Barefoot at the Bush

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. 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. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. Ex.3:1-5

Moses’ bush still burns, but it’s only to be found in the lonely, barren, wilderness. Scrub bushes do not generally grow in the environment many of us are accustomed to. Like most valued things in life, you can’t find the right thing in the wrong place. The mass of today’s professing Christians will never have a bush experience, for one of two reasons. First, they detest spending time in the desert; they don’t like the heat. And secondly, if by some strange circumstance they are dragged to a wasteland, they have little or no interest in a common scrub bush, even one with an eternal flame.

Moses had something that has been lost in this present generation: a holy curiosity. Anyone who will take the time to “turn aside to see,” will find God still speaks. The little three lettered word “awe” is found three times in the Bible. All in the book of Psalms. We are no longer awed by a sense God; we use the term flippantly about everything and everyone that is of little or no value. It is difficult to find intelligent inquirers who want to discuss “the bush that burneth with fire.” Second hand religion is in vogue among God’s people. We’re like those of Moses’ day, who said, “Speak thou with us …but let not God speak with us.

Moses never got over his bush experience. Years later, when speaking to Israel, he mentions “Him that dwelt in the bush.” Our God is a “consuming fire.” Get close enough to allow yourself to be turned to ashes. If you will, then He will “give unto [you] beauty for ashes.”