Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your 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 at God.
Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
I recently took a look at this passage as part of a Sunday morning series: Miracles in Exodus. We took a number of the miracles in the book of Exodus and really looked at them in-depth: how does science help us better understand this miracle, what it meant to Moses (or Israel), and what it means to us as present-day Christians. Our focus throughout this series was really on God's provision.
Well, my favorite miracle in Exodus is the burning bush, so I would like to take three blog posts and take a look at it. Today, we'll take a brief look at how science helps us better understand this miracle. Keep an eye out for the next two posts.
At this time, Moses is in Midian, taking care of his father-in-law's sheep. There are a couple of important facts about Midian that will help us better understand the burning bush. First, Midian had a history of volcanic activity; this was important for Moses because volcanic soil is very fertile (good for grazing) and helps explain why shepherd hung out in this area. Midian also contained (contains) many natural gas deposits.
With those two facts in mind, we can offer two highly-plausible explanations for the natural occurrences that God might have used to orchestrate the burning bush. Both explanations revolve around the fact that volcanic activity leads to deep cracks in the soil and both explanations are forms of what I call "The Cracker Barrel Effect". If you have never been to a Cracker Barrel, they always have a huge wood fire going in the fireplace, but when you look closely, you notice that the fire is assisted by a steady stream of natural gas. The same situation is likely for the burning bush: with known deposits of natural gas and volcanic gases and the presence of deep cracks in the soil (from volcanic activity), either flammable gas could easily escape and be ignited by intense heat or another ignition source.
Pretty interesting, right? I hope you'll check back for the next two posts where I'll really get into the spiritual implications of the burning bush.
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