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The Burning Bush Theophany

Illustration of The Burning Bush Theophany

The Burning Bush Theophany is God's visible appearance to Moses in Midian's wilderness - fire that burns without consuming, from which the divine voice commissions a reluctant shepherd to confront the mightiest empire on earth. Jasher 79 describes the encounter after years of tending Reuel's flocks. The bush burns with supernatural fire yet remains intact, demonstrating that divine presence can inhabit creation without destroying it. Moses receives his mission, his staff becomes a sign, and Aaron is appointed as his spokesman. This theophany transforms a fugitive shepherd into the deliverer of a nation. Supernatural revelation in these texts operates as the primary mechanism by which hidden truths cross the boundary between celestial and earthly realms. This vision participates in a tradition of divine disclosure that runs from Enoch's heavenly journeys through the patriarchal dreams to the Mosaic theophany at Sinai. Each revelation builds upon previous ones, creating a cumulative body of disclosed knowledge that the faithful community preserves and transmits across generations. The visual and auditory elements of the experience are recorded with precision because they constitute authoritative communication from the divine realm to human understanding.

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Category
Theophany
Prayed by
Moses

Key Chapters

The Book of Jasher 79 The Lord appears to Moses and commands him to go down to Egypt to Deliver Israel. Aaron meets him. Israel on hearing of his Mission greatly rejoices. ... 11 min read

Key Passages

God appears to Moses

The Book of Jasher 79:1-15

And in those days Moses was feeding the flock of Reuel the Midianite his father-in-law, beyond the wilderness of Sin, an...

A1nd in those days Moses was feeding the flock of Reuel the Midianite his father-in-law, beyond the wilderness of Sin, and the stick which he took from his father-in-law was in his hand.

2 And it came to pass one day that a kid of goats strayed from the flock, and Moses pursued it and it came to the mountain of God to Horeb. 3 And when he came to Horeb, the Lord appeared there unto him in the bush, and he found the bush burning with fire, but the fire had no power over the bush to consume it. 4 And Moses was greatly astonished at this sight, wherefore the bush was not consumed, and he approached to see this mighty thing, and the Lord called unto Moses out of the fire and commanded him to go down to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to send the children of Israel from his service. 5 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, return to Egypt, for all those men who sought thy life are dead, and thou shalt speak unto Pharaoh to send forth the children of Israel from his land. 6 And the Lord showed him to do signs and wonders in Egypt before the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his subjects, in order that they might believe that the Lord had sent him. 7 And Moses hearkened to all that the Lord had commanded him, and he returned to his father-in-law and told him the thing, and Reuel said to him, Go in peace. 8 And Moses rose up to go to Egypt, and he took his wife and sons with him, and he was at an inn in the road, and an angel of God came down, and sought an occasion against him. 9 And he wished to kill him on account of his first born son, because he had not circumcised him, and had transgressed the covenant which the Lord had made with Abraham. 10 For Moses had hearkened to the words of his father-in-law which he had spoken to him, not to circumcise his first born son, therefore he circumcised him not. 11 And Zipporah saw the angel of the Lord seeking an occasion against Moses, and she knew that this thing was owing to his not having circumcised her son Gershom. 12 And Zipporah hastened and took of the sharp rock stones that were there, and she circumcised her son, and delivered her husband and her son from the hand of the angel of the Lord. 13 And Aaron the son of Amram, the brother of Moses, was in Egypt walking at the river side on that day. 14 And the Lord appeared to him in that place, and he said to him, Go now toward Moses in the wilderness, and he went and met him in the mountain of God, and he kissed him. 15 And Aaron lifted up his eyes, and saw Zipporah the wife of Moses and her children, and he said unto Moses, Who are these unto thee?

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Did You Know?

1

The fire burns without consuming the bush - divine presence inhabits without destroying.

2

Moses must remove his sandals because the ground itself has become holy.

3

His staff becomes the instrument of every subsequent miracle in the Exodus.

4

Moses resists the commission repeatedly, unlike Abraham who obeyed immediately.

5

God reveals the divine name here - identity disclosed at the moment of commissioning.