THIRD QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #2
JULY 12, 2025
"THE BURNING BUSH."

 

Texts in this article are drawn from the New King James Version.

Our lesson this week covers the time in which the second time prophecy recorded in Bible history was about to be fulfilled.

The first time prophecy, of course, had been communicated by God to Noah: “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh: yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3). Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5); by faith he believed in “things not yet seen, moved with godly fear,” and “prepared an ark for the saving of his household” (Hebrews 11:7). By faith he entered the ark with his family when there was no sign of cloud or rain.

After the flood the earth was greatly changed, but soon the sins of the antediluvian world reappeared in that still long-lived, post-flood race. In unbelief they built a tower to save themselves from any future calamity. And in the land where this tower once stood, the family of Shem had apparently remained, because the Bible indicates that Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees, ancient Babylon.

And it was to Abraham that the first call to come out of Babylon was given. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance” (Hebrews 11:8).

Abraham’s journey of faith had its ups and downs. Finally, after giving up hope that God would fulfill His covenant promise, Abraham consented to Sarah’s plan to generate the promised seed via a surrogate. A child was born, but not to Abraham’s lawful wife. “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram” (Genesis 16:16). When Abram was ninety-nine years old God renewed His covenant promise to Abram and changed his name to Abraham (Genesis 17:1-8). 

So that Abraham and after generations would never forget that “he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the forewoman through promise” (Galatians 4:23), God introduced the rite of circumcision.

“Every male child among you shall be circumcised . . . and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Genesis 17:10, 11). This “everlasting covenant” was to be practiced throughout their generations as a reminder that only by faith in the promise of God could His word be fulfilled. An uncircumcised male child would be “cut off from his people” (Genesis 17:14), as a reminder that salvation is only by faith in the promised Seed.

Forever it would be true that “not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5).

God revealed to Abram that his descendants would be “strangers in a land that [was] not theirs, and they [would  be afflicted] four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13). 

Foretelling the time of the Egyptian servitude, the Lord continued, “Also, the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. . . . But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:14, 16).

Eighty years before this time was fulfilled, Moses was born to a woman of faith:

“God had heard the mother's prayers; her faith had been rewarded. It was with deep gratitude that she entered upon her now safe and happy task. She faithfully improved her opportunity to educate her child for God. She felt confident that he had been preserved for some great work, and she knew that he must soon be given up to his royal mother, to be surrounded with influences that would tend to lead him away from God. All this rendered her more diligent and careful in his instruction than in that of her other children. She endeavored to imbue his mind with the fear of God and the love of truth and justice, and earnestly prayed that he might be preserved from every corrupting influence. She showed him the folly and sin of idolatry, and early taught him to bow down and pray to the living God, who alone could hear him and help him in every emergency. 

“She kept the boy as long as she could, but was obliged to give him up when he was about twelve years old. From his humble cabin home he was taken to the royal palace, to the daughter of Pharaoh, ‘and he became her son.’ Yet even here he did not lose the impressions received in childhood. The lessons learned at his mother's side could not be forgotten. They were a shield from the pride, the infidelity, and the vice that flourished amid the splendor of the court”—Ellen G. White—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 243, 244.

In Pharaoh’s palace Moses never forgot God’s call on his life. 

“The elders of Israel were taught by angels that the time for their deliverance was near, and that Moses was the man whom God would employ to accomplish this work. Angels instructed Moses also that Jehovah had chosen him to break the bondage of His people. He, supposing that they were to obtain their freedom by force of arms, expected to lead the Hebrew host against the armies of Egypt, and having this in view, he guarded his affections, lest in his attachment to his foster mother or to Pharaoh he would not be free to do the will of God” (ibid., p. 245).

The time hereof spoken was the promise that had been given to Abraham 400 years before (see Acts 7:16)—or 430 years counting from when the promise was first given (see Galatians 3:17). 

Yet much time would pass before this promise would be realized. Moses would spend four decades learning lessons on faith while tending sheep. 

He was now ready to "count all things”—including his royal upbringing, military prowess, and popularity with the people—“loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” so much as to “count them as rubbish” (Philippians 3:8).

And it was in this state the God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush, which was somewhat of an oxymoron since the bush that was burning was not actually burning! 

Moses, now humble and teachable and feeling unready for the task before him, was in a position to learn that “faith is the expecting of the word of God to do what it says”—A.T. Jones, Lessons on Faith, p. 3. 

After negotiating with God at length about his inability to carry out what God asked him to do, Moses at last relented. He sought his father-in-law’s blessing before departing on his errand to Egypt, but along the way “the Lord sought to kill him” (Exodus 4:24).

Zipporah apparently understood the issue because she quickly circumcised her son. 

The act of faith as commanded by God to Abraham was necessary. The deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage must not on any account be credited to the prowess of man.

The glory of Moses must be laid in the dust. Israel would be delivered from Egypt “not by might, nor by power” but by the power and Spirit of God alone (Zechariah 4:6).

“What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ”—Ellen G. White, Special Testimonies, Series A, 9:62).

God’s intention in delivering Israel from bondage involved much more than freeing them from their hard task masters. The journey through the wilderness was an opportunity for this people to unlearn dependence on self and learn much more about depending on Christ.

So it is today. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The Seventh-day Adventist church was raised up by God to prepare a people for earth's final deliverance. Like Abraham, like Moses, like Israel of old, we too need to study and practice  living by faith for the journey ahead. Dependence upon self in earth’s final hours will prove fatal. “With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (2 Chronicles 32:8).

In His mercy the Lord sent us a most precious message to equip us for entrance to the promised land. Like ours, Israel’s journey to Canaan might have taken them but a few months at most. Instead, it took 40 years. Our journey has now lasted multiples of 40 and still counting. 

“We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.”—Ellen G. White,

Evangelism, p. 696.

Perhaps we have more to learn than they.

The message of Christ’s righteousness is not an optional tag-on to the 28 fundamental beliefs. It is the cornerstone, the heartbeat of Adventism. It is the message we were raised up to proclaim. We can’t cross the Jordan without it.

May God forgive us for our unbelief and prepare us for the work ahead.

"One interest will prevail, one subject will swallow up every other,—Christ our righteousness.”—Ellen G. White, Review and Herald Extra, December 23, 1890.

 

~Patti Guthrie

 

For further study:

Moses stayed in the court of Pharaoh until he was forty years old. He was a great man, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in word and deed." He might have sat upon the throne of Egypt, and ruled over that great kingdom. But he looked for a better country, the land that God had promised to his fathers, which we have learned is a beautiful New Earth for which we also look. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for season." 

Moses at first made the same mistake that Abraham and Jacob had made. He tried to get for himself what he knew God intended for him. He knew that God chosen him to deliver Israel; and so, when he saw an Egyptian task-master ill-treating a Hebrew slave, he killed the Egyptian. Then, thinking that his brethren understood that God had set him over them, he interfered when he heard two of them quarreling. But they were angry, and said, "Who made thee a prince over us?" just as Joseph's brethren said when he told them his dreams.—E. J. Waggoner, December 4, 1902, The Present Truth, pp. 778, 779.

Forty years passed by after that first ill-advised attempt, when the Egyptian was killed, before the Lord was ready to deliver His people by the hand of Moses. It took that length of time to fit Moses for the important work. We read of Moses, at a later period of his life, that he was meek above all other men; but that was not his natural disposition. An education at court is not calculated to develop the quality of meekness. From the way in which Moses at the first proceeded to settle the labour troubles of his people, we see that he was impulsive and arbitrary. The blow closely followed the word. But the man who should lead the children of Abraham into the promised inheritance must have very different characteristics. 

The inheritance promised to Abraham was the earth. It was to be gained through the righteousness of faith. But the righteousness of faith is inseparable from meekness of spirit. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." Hab. ii. 4. Therefore the Saviour said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Matt. v. 5. "Hearken my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" James ii. 5. The promised inheritance, to which the Israelites were to be led, could be possessed only by the meek, and therefore he who should conduct them on the way must necessarily possess that virtue. Forty years' retirement in the wilderness as a shepherd, wrought the desired change in Moses. 

"And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." Ex. ii. 23, 24. 

This covenant, as we have seen, was confirmed in Christ. It was the covenant which God made with the fathers, saying unto Abraham, "And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." Acts iii. 25. And this blessing consisted in turning them away from their iniquities.It was the covenant which God remembered in sending John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who should deliver His people from the hand of their enemies, so that they might "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him" all the days of their lives. It was the covenant which assured to Abraham and his seed the possession of land, through personal faith in Christ. 

But faith in Christ does not assure any man an earthly possession. Those who are heirs of God are the poor of this world, rich in faith. Christ Himself had not a place of His own on this earth, where he could lay His head; therefore, none need think that following Him in truth will assure them worldly possessions. It is more likely to be the contrary.

These points are necessary to be borne in mind as we consider the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and their journey to the land of Canaan. They should be borne in mind in the study of the entire history of Israel, or else we shall be continually making the same mistake that was made by His own who received Him not when He came, because He did not come to advance their worldly interests. 

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back side 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. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt." Ex. iii. 1-10. {

We do not need to go into the details of the refusal of Moses, and of his final acceptance of the Divine commission. Now that he was actually fitted for the task, he shrank from it. It is sufficient to note that in the commission the power by which the deliverance was to be effected was made very clear. It was such a deliverance as could be accomplished only by the power of the Lord. Moses was to be simply the agent in His hands.

Notice also the credentials which Moses carried. "Moses said unto God Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." Ex. iii. 13, 14. 

This is "the glorious and fearful name" of the Lord, which no man can ever comprehend, because it expresses His infinity and eternity. Look at the renderings that are given in the margin of the Revision: "I am because I am," or "I am who I am," or "I will be that I will be." No one of these renderings is complete in itself, but all of them together are necessary to give something of an idea of the title. Together they represent "The Lord which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Rev. i. 8. 

How fitting that when the Lord was about to deliver the people, not simply from temporal bondage, but from spiritual bondage as well, and give to them that inheritance which could be possessed only by the coming of the Lord and the resurrection, He should make Himself known not only as the self-existent Creator, but as The Coming One, the same title by which He reveals Himself in the last book of the Bible, which is wholly devoted to the coming of the Lord and the final deliverance of His people from their great enemy, death. 

"And God said, moreover, unto Moses. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." Ex. iii. 15. Continually are we reminded that all this deliverance is but the fulfillment of the promise made through Christ to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Notice also the significance of the fact that some of the most powerful Gospel sermons recorded in the New Testament, refer to God as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, an evidence that He is to be known to us by the same title, and that the promises made to the fathers hold good to us, if we will but receive them in the same faith. "This is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." 

With this name for his support, with the assurance that God would be with him and would teach him what to say, armed with the power to work miracles, and comforted with the assurance that Aaron his brother would join him in the work, Moses set out for Egypt.—E. J. Waggoner, August 27, 1896 EJW, Present Truth, pp. 549-550.