The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Miracle Of All Miracles"
"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt" (Exodus 3:1-3).
What does the burning bush encountered by Moses in the far reaches of Midian's desert symbolize? We might consider the nation of Israel, always subject to the fires of persecution throughout it history, and yet preserved by God. We might also think of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, again, another people subject to the world's disapprobation, but who also endure. Moses himself could be thought of in such terms. Like the bush, he was a mouthpiece for the voice of God. However, he seemed hidden away and far from having the opportunity to fulfill the purpose of his life. These, and other possibilities present themselves to our hearts and minds.
One answer, however, must be viewed as primary. The Bible exists first and foremost to exalt and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. "Search the Scriptures" declared our Lord. "They are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39). The written Word ever serves its primary purpose of directing its brightest light on the person and work of the living Word. Thus, the burning bush must first be considered in terms of our Savior's incarnation, wherein the living, eternal, and "consuming fire" of Almighty God found residence in and as a human being (Deuteromy 4:24).
"And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).
No ordinary bush could be set ablaze without being consumed. Nor does it seem that the Infinite could become finite without resulting in utter conflagration and destruction. The Lord Jesus is and will forever be the greatest mystery of history. The Apostle Paul declared the proposal to be inarguable. How can Christ even exist as He does? We may answer that God can cause such a wonder. This is true. However, this does not solve the mystery. God's consuming fire should annihilate the humanity of the Lord Jesus, no less than Moses' blazing bush of old should have disintegrated into ashes blown away by desert winds. That Christ abides as both Divine and human means that He serves as the greatest of all God's mysteries and miracles. He should not be. But He is. "Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God" indicted the Jews as they sought to stone Him for blasphemy (John 10:33). Certainly, they were horribly wrong to do so. But any thinking person can understand why they did not understand. No one really can, nor will the Lord Jesus ever be completely explicable to any heart and mind. "Great is the mystery…"
In Heaven and earth, there is no one like Him. Certainly, another mystery proceeds from the wonder that "God was in Christ" (II Corinthians 5:19). That is, God now dwells in those who believe. "Ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 3:16). This might seem an even greater enigma, and no less than the Apostle Paul termed "the hope of glory, which is Christ in you" as a "mystery" (Colossians 1:27). Mystery indeed, that former servants of sin can become the spiritual dwelling place of the holy God. However, we did not become God when we trusted the Lord Jesus. We are not the God who became man, and the man who remains God, as is our wondrous Savior. Thus, He remains the mystery and miracle of the ages and of eternity, the Bush that once burned upon earth without being consumed, and the Bush that now forever burns in the Heavenlies as the God who is man, and the man who is God. Great indeed is the mystery, and greater yet, the Miracle of all miracles...
"The Word was made flesh."
(John 1:14)
Weekly Memory Verse
"And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh."
(I Timothy 3:16)
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