“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midiam: 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.”
(Exodus 3:1-2)

Salvation begins with God. Man is lost in sin. To be lost is to not know the way. Man’s sins have so separated him from God that he is ignorant not only of the way but of the God he has been separated from. Born in sin he walks as a Gentile, “in the vanity of his mind; having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:17-18)

In Exodus 3:1-2, the Holy Ghost pictures a man being led to God. Moses was brought to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Before him rose up what he would one day call Sinai. This mountain was a great barrier; a high and lofty place. This mountain was fused into the earth on which he stood, and virtually disappeared into the clouds above. Before, this mountain of God was sprawled out a barren wilderness. This wilderness was a dry land that could not produce or maintain life. This is always the place where the believer is brought to be confronted with God; God in His perfections and man in his corruption. There, before that great and holy place, Christ came to Moses to minister to him as the Angel of God dwelling in a bush. This burning bush is the God-man who bares a consuming fire in the flesh, but is not consumed. There is no other hope for sinful man than that which Moses saw in the bush. In his dying words he spoke as he blessed, “of the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.” (Deuteronomy 33:16)

D. Pruitt