Exodus 3:2-4
When the LORD saw that he turned aside
The voice waits for the turn. Nothing is said until the man has walked toward the thing he does not understand.
Objects of the Bible
The burning bush
The fire was not the strange part. The bush still being there was.
Moses is eighty, keeping another man’s sheep on the back side of the desert, and he turns aside for something odd. The text is precise about what caught him: the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. He says he will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt, and the voice does not come until he turns. Curiosity is the hinge of the scene, and the instruction that follows is about his feet.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The burning bush
- 01
- 02
Exodus 3:5-6
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet
The ground is holy because of who is on it, not because of what it is. He hides his face, and the text says why: he was afraid to look.
- 03
Exodus 3:11-12
Who am I
The question about his own adequacy is answered by changing the subject, and the sign offered is one he will only see afterwards.
- 04
Exodus 3:13-15
I AM THAT I AM
He asks for a name to quote and is given a sentence in the first person, then a second form to carry to the people.
- 05
Exodus 4:10-17
I am slow of speech
The fourth objection is about his mouth and is answered with a question about who made it. The reply to persistence is Aaron, and some heat.
Why it matters
What is given at the bush is a name and a job, in that order and both reluctantly received. He asks who he is to go, and the answer is not about him: certainly I will be with thee. He asks what to say when they ask the name, and gets I AM THAT I AM, which is a sentence rather than a title. Then come four objections and four answers, and at the fourth the anger of the LORD is kindled, and the concession is Aaron. The bush never appears again, and Moses is still describing it in Deuteronomy as the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
