Moses and the Burning Bush

Introduction: After Joseph brought his father and brothers to Egypt to survive the famine, his descendants stayed in Egypt for 430 years. A new Pharaoh who did not know about Joseph came to power in Egypt and began to oppress the children of Israel. One of them was named Moses who fled from the Pharaoh of Egypt into the wilderness. Here is the story from God’s word.

Now Moses was taking care of a flock of sheep and he came to a mountain. The angel of God suddenly appeared to him from a burning bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." Then God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then God said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. I have seen the misery of my people and I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. " But Moses said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring my people out of Egypt?” Moses said, "Suppose the Israelites say, `What is this God’s name?' What shall I tell them?" And God said, I AM WHO I AM. Tell the people, I AM has sent me to you.”

So Moses returned to Egypt and took his brother Aaron and went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD

commanded. Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, "Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, "Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'" So Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called for the magicians of Egypt and they did the same with their secret magic. For each

one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of Pharaoh’s magicians. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to Moses and Aaron. Then Moses said to Pharaoh, `The LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. Then the

LORD said, "Tell Aaron, `Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt and they will turn to blood. So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. Then Aaron stretched out his staff over the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered the land. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my

people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD." After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go or this

time I will send the full force of my plagues against you. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But indeed I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”