Moses and the Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not burning up. ³ So he said, “I will go over and look at this amazing sight—to find out why the bush is not burning up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to take a look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!”

Moses said, “I am here.”

⁵ The Lord said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He then said, “I am the God of your fathers,^[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ Now indeed, the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me. Yes, I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ Come now, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹² So he said, “I will certainly be with you. This will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”

¹³ But Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I say to them?”

¹⁴ So God replied to Moses, “I am who I am.”^[b] He also said, “You will say this to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you.”

¹⁵ God also told Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’

A Lesson From Sacred History: Be Careful Not to Fall

10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, ² and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them—and that rock was Christ! ⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. He had them die in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things took place as examples to warn us not to desire evil things the way they did. ⁷ Do not become idolaters like some of them—as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to celebrate wildly.”^{[a] 8} And let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. ⁹ Let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and so were being destroyed by the serpents. ¹⁰ And do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹ All^[b] these things that were happening to them had meaning as examples, and they were written down to warn us, to whom the end of the ages has come.

¹² So let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall. ¹³ No testing has overtaken you except ordinary testing. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, but when he tests you, he will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it.