Exodus 3:1–15
The Bush That Would Not Burn Up
The big idea
God calls an eighty-year-old failure by name, and answers his objections with his own presence rather than with reassurance about Moses.
Context you need before you preach it
Moses is forty years past his one attempt at deliverance, which ended in a killing and a flight. He is keeping another man's sheep in the wilderness. Whatever ambition he had is long gone.
The scene's pivot is the divine name in verse 14. Moses asks for credentials he can present to Israel and receives a name that is less a label than a claim: the God who simply is, and who will be there.
The outline
A working day interrupted
vv. 1–3The call comes at work, in an unremarkable location, to a man with no expectation of one. Moses turns aside to look — small act, whole story hinges on it.
Called by name, twice
vv. 4–6The doubled name is a pattern in scripture for a call of consequence. Note the immediate response: hide the face.
God has seen, heard, and come down
vv. 7–10Three verbs establishing that this is not a distant deity being informed of a problem. Then the shock: "I will send you."
Who am I? — and the answer that ignores the question
vv. 11–15Moses asks about his own adequacy. God does not address it. The answer is "I will be with you" and then the name.
Application
- The relevant question about a calling is not whether you are adequate for it. God consistently declines to answer that question.
- Notice what interrupts your ordinary week. Moses' entire story turns on being willing to walk over and look at something.
- Past failure is not disqualifying. Forty years of it was, apparently, preparation.
Where preachers go wrong on this text
- Making the bush the point. The miracle is a device to get attention; the substance is the name and the commission.
- Turning "I AM" into an abstract lecture on divine aseity. It is offered pastorally, to a frightened man, as a promise of presence.
- Implying that everyone gets a burning bush. Most calls are considerably quieter, and saying so protects people from waiting for one.
Other ways to structure it
The outline above is one defensible reading, not the only one. If it does not fit the congregation in front of you, these are legitimate alternatives:
- Preach it as a sermon on holiness — the ground, the sandals, the hidden face.
- Preach the objection sequence across chapters 3–4, where Moses raises five and God answers each.
- Preach it as a sermon on the name of God, tracing "I AM" forward to John 8:58.
Illustrations that fit this text
Frequently asked questions
What does "I AM WHO I AM" mean?
The Hebrew is bound up with the verb "to be" and carries the sense of self-existence and of active presence — both "I am the one who simply is" and "I will be there as who I will be". In context it functions less as a metaphysical definition than as a promise to a man who has just asked whether God will actually show up.
You have preached this passage before
Probably more than once, and the earlier version had a line in it you would want back. Transcribe your sermons and every text you have ever preached becomes searchable by reference — $19/month for as many as you preach, and the first one is free.
More from Exodus
Preaching resources for Exodus — themes, famous chapters, and background for the whole book.