We thank God for giving us such a chance that we can come before Him.
Some brothers asked me to attend this meeting. As I waited before the Lord, I did not know what the Lord wanted me to share with the brothers and sisters.
I thank the Lord that He gave Brother Sun a burden concerning Elijah. Because of this, I remembered that Elijah and Moses are connected together. The entire Old Testament is typified by these two people: Moses represents the Law, and Elijah represents the prophets. Moses and the books of the prophets testify of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We hope that during this time we can share together concerning Moses. There are too many things concerning Moses, so we are willing to focus on one matter: the visions Moses saw.
Whatever is recorded in the Bible is for our encouragement in these latter times. Especially when it comes to Moses, there are many lessons that we can learn.
Moses is called the man of God. He is also the servant of God, and he is the friend of God. He is a man of God because he knew God. He is the servant of God because he was faithful in God’s house. God spoke with him face to face.
The whole life of Moses was approximately one hundred and twenty years. He lived longer than any of us sitting here. These one hundred and twenty years are separated into three periods.
From his birth until the age of forty was the first period. At that time, he was in the palace of Egypt. He learned all the knowledge of Egypt, was full of power, and was full of eloquence.
Then, from age forty to age eighty, he was shepherding sheep in the wilderness of Midian. There he unlearned all the things he had learned in Egypt. He had new learning before the Lord; he was learning to know God.
During the last forty years, God used him to lead the Israelites, God’s people, out of Egypt. He led them through the great and terrible wilderness, all the way to the boundary of Canaan.
The life of Moses contains many, many lessons that God wants us to learn. God put these works in the Bible not merely so that we might learn stories about Moses. We are not reviewing the history of Moses; we are learning what God wants us to learn today.
When we fellowship concerning the visions of Moses, do not think this is merely something from thousands of years ago for us to listen to. We should know that God wants to speak to us through His Word. We hope that there will be revelation in our hearts, so that God can truly speak to the innermost part of our hearts.
Why are we sharing on the vision of Moses? First, we must learn what vision means in the Bible.
In the Bible, vision is not merely what people call a dream or a vision. It has a special meaning. This is very important for all Christians today.
You remember that Proverbs 29:18 says:
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
If there is no vision, people indulge themselves. There is no constraint; they will do whatever they please. There is no constraining power in that person.
Another interpretation says that if a person does not have vision, the people perish. If you do not have vision, you will be destroyed because you have no goal and no direction. You do not have the power to carry you forward, nor the endurance to withstand tribulation.
Another interpretation is that if there is no vision, people are scattered. What can cause us all to come together as one? We must have a common vision. Without such a vision, you do what you please and I do what I please; then we each go our own separate way. It is impossible for us to come together as one.
Vision gives us a goal and direction. Vision gives us constraint, power, and endurance. Therefore, vision is very precious.
The vision in the Bible is not simply what people mean when they say that they had a dream or saw a vision. Biblical vision is intricately connected to God’s eternal plan. Through vision, or revelation, God reveals what He desires in His heart. We can see what He sees, know what He wants, and connect our whole life to His will.
If we do not have vision, we do not know the mind and heart of the Lord. We merely guess foolishly at what God wants, and many times our service may not be according to His will.
However, if we have vision, then throughout our whole life we can be connected to God’s will. In this way, we will not be in vain, and our whole life will have value before the Lord.
Vision is not simply what you see with your fleshly eyes. Vision in the Bible enables you to see more deeply, beyond the fleshly eyes. What you truly see is in the deepest part of your spirit and heart, because the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. Such revelation brings a great transformation to our whole life.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be people of vision before God. Otherwise, we will live foolishly in this world, touching things in darkness. Many things we do without knowing why we are doing them. We must have vision.
Thank God, He gave Moses many visions. Although there were multiple visions, in actuality there was one vision. God gave Moses his vision, Elijah his vision, Daniel his vision, Peter his vision, and John his vision. Though there are many different aspects, in principle there is only one vision.
God’s vision is so great; it contains everything. No one person can see the entire vision. We can only say that we have seen little bits and pieces, yet those bits and pieces contain the great vision because they are connected to God’s eternal will. Anything not connected to God cannot be called God’s vision in the Bible.
With this foundation, let us look together at the matters of Moses. When Moses was born, he was born in very extraordinary circumstances.
The Israelites had come down into Egypt through Joseph. At first they were honored there. But when Joseph passed away, one generation passed and one dynasty passed; another dynasty came forth. The king of that dynasty did not know Joseph or how God had used Joseph to rescue Egypt.
When Pharaoh saw the Israelites in Egypt, he saw that they were numerous and strong. He became afraid, so he sought to suppress them. The Israelites became slaves and labored harshly.
Even under suffering, Israel continued to increase in number. Pharaoh gave a command that every male child born should be thrown into the River Nile. He wanted to destroy the entire people of Israel.
Moses was born during that time. You can see the marvelous nature of God’s will. Humanly speaking, it was impossible, but Moses was born at that time because God had a special purpose for him. God is the One who is in control.
When Moses was born, his parents saw that he was a beautiful child. The Bible especially mentions this. They hid him for three months. Perhaps they sensed in their hearts that God had a special purpose for this child.
After three months, they could no longer hide him. But God gave his parents wisdom. They made an ark of bulrushes, covered it with pitch, put the child in it, and placed it among the reeds by the River Nile. In the original language, the basket means an ark.
His sister watched over him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe in the river and saw the basket. She told her servant girls to open it, and the child was crying.
When a child cries, it touches a woman’s heart. Pharaoh’s daughter recognized that he was a Hebrew child, one who had been cast into the Nile. Yet she loved the child and adopted him as her own son. She called him Moses, meaning one drawn out of the water.
Moses was born with a sentence of death over him, but God used an amazing way to save him. His sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter whether she needed a nurse for the child, and of course she called Moses’ own mother. Thus Moses’ mother raised him, while Pharaoh’s daughter supplied all that was needed.
After Moses was weaned, he was sent to Pharaoh’s palace. Moses grew up in the palace of Egypt. Egypt was one of the greatest nations in the world at that time, and Moses had the opportunity to learn all the knowledge of Egypt.
Egypt’s knowledge was famous. Even today, its architecture is amazing. Its army was among the strongest of that time. Moses learned all the knowledge of Egypt and was mighty in words and deeds.
According to the history of that time, Moses was very likely to become the future Pharaoh. But thank God, while his mother was nursing him, she did more than feed him. She gave him the heart of God.
From a young age, Moses was influenced by God. He knew that he was a Hebrew. God had planted this thought in his heart.
This is very important for parents. Do not say that your children are too small to understand. I know some sisters who began praying for their children while the children were still in the womb. After the child is born, they hold the child and pray. As the child grows, they plant God’s Word in that child.
Perhaps the child does not understand completely, but that seed has already been planted. It will not be forgotten throughout the child’s life. We hope that all parents here will remember this.
All the glory and honor in Egypt, all the sin and all the things in Egypt, could not cause Moses to forget what his mother had planted in him.
When Moses was forty years old, the Bible tells us that his heart turned toward his own brothers. He went out and saw an Egyptian striking an Israelite. Looking around and seeing no one, Moses, full of power and strength, struck down the Egyptian.
He thought that his brothers would understand that God was using him to save them. The next day, he went out again and saw two Hebrews fighting. He tried to separate them and said, “You are brothers. Why are you fighting one another?”
But the man who was wronging his neighbor said, “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Art thou minded to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?” The news spread, and Moses fled.
Thank God, Moses’ heart was good. His heart was to save his people, and God’s will was also to use him. But Moses could not wait for God’s time, nor could he use God’s method. He wanted to depend on his own strength and power.
Therefore, God allowed him to be completely defeated. Moses fled to the wilderness of Midian, where he lived another forty years. What was he doing? He was shepherding sheep.
After forty years of tending sheep, Moses no longer had the eloquence he had possessed. After forty years, he had forgotten the politics, military training, and learning of Egypt. All the things he learned in the first forty years, he spent another forty years unlearning.
But thank God, during these forty years he had new learning. During the first forty years, he learned the things of earth. During the latter forty years, he learned heavenly things. He gained a new knowledge of the God who created all things.
When God called him, he knew God. Now he was eighty years old. Moses wrote in Psalm 90 that man’s life is seventy years, and if by reason of strength, eighty years.
At eighty, Moses thought his whole life was over. All his ambition and all his goals were finished. He looked at himself and considered himself dead.
But thank God: at the end of man is the beginning of God. Many times God cannot begin in our lives because we have not come to the end of ourselves. When you come to the end of your life, then God will begin.
One day, when Moses was in the wilderness of Sinai, he saw a thorn bush burning. In the wilderness there is little besides thorn bushes. Because it is dry and the sun is powerful, burning thorn bushes are common.
But this was Moses’ vision. The bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. A thorn bush ordinarily burns up, but this bush remained.
Moses paid attention. Things we see many times may no longer draw our attention, but Moses saw that though the thorn bush was burning, it was not consumed. So he went over to see this great sight.
As he drew near, the angel of the Lord spoke to him from the midst of the thorn bush:
Moses, Moses.
God knows every one of us. We may not know Him, but He knows us. He said, “Moses, Moses.” Then He said:
Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moses was full of fear. God said to him that He had seen the suffering of His people and would send Moses to save them.
This is the vision of the burning bush. Tonight, we want to share what the will of God is in this vision and what He wants us to learn concerning Him.
Where did thorns come from? You may have heard this story in Sunday school. If you read Genesis 1, there were no thorns. God called the earth to bring forth vegetation and the trees to bear fruit.
Thorns came in Genesis 3 because man sinned. Because of the sin of man, the earth that God gave man to cultivate was also cursed. The earth brought forth thorns and thistles.
The thorn represents aborted fruit. It should bear fruit, but because it is under the curse, it can no longer bear fruit. God’s will is that there should be fruit. Because of sin, man can no longer bear fruit, and he becomes like a thorn.
A thorn is useless. It does not help; it only harms. It can prick and wound people. I remember once when I went to Israel, I took part of a thorn bush as a gift. I did not know that it would prick me, but it was very painful.
Man before God is like a thorn bush. All people on earth have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is nothing good in us. We can harm people, but we cannot help them. We are truly under the curse.
In the wilderness, thorn bushes undergo combustion. In reality, this also speaks of God’s judgment, because the wages of sin is death. If we sin, we are under judgment. All people on earth are under God’s judgment.
The fire burning the bush should consume it, because this is the fire of judgment. Our God is a righteous God. We are full of sin; how can we stand before God? The Bible says that all people die, and after death comes judgment. This is the fate of man.
But what is marvelous is that the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. How can this be?
The angel of the Lord was in the midst of the flame of fire. In the Old Testament, when we see the angel of the Lord, we see the revelation of the second Person of the Godhead before His incarnation.
The One who spoke was the Lord Himself. God revealed His name to Moses as “I AM.”
The name “I AM” is the connection point between God and man. He is always there. His name has no object because He is everything.
If you need grace, He is your grace. If you need justification, He is your justification. If you need holiness, He is your holiness. He is your everything. Our God is so abundant and so complete, and He desires to connect Himself with us.
How can such a great, awesome, glorious God live in the midst of a thorn bush? A thorn bush is ignoble, cursed, rejected, and worthless. God is glorious, honorable, holy, and abundant. These two things cannot be connected naturally.
God is a consuming fire. He should burn up the thorn bush. But because He lives in the midst of the thorn bush, the fire does not consume it. Rather, the bush is sanctified. This is a marvelous thing.
Our God is holy and glorious, yet He is willing to live in the midst of those who are under the curse and judgment. We should be dead, but God provided salvation and is willing to live in the midst of us.
When the fullness of time came, God’s Son was born under the Law. He willingly received judgment so that we might receive adoption as sons.
John 1:14 tells us:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
In the vision of the burning bush, we see God Himself. Though He is holy and righteous, He is full of compassion and grace. He was willing to humble Himself, take human form, and live among a people under the curse so that He could bear our sin.
He was made a curse for us:
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
In the vision of the flame of fire, the first thing we see is God’s glory. We see the salvation of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. The angel of the Lord dwelling in the midst of the burning bush is a picture of our salvation in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is God living among people for the purpose of saving all those who are lost in this world. For this, He had to pay a great price.
The vision of the burning bush contains a second lesson. The thorn bush represents Moses.
Before Moses was forty years old, what did he think he was? He thought he was a cedar of Lebanon. If you have seen the cedars of Lebanon, you know how great they are.
In the first forty years, Moses thought he was like a cedar of Lebanon. He was eloquent, full of knowledge, a mighty soldier, a politician, and perhaps a future Pharaoh. He thought he could do anything. He thought he could save his people.
But though he thought he was a cedar of Lebanon, he really was not. We may think the same way about ourselves.
After forty years in the wilderness, Moses knew that he had nothing. His whole life had ended, and all his selfish ambition was finished. When God wanted to use him, he said that he was slow of speech.
Now Moses saw himself only as a thorn bush—useless and simply waiting to be burned up. But thank God, God uses people differently from the world.
When the world wants to use someone, it seeks a person who appears capable, confident, and useful. Even when you do not know something, the world tells you to say that you know it, so that you can find a job. This is the world.
God uses people differently. Here we see a spiritual principle: what kind of people can God use? What kind of servant does God use?
If you think you are a cedar of Lebanon, then when God uses you, you may say, “I did it all,” and take all the glory to yourself. But only God can do God’s work. Do not think that when God uses you, you are doing the work. It is all God’s work.
A person must decrease to the point that he sees himself only as a burning thorn bush. Thank God, because God is with him.
At forty Moses said, “I can.” At eighty he said, “I cannot.” Even when God wanted to use him, Moses said, “I cannot.” But God said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” That is enough.
The angel of the Lord was in the midst of the burning bush. Because the Lord was in the midst of it, the burning bush could glorify God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, all who have a heart to serve the Lord must learn this lesson. We must be brought to the place where God’s power is revealed in the weakness of man, so that all glory may be given to God.
There is one more lesson we must learn. The thorn bush being burned represents the Israelites.
The Israelites were like a thorn bush because they were slaves in Egypt. Egypt was like a fiery furnace. In such an environment, they should have been consumed.
How could a nation under the condition of curse and fire not be consumed? The reason is that God was in the midst of them. God is a faithful God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God had made an oath with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would never fail to fulfill His oath. Even though the Israelites were in the midst of fire, they were not burned up because God’s presence was with them.
The Israelites may not have understood this. They cried out, and perhaps they felt forgotten. But God’s presence was with them. Because of this, they were not consumed.
God’s salvation would come upon them and save them from Egypt. But God did not merely intend to save them out of Egypt.
Suppose the Israelites one day fled from Egypt. Would they say, “It is enough. We are no longer slaves. We are no longer doing hard labor. We are free. Even if we have to live in the wilderness, it is all right”? No.
God’s will for His people was not merely to save them out of the land of slavery in Egypt. He would save them all the way to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.
This is the work God set before His people. He would continue working until this work was complete. People can hinder God’s work and delay its timing, but they cannot change God’s work.
Because of unbelief, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years. In fact, they could have entered much sooner. Yet after forty years, God’s work had to be completed and fulfilled.
In the midst of the burning bush, we not only know God Himself in Christ; we also see how God changes and works upon His servant. We also see the kind of work God is doing.
What is God’s work? The Lord Jesus said:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
The Father is working, the Lord Jesus is working, and the Holy Spirit is working. What kind of work is God doing? He is bringing all those whom He has saved into glory.
God is not merely pulling us out of hell and then finishing His work. God is not merely putting us in heaven and saying that it is over. He is bringing us to the point that we are conformed to the image of His Son.
Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He predestined, He also called; those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
This is God’s work. You can hinder this work through unbelief and disobedience, but you cannot destroy it. God will surely conform you to the image of His Son, so that His Son may be the Firstborn among many brothers.
Brothers and sisters, what a glorious matter! This is God’s work. Those of us who are doing God’s work must remember this.
If today you are doing a so-called work for God, but it is not connected in oneness with the nature of God’s work, then you fall short of God’s glory in that work.
If you look at the work of the Apostle Paul, it was directed toward one goal: that Christ Jesus would be formed in people, and that all people would be brought completely into Christ. This is God’s work.
When you see the vision of the burning bush, what response should you have? We can only fall prostrate and worship, saying, “God, You are truly God. Your will is above all man’s will. Your ways are above all man’s ways. You are so glorious, and Your salvation is so abundant.”
We can only fall prostrate and worship. That is praise.
Glorious Lord, we fall prostrate before You. It is amazing to see Your marvelous salvation. We thank and praise You.
Just as You allowed Moses to see this vision, today through Your Holy Spirit You want us also to see. Though we are like a thorn bush under judgment, You have provided for us. Your presence is with us.
You sanctify us. You transform us. You bring us to glory. We worship You. In Your name we pray. Amen.