Sabbath Sanctuary: The Burning Bush Finding the Holy Among The Common

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Messenger of Yahweh appeared to him there as flames of fire coming out of a bush. Moses looked, and although the bush was on fire, it was not burning up. So he thought, “Why isn’t this bush burning up? I must go over there and see this strange sight.” When Yahweh saw that Moses had come over to see it, Elohim called to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” {Ex. 3:2-4 Names of God Bible, God's Word Translation).

I love fall. Aesthetically, it is my favorite season. The red, yellow, and oranges consume the landscape; standing in oceans of red and orange of their own fallen leaves. This year, some trees are exhibiting a dark Merlot that is simply breathtaking. The glory of God displayed in awesome wonder through His creation. His paintbrush is evident everywhere. When I glimpse at these brilliant colors, they often evoke images of the burning bush, though I am sure not quite as magnificent, dramatic, marvelous or wonderful, for what can compare to the burning presence of Yahweh?

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth {John 1:14 NASB}.

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high {Heb. 1:3 NASB}. 

I am reading Exodus this morning, and I couldn’t help but notice, that when Moses reached Mount Horeb, the mountain of Elohim, he happened to see this bush that was burning—but not being consumed. The Word says, that Moses went over to see it, and because Yahweh saw that Moses came to see…then He spoke out of the bush. 

The bush was burning before Moses arrived, but because he turned aside to see this marvelous sight {Ex. 3:2-4} God spoke to Him.

The beauty and the glory of God are all around us, burning to spark our attention. God is not just babbling and hoping someone hears; He is patiently waiting for us to turn aside and see the marvelous sight, so that He may fellowship with us.

This Sabbath, look—seek the divine callings of God. So often the holy is hiding among the common. Don't miss burning bushes all around you; turn aside to His marvelous wonder, take off your shoes—for this is holy ground—and rest in His Presence.

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The Holy Place Part III: The Altar of Incense

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Psalms To See Me Through: Psalm 18—The Psalm Worth Repeating Part II

Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling

And were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it.  He bowed the heavens also, and came down with thick darkness under His feet (vv.7-9). 

When first reading this prose, it seems out of place from the first six verses. The poetic praise of David for God’s deliverance begins as a beautiful time of worship. David is thankful for all the deliverances he has experienced from the hand of God. The intro to this Psalm reads; A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul; David cultivated a grateful heart. He abruptly ends his time of worship with a discourse describing an angry God. However, upon deeper reflection, we have insight into who God is angry with—it is not David, but David’s enemies that incur God’s wrath.  

He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind (v. 10).

I searched extensively for an accurate portrait of the cherubim; I searched in vain. The most accurate is the description of them on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The glory of God rested between the cherubim when He spoke to Moses or when the high priest was ministering in the Holy of Holies. They are mostly portrayed as babies with wings, flying through the air with their bow and arrow, likened to cupid. They guarded the Garden of Eden with flaming swords. Cherubim are not baby angels, they are mighty warrior angels;

As is the case with many heavenly realities, their character and appearance is so far beyond human imagination and present comprehension that they must be described in earthly terms obviously designed to convey something surpassingly supernatural (Ezek. 1: 5, 14; 28: 12-14).[1]

It is no wonder then that I could not find an accurate picture (except the Mercy Seat). My imagination is awake with a vision of God riding on a cherub with the wings of the wind to rescue me. He is my Rescuer. My Defender. My Saviour. My Refuge. My Strong Tower.

Your locks will be iron and bronze, And according to your days, so will your leisurely walk be.  “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to your help, And through the skies in His majesty. “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy!’  “So Israel dwells in security (Deuteronomy 33:25-28a emphasis mine).

Just as the Lord heard the cries for help from Israel, and from David, He hears you and me. He rides the heavens in all His Majesty and Glory to rescue His people when they cry out to Him. He defeats our enemies and brings us to safety. Trials will still come; enemies will still attack, but God empowers and strengthens us with His grace to defeat them and to overcome.

How can we have confidence like David? David cultivated a grateful heart, and a worshipful spirit. The Psalms penned by David reflect his heart toward God. He worshiped God through every trial; He was the One David called upon at the first sign of trouble. Sometimes the prose of figurative language can cause us to read over David’s poetic praise, and not understand how it can apply to us. David’s description of God’s power and wrath is colorful indeed, but it is important to remember, that David’s words are figurative. He did not actually see God ride through the heavens on a cherub. He did not see the earth shake and the foundations of the mountains tremble. He did not see smoke out of His nostrils, and fire from His mouth. He did not see God come down from heaven with thick darkness under His feet. He did not see these events literally, but through God’s wondrous and majestic creation, and through metaphoric language, as well as through the eyes of the Spirit, he describes God’s character and His deliverance from how well He knows God, to describe for us what God is doing behind the scenes that we cannot see. Moses and David both saw God riding through the heavens through spiritual eyes.

Let’s travel to 2 Kings: 6 and meet up with Elisha and his servant. They are taking shelter in a house in a stand-off with the Arameans who aim to capture Elisha. The man of God and his servant are completely surrounded. Elisha is completely confident in God; the servant is petrified. Elisha attempts to comfort his servant with his trust in the Lord to deliver them from this situation, but the servant believes it to be impossible. Elisha prays to God for the eyes of his servant to be opened so that he can see that the army of God’s angels actually have the enemy surrounded; Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them (v.6).

The Lord will do the same and more for us. We may not see mountains tremble, but Christ declared that we can cast mountains into the sea (Mark 11:23). He has given us power to trample on serpents and scorpions (Luke 10:19). He has empowered us to have power over the enemy; He said we will have trials, but that He has overcome them all (John 16: 33).

He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them (vv. 11-14).

Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare

At Your rebuke, O Lord, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me(vv.15-19).

The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.  For all His ordinances were before me,  And I did not put away His statutes from me.  I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes. With the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute (vv.20-26).

David finishes his Psalm of worship painting a majestic picture of God’s deliverance. Though David’s enemy was strong, and could overpower him, he continued to trust in God’s deliverance. He saw in the natural when he was finally free from Saul.  He saw it spiritually because of His trust in God’s faithfulness, His deliverance, and His nature and character. He Knew God. He knew God intimately because he nurtured his relationship with God in thanksgiving and worship. That is how we can know God intimately too, through His Holy Writ, and by nurturing a thankful heart, and a worshipful spirit.

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[1]Terry Law, The Truth About Angels (Lake Mary: Charisma House, 1994), 115.

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Psalms to See Me Through: Psalm 11—The Lord Is A Refuge

In the Lord I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain;  For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart {vv. 1-2}.

It is no surprise that the devil seeks to harm those that love the Lord. Jesus warns us that we will have trouble in this world; not to frighten us or cause us to flee in fear, but so that we have peace knowing He is always with us.

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world  {Jn. 16:33 NASB}.

So that you may have peace…

The Lord is a refuge and a defense against the enemy’s attack. He is our protection—He is Jehovah Nissi our banner.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites are fighting the Amalekites and struggling in the battle. Moses however, set himself on a high place, and when he raised his hands the Israelites prevailed in battle, when he rested his arm, they faltered. Aaron and Hur set Moses on a rock and held up his arms until the the Israelites won the victory. After the victory, Moses built and altar and called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi, or Jehovah My Banner. Moses explains why Jehovah is their banner; because the Lord hath sworn he will war with the Amalekites from generation to generation. For the New Testament Church, this promise holds true still today. He will fight for us on our behalf against the devil and his minions. Jesus’ death and resurrection sealed our victory forever. He is our Banner; He is our refuge. 

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (v.3)Jesus is our foundation; the devil cannot take this away. Don’t forget. Don’t bow to the devil’s schemes. Don’t panic. Rest. He cannot destroy the foundation. Build your foundation on the Lord, and when the wind and storms blow, you will not fall.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it {Matt. 7:24-27}.

 The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.  Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face. {Ps. 11: 4-7}.

Do you know that the righteousness of God is not only a gift He bestows on believers that have faith in Jesus, but it is a divine attribute? In the study of Systematic Theology, the righteousness of God is an attribute of God, “God’s moral purity is [H]is righteousness. This is as it were, God’s holiness applied to his relationship with other beings.”[1]“God is morally spotless in character and action, upright, pure, and untainted.”[2]

What does this mean for us? It means that “God would have remained perfectly righteous had he simply condemned everyone... at great cost to [H]imself, however, God offered salvation to these wicked human beings and did this in such a way that [H]e remained righteous. The death of Christ allowed [H]im to remain just at the same time that [H]e became the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26).”[3] 

Verse seven then is a beautiful promise. God is righteous, pure and untainted, and we the righteous, will see His face…close your eyes for a moment and imagine the beauty of His face.

Life is hard. Dreams seem fleeting. Trouble seems to be all around. Many times it even seems the devil is gaining ground through those that hate what is right. The Lord is righteous in punishing the wicked; He is also just and righteous in welcoming us into His presence to behold His precious face. Do not fret or worry. God has you in His hand. The Lord hath sworn he will war with your enemies from generation to generation.

[1] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed., (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 258. 

[2] Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 496.[3]Ibid., 45.

To read all the Psalms in this series click here: Psalms To See Me Through

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Encounter With The Spectacular

Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.  He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side.  When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins {Ezekiel 47:1-4 NASB}.

This was an incredible vision and encounter for Ezekiel; God touched him in a spectacular way; He pierced the veil and saw God's glory revealed. Ezekiel had a vision of holy waters, their rise, depth, and the healing virtue they contained.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water {Jn. 7:38}.

This is a prophecy of Living Waters; John the Revelator saw the same Living Waters in a vision in Revelation 22. I long for God to touch me in a spectacular way. I know, I am supposed to be deep and humble and tell you how thankful I am to see God in the mundane; that I don’t need a spectacular experience to believe in God or trust His faithfulness. I don’t need one to believe in Him, I do desire to know Him more. I am grateful for the mundane, while anticipating the spectacular. If I don’t encounter Him in this way, I still believe in Him and know Him to be faithful and trustworthy. Forever.

The spectacular does not mean that I will necessarily experience God’s power like Ezekiel, and I don’t just desire to witness a display of His power for a sign or for the sake of having an experience. I want to know Him deeper and more intimately than I ever have. I follow in the footprints of women and men of God who sought the same; Moses witnessed God’s power, provision, and miracles in the wilderness, yet, He still prayed for God to show him His glory. He wanted to know God on a deeper level; not only the provision of His hand, but in the intimacy of His face. He was called a friend of God.

You are my friends if you do what I command you {Jn. 15:14}.

Elijah, while hiding in a cave in fear of his life, had just witnessed God’s power on Mt. Carmel, but he came to know God in a deeper way in the cave. He saw the earthquake, fire, whirlwind, yet heard God in the still small voice. In studying the original Hebrew in 1 Kings 19:11-14, some scholars suggest that Elijah did not only hear God’s voice, but actually heard God’s thoughts. A spectacular experience indeed. In case you don’t believe that is possible let’s read:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.  For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ {1 Cor. 2:14-16 NASB emphasis mine}.

God continues to reveal Himself to those who seek Him. We can know the thoughts of Christ through His Holy Spirit and the Word. The Word is a record of His thoughts. A word of caution—if your experience or encounter with God does not line up with His Word, you did not have an encounter with the Creator of the universe; lean into Him like you never have before. His Word trumps any experience or encounter we may have.

 Not all of us will encounter God in the spectacular way that Ezekiel did, however, He does want to reveal Himself to us deeper as we grow in Him. He revealed Himself to Moses at different times in deeper ways during each step of his journey to the promise land. 

We need to discipline ourselves to recognize God in the mundane, but He does not expect us to stay in the mundane, mediocrity of life. If He did, He would not have established the Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle; He would have built the outer and inner courts only. The deeper you journey into the Tabernacle, the deeper you experience the life, work, and ministry of Jesus and there you commune with Him (read about the Tabernacle here). If God did not want us to experience the spectacular, Peter and John would not have witnessed Christ’s transfiguration. He desires for us to see His glory.

He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power {Heb. 1:3 NASB}.

God brought Ezekiel through the waters at different levels; first his ankles, then the knees, and then up to his loins. Continue into the next verses and the water exceeds his head. God wants to take us deeper and deeper in Him; not so that we can have just some mystical experience, but that we can experience Him. He wants to know us face to face just as He did Moses.  These men that experienced God in the spectacular, did not merely have an experience, they had an encounter. My spirit cries out for an encounter.