The Burning Bush (3rd Sunday of Lent)The Burning Bush (3rd Sunday of Lent)

Click here for this Sunday’s Readings

This week’s Old Testament reading continues the series of Lenten readings which go through key episodes in Israel’s salvation history. After going through the Abrahamic covenant, we now skip ahead to Moses, who is the main figure of the next covenant God will make with Israel. This reading details how he was first called to lead the people out of Egypt.

Two details are worth noting in this passage. First is how the Angel of the Lord is said to speak out of the burning bush. A short while later, it then shifts to saying how it is the Lord Himself who is speaking. This is one of several passages in the Old Testament where the Angel of the Lord seems to be identified with the Lord, making him a sort of Theophany, or divine appearance (see, e.g. Exodus 23:20-23), which many early Christians identified with the pre-incarnate Christ.

Next, we see how God, in response to Moses’ inquiry as to His identity, responds by saying “I am who I am.” This phrase in Hebrew is very similar to the divine name “Yahweh,” and is derived from the root form for “to be.” God is saying here, in effect, that the one rescuing Israel is not just any god, such as what the nations worship, but the self-existent source of all being Himself, and there is none that He can be compared to. He will go on to prove this when He performs mighty deeds in Egypt, showing that He is greater than all their gods.

God’s rescue of Israel out of slavery in Egypt is part of His greater plan to rescue the whole world from slavery to sin, since out of Israel comes the Saviour of the World. We reflect upon and give thanks how, thousands of years later, we receive the benefits of these divine acts.

J. Luis Dizon