+ Advent Midweek 1 – December 1st, 2021 +
Exodus 3:1-14; (Matthew 1:18-23)
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A shepherd abiding in the field. Keeping watch over his flocks by night. When suddenly the Angel of the Lord appears. Sound familiar? Not the Christmas account from Luke 2, but Exodus 3. The shepherd was Moses, tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro.
Behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. When the shepherd Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to look, the voice of the Lord came, saying, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.” And the shepherd Moses trembled and hid his face, for the glory of the Lord made him greatly afraid. And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Fear not, for I have surely seen the ill-treatment of My people that are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt, and this will be a sign unto you: this bush that burns with fire and yet is not consumed.”
Perhaps you haven’t thought of the story of the burning bush as a Christmas story. But it certainly is.
The same Lord Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and announced to the shepherds is present in both places, Luke 2 and Exodus 3. This is one of many occasions in the Old Testament, where the Angel of the Lord appears. The Malak YHWH in Hebrew. As we find out, the Angel of the Lord is no ordinary angel. In fact, not an angel at all – not like the angels Isaiah or John sees surrounding God’s throne. The Hebrew word for angel – malak – also means messenger. So does the Greek word. So you have angels, or messengers in John’s Revelation that are the pastors of the seven churches.
Here in Exodus 3, the Angel of the Lord is none other than the Son of God himself. He repeatedly calls himself God and so does Moses. Long before Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on flesh, he appeared to his people of old. The Angel of the Lord in Exodus 3 is Christ before his incarnation.
St. John declares something similar in the opening verses of his Gospel when he says that Christ is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. As the uncreated, eternal, divine Angel of the Lord, Jesus is both the messenger and the message. He is God the Father’s final Word to us. The Word made flesh for you.
Notice what the Son of God does in Exodus 3. He descends to earth as He did at Christmas. And He does so in a very concrete and physical way, as a flame of fire within the branches of a bush. He did the same as he was laid wood of a manger, the Lord came down to us. Heaven and earth, eternal and temporal are united. As in Bethlehem, so too, in the burning bush. He takes on an earthly form that Moses—and later, we—could grasp and receive. In the incarnation, the Creator entered his creation so that sinful people could approach Him without fear, without being destroyed. The burning bush, then, is a prophetic event. It foretells the time when Christ would descend to this world again and permanently take on our human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Exodus 3 is a glorious preview of our Lord’s birth for us, an old Testament Christmas. It not only proclaims who God is but why he comes to Moses and for us at Christmas… I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good land…
In the same way, Christ came down at Christmas to rescue all of mankind. Joseph and Mary were told, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Our Lord descended to deliver us from our enemies who had enslaved us. He came to release us from the power of our taskmaster, the devil, and to free us from the oppressive bondage of sin and death. By His holy incarnation, Christ became the new and greater Moses, who leads us out of the kingdom of darkness, through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea, and into the light of the Promised Land of the new creation. The One who appeared in a flame of fire said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
When Moses looked at the bush, he saw that it was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Our Lutheran forefathers saw in this theophany – a God revealing himself event – a picture of the divine and human natures of Christ. By his incarnation Jesus is eternally and forever true God and true man. And just as the burning bush never burned so the union between God and man in Christ will never end. Christ is forever true God and true man; even as he sits at the Father’s right hand, he is our brother. And he has come, not for judgment, but to be judged in our place. Just as the fire of the burning bush was not a consuming, destroying fire, but one that reveals God’s deliverance and life and presence for his people.
Our Lord joined this visible sign of the burning bush with his voice. Christ spoke. Declared his word – in, with, and under the burning bush – we might say. The Lord Jesus reveals his name and promise to Moses.
“Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” I am, the one who is, and who was, and who is to come. Jesus is the revelation of the divine name, for He teaches us, “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the vine; you are the branches.”
And He who revealed Himself to Moses in the branches of a bush has now taken on your flesh and blood that you might become His branches, that you might be joined to Him and receive your life from Him. Apart from Jesus, the branches wither and die and are burned in judgment. But abiding in Jesus, the branches thrive and share in the fire of His divine life. In Bethlehem, as Micah and Isaiah foretold, Christ Jesus, the shoot of the stump of Jesse takes root, and spreads throughout the earth.
Though you may not have ever thought of it this way, the burning bush is a marvelous Old Testament Christmas story. A great sign and symbol pointing us forward to our Lord’s coming in the flesh at Christmas. A great theophany – a God revealing event – directing our eyes forward to where Jesus once again will appear for us, not in a burning bush, but upon a tree for you.
As you prepare to celebrate this nativity of our Lord, God grant that He who is that flame of living and life giving fire, and the Light of the World, enlighten your hearts with penitent faith and holy love.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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