Exodus 3

God reveals Himself to Moses through a burning bush, calling him to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage and establishing His covenantal name. This encounter marks the transition of Moses from a shepherd to the prophet/leader of Israel.

• Moses experiences a supernatural vision of a bush burning but not consumed while tending sheep at Horeb.
• God initiates the commission, demanding holiness from Moses and revealing His identity as the God of the patriarchs.
• God expresses His empathy for the suffering of His people in Egypt and announces the plan for their deliverance.
• Moses objects to the call; God provides the promise of His presence and His eternal Name (I AM THAT I AM) as the source of authority.
• God outlines the specific steps of the mission, acknowledging the coming resistance from Pharaoh and promising eventual victory.

• The location: Horeb, the 'mountain of God'.
• The symbol: The bush that burned but was not consumed.
• The command: To take off shoes on holy ground.
• The name: I AM THAT I AM.
• The destination: A land flowing with milk and honey.

This passage is the foundational revelation of God's redemptive purpose in the Old Testament, where God identifies Himself not just as a deity, but as the self-existent Covenant-Keeper. It connects the history of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) to the deliverance of the nation of Israel.

God initiates, empowers, and sustains the work of deliverance; human reluctance is met by the sufficiency of the Divine Name and Presence.

The text moves from a private encounter of awe and fear to a public commission that requires Moses to act as a covenant representative.

• I will be with thee (Exodus 3:12).
• I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:17).
• I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians (Exodus 3:21).

• Draw not nigh hither (Exodus 3:5).
• Put off thy shoes from off thy feet (Exodus 3:5).
• Go, and gather the elders of Israel together (Exodus 3:16).

• I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand (Exodus 3:19).

• The passage takes place during the 'second forty' years of Moses' life, while he served as a shepherd in the land of Midian (Ex 3:1).
• Horeb is identified as the mountain of God, which tradition links to the later giving of the Law.

• In the ancient Near East, personal names were understood to express the essence or character of the person.
• The imagery of 'taking off shoes' (na'al - H5275) was a common act of reverence and submission when entering sacred or royal space.

• This chapter follows the narrative of Moses' birth and flight from Egypt, serving as the pivotal hinge upon which the book of Exodus turns from individual narrative to national history.

• Matthew Henry observes that the burning bush is an emblem of the church under persecution: though it suffers, it is not consumed because the presence of God is in its midst.
• Jesus cites this passage in Luke 20:37 to argue for the resurrection, noting that since God called Himself the God of the fathers, they must still be alive to Him.

• Exodus 3:6 (God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) links directly to the covenant establishment in Genesis 12, 15, and 17.
• The mention of 'milk and honey' (v. 8, 17) becomes a standard descriptor for the Promised Land throughout the Pentateuch (e.g., Num 13:27).

• The word 'angel' (mālā'k - H4397) functions as 'messenger', a term used for divine manifestations in the Old Testament.
• The verb 'hayah' (H1961) used in verse 14 ('I AM') carries the sense of absolute, eternal being, contrasting with the contingent existence of the bush and Moses.
• The Hebrew word 'midbar' (H4057) for 'wilderness' can also denote a place for grazing livestock (ra'ah - H7462), contextualizing Moses' humble role as a shepherd.

• The phrase 'I am come down' (v. 8) is an anthropomorphism indicating God's active intervention in human history.
• The 'Angel of the Lord' (v. 2) speaks as God Himself, a recurring phenomenon in the Old Testament where the messenger and the Sender are identified as one.

• There is a long-standing historical debate regarding the identity of the 'Angel of the Lord'. Some theological traditions identify this as a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ (a Christophany), while others emphasize the distinction between the messenger and the sender. Both positions look to the text's identification of the messenger as 'God' in verses 4 and 6 as the primary evidence.