This picture of a mighty mediator servant, barefoot and covering his face in fear before the gracious appearance of the Lord in the burning bush should be etched in our minds. This picture, so early in the history of revelation, captures the gospel in a nutshell for us. May it be in our hearts and minds, like a flame of fire in a bush that is not consumed, that leads us to fall in our knees in worship. The history of salvation repeats the gracious theme of the Lord who comes down and intervenes. The Lord came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden after the fall, the Lord appeared to the patriarchs, he spoke to Moses in the burning bush, and then again dwelt among Israel in the cloud, the tabernacle, and the temple, and all this pointed to the day when the Son of God would take on our human flesh and the Holy Spirit would come down with flames of fire on Pentecost. The history of salvation repeatedly mentions the theme of the relationship between the Lord as our God and believers and their children as his people. Now our bodies are holy ground, temples in which God dwells by his Spirit! We are called to stand in awe of God’s work within our hearts, and to remove our sandals to rest in the peace that Christ has obtained for us by his death. The holy God reached down in love to mankind lost in the misery of their sins, to announce that just as he is God to our ancestors in the line of the covenant promises, he is also God to us in our distress. We have a holy God who is willing to reach down to us in his outpouring love.
4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”