THE BURNING BUSH AND REFINING FIRE

When Moses stood before the burning bush, He stood before Refining Fire. God does nothing by accident.

Moses felt unqualified to lead God’s people out of Egypt.

God chose Him anyway.

God’s choice was not an accident.

Once a prince of Egypt, Moses became the vessel God used to bring His people out of bondage.

Egypt had enslaved the Jewish people for many years. Forced to work, toil, live, and die in servitude to a nation that did not believe in their God.

Pharaohs came and went. Monuments were built to gods they didn’t worship. The bitter taste of blood, sweat, tears, and bondage was all they knew.

Still, they prayed.

Still, they hoped.

God heard their cries.

And at the right time, under the leadership of the right man, God delivered them.

The parallels between Moses and Christ are not accidental.

Nothing God does is by accident.

Every moment, every person, every act is divinely inspired and carried out.

The lives of Moses and Jesus reveal a remarkable pattern in God’s eternal plan for salvation.

Both faced threats in their early lives.

Both were targeted as infants. Pharaoh ordered the execution of Hebrew male children (Exodus 1:22), and King Herod ordered the slaughter of infants in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).

Both Moses and Jesus survived through divine intervention.

Both were connected to Egypt.

Rescued by an Egyptian princess and raised as her own, Moses spent his early life as a prince of Egypt. The story could’ve ended there.

But it didn’t. Moses caught an Egyptian overseer savagely beating a Hebrew slave. He killed the overseer to save the slave.

Then, to avoid Pharaoh’s wrath, Moses fled into the wilderness (Exodus 2:15).

Scripture tells us that he arrived in Midian, where he married and spent 40 years in the desert.

Note that number — 40.

Forty years would be how long the Israelites would wander in the desert before being admitted into the promised land.

Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness in fasting and prayer in preparation for His earthly ministry. There, He’s tempted by Satan three times. Each time He answers with, “It is written.”

Jesus resists temptation, succeeding where the ancient Israelites failed, solidifying His identity as the Messiah.

God does nothing by accident.

The wilderness was a critical turning point in Moses’ life too; a time of divine preparation. A period God used to humble and teach him before calling him back to Egypt to lead the Israelites to freedom.

Moses is transformed from prince to servant to deliverer.

The Holy Family also fled to the wilderness to escape the wrath of a king. An angel appeared to Joseph, instructing him to take Mary and the babe to Egypt to escape Herod’s decree (Matthew 2:13).

Later, when the angel again appeared to Joseph to tell him it was safe, they returned to Israel, where Jesus would fulfill His earthly mission.

Matthew notes that this event fulfilled the Old Testament scripture from Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”

Nothing God does is by accident.

This verse points to both Moses and Christ.

The Israelites were God’s beloved people. Moses was called to deliver them from physical bondage.

Christ is God’s beloved Son. The one sent to deliver us from the spiritual bondage of sin and death.

Both were saved to fulfill the higher purpose to which God called them.

Both were mediators, lawgivers, and chosen servants.

When Moses stood before the burning bush, he stood before the Refining Fire of Salvation.

The burning bush was where God handed Moses His mission.

Imagine Moses tending his father-in-law’s flock and then coming across a bush, obviously on fire, but not actually burning? That certainly got his attention!

Moses stops to investigate, and the bush speaks to him!

The burning bush is the vessel God uses to establish communication with His chosen servant.

But it symbolizes something even greater.

The fire represents the suffering and oppression the Israelites are enduring in Egypt. That the bush isn’t being consumed by the fire serves as a powerful sign of God’s divine protection.

God uses refining fire, not consuming fire, to reveal His plans.

God commands Moses to remove his sandals because the ground where he’s standing is holy.

In that moment, the Creator bridges the unbridgeable gap between Himself and His creation. God reveals His eternal, self-sustaining, holy nature to Moses: “I Am that I Am.”

God chooses Moses to be the great deliverer of the Old Testament. It’s to Moses that God hands His divinely written Laws. Moses leads God’s people to the promised land but doesn’t enter himself (Numbers 20).

He was chosen to deliver Israel, but can only do so imperfectly. His human imperfections are highlighted throughout the Old Testament, but culminate in Numbers 20:11, when he falters and disobeys God’s instructions.

Because of his disobedience, it will be God’s chosen people, not Moses himself, who’ll carry the Ark of the Covenant into the promised land.

Moses is a foreshadowing of Christ, not Christ Himself.

Everything God does points to Christ.

Everything points to Jesus Christ, the perfect deliverer and mediator of the New Covenant.

Christ is the fulfillment of all that Moses began.

Both men served as mediators between God and His people.

Moses stood before God on Mount Sinai, receiving the written Law.

Jesus stood on another mountain delivering the Sermon on the Mount, revealing the Law of the Kingdom written upon our hearts.

Moses sealed the covenant with the blood of animals.

Jesus sealed the New Covenant with His own blood.

Moses interceded for the sins of Israel.

Jesus interceded for the sins of all.

Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea.

Jesus leads all of us to Living Water through baptism.

Moses stood before the Refining Fire of Salvation.

Jesus is the Refining Fire of Salvation.

What is Refining Fire revealing in me?

Refining fire can be traced back to ancient metalworking practices. By melting down raw ore, refining fire skims away dross (impurities).

The fire doesn’t destroy the precious metal; it makes it purer, more valuable, and fit for service.

In life we face the intense heat of trials and suffering that cause our dross, our sin, pride, and selfish motives, to rise to the top so the Refiner can scrape them away.

Christ is the Refiner.

The One who removes our impurities. Who accepted the Cross so we could stand before the LORD forgiven and made new.

We must continually ask ourselves, what dross am I holding on to that needs to be purified in the refining fire of Christ?

What are the hardships I’m facing trying to teach me?

Am I faithfully walking where God has called me? Truly serving His Kingdom or my own?

Remember, even Moses felt unqualified to stand before God, to lead His people.

God called him anyway.

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I Am that I Am)

The bush burned but did not crumble.

In the refining Fire of God.

Its leaves consumed remained untouched,

and before it Moses stood.

“I Am that I Am.”

The name the Father offered.

“Remove your sandals from your feet,

you’re standing on My altar.

Moses stood before the LORD,

called to be His servant.

To lead His people from their chains,

to bring them out of bondage.

“What Name shall I give them,

when they question who has sent me?”

“I AM that I AM.”

was the answer He was given.

He existed before time itself.

Before the first sign of creation.

Through Moses they would come to know,

the Bringer of Salvation.

“I AM that I AM.

The first and to the last.

On your shoulders you shall bear,

all that will come to pass.

But know I go before you.

And also before them.

I’ve heard their cries and answer now,

trust in the words I’ve spoken.”

Once a prince of Egypt,

now servant of the LORD.

Chosen and anointed,

to fulfill God’s Holy Word.

“I AM that I AM.”

The name above all others.

The name that Moses carried,

to fulfill God’s Holy Covenant.

JN Fenwick (©2026)

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JN Fenwick | mothjournal14 | ©2026 | All rights reserved. | I DO NOT WALK THIS RECOVERY JOURNEY ALONE.