, verbal, personal call from the sovereign God. Moses's response is immediate and submissive: "Here I am." This is the classic response of a servant ready to hear and obey, the same response given by Abraham, Isaiah, and Samuel. It is an answer of availability and submission to God's will.

v. 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Before God reveals His plan, He reveals His character. The first command is one of separation and reverence. "Do not come near." There is a terrifying distance between a holy God and a sinful man. This is not a casual chat between equals. Then comes the command to remove his sandals. This was an act of humility and respect. But more than that, it was a recognition that he was standing on "holy ground." God's presence sanctifies a place. The ground was not inherently holy; it was made holy by the presence of the Holy One. Removing his sandals was an acknowledgment that he could not stand before God on the basis of his own merit or righteousness. His feet were dusty from the wilderness, a picture of our own works, which are as filthy rags. He had to remove them, to stand bare before God, recognizing that his standing depended entirely on the ground God provided.

v. 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

God identifies Himself not as a new deity, but as the covenant-keeping God of the patriarchs. This is crucial. God is not starting something new; He is continuing what He began centuries before. He is the God of history, the God of promises. He is reminding Moses (and all Israel) that the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still in effect. This is the foundation of their hope. Jesus would later use this very verse to prove the resurrection to the Sadducees, arguing that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt 22:32). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive with Him, and His covenant with them lives also. Moses's reaction is entirely appropriate. He hides his face because he was afraid to look at God. This is not a servile, cowering fear, but a holy terror, an overwhelming awe in the presence of majesty. True encounters with the living God do not produce arrogance or casual familiarity; they produce humility and a profound sense of our own creatureliness and sin.

Application

This passage is a potent reminder of the nature of God's holiness and His sovereign grace. First, we must recognize that God is the one who initiates. He set the bush on fire. He called Moses by name. Our salvation, our calling, our purpose, it all begins with Him. We do not find God; He finds us, often when we are on the backside of some wilderness, tending sheep.

Second, we must learn the lesson of the holy ground. We live in an age of irreverence, where God is treated as a buddy or a cosmic therapist. But the God of the Bible is a consuming fire. His presence demands reverence. To approach Him means we must take off our sandals, removing any pretense of our own righteousness and standing solely on the holy ground provided for us in Jesus Christ.

Finally, we must anchor ourselves in God's covenant faithfulness. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of our fathers. He is the God who made promises in Christ before the foundation of the world and who will keep every one of them. Our confidence is not in our circumstances or our abilities, but in the unchanging character of the God who remembers His covenant and acts on behalf of His people.