The first time we meet Jesus in the Bible is not in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. We meet Him in the very first book of the Bibleāin Genesis. Genesis is full of Jesus. We see that through Jesus, God spoke creation into existence. We see hints of Him as the Seed of Promise.Ā Then we are givenĀ insightĀ into why He is called theĀ Last Adam.Ā Ā We see HimĀ in Adam and EveāsĀ First Sacrifice, NoahāsĀ Ark of Salvation,Ā Jacobās Ladder, and in the very obscure but relevant priestĀ Melchizedek.Ā Finally,Ā the lives ofĀ Isaac andĀ JosephĀ plainly pointĀ us directlyĀ toĀ Him.Ā
From Genesis, we move on to Exodus, which like the book before it, also provides glimpses of humanity’s savior. In the first chapters of Exodus, we see Jesus in a burning bush,Ā asĀ the Great I Am, andĀ as a personal God.Ā These images of Jesus help usĀ to understand His nature and character better.Ā Ā
Reading:Ā Exodus 2 and 3Ā
Jesus as the Burning Bush
Throughout the Bible, God often appears as fire. The book of Exodus is no exception. God shows himself to Moses and the Israelites in the form of fire several times: He guided the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years by appearing as a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). He displayed His powerful presence to them when He descended on Mount Sinai in fire (Exodus 19:18). But probably the most memorable occasion is His appearance to Moses in āflames of fire from within a bushā (Exodus 3:1-6). This story of the burning bush is rich in symbolism. Some believe that the burning bush is an acacia bush, the same type used in the construction of the Ark and the Tabernacle.Ā Ā
Thorns
The burning bush had thorns. Not part of Godās original creation, they only appeared after man sinned as a curse on the land. For this reason, thorns have come to represent sin.
Jesus wore a crown of thorns to the cross. Like the crown He was wearing, He took our sins with Him to the cross. On the cross, Jesus was stricken but not crushed, just as the burning bush was consumed by fire but not burned.Ā
Humaness and Divinity
The burning bush helps us understand Christās simultaneous humanness and divinity.Ā Ā The fire did not consume the bush, just as the divinity of Jesus did not consume His humanity. Humanity and divinity could coexist in the same body. The bush consumed by fire was not less of a bush because it was consumed by fire; it was both wood and fire. Just as Jesus, when taking the form of a man, is not less God, He is both fully man and fully God.Ā Ā Ā
Jesus as the “I Am”
During the burning bushĀ saga,Ā God appeared to Moses and identified himself as the āGod ofĀ yourĀ father, the God ofĀ Abraham, the God ofĀ Isaac, and the God ofĀ Jacobā (Exodus 3:6, 3:15, 3:16, Exodus 4:5). āGodā is the Hebrew word Elohim, which means god or God. By referring to himself as āGod of your father,ā He distinguishes himself from the other gods of that time, the gods worshiped by surrounding cultures, and identifies himself as the same God who had made a covenant with the patriarchs, beginning with Abraham, 400 years earlier.
In this covenant, God had promised Abraham and his descendants land (Genesis 12:1), numerous descendants (Genesis 12:2), and blessing and redemption (Genesis 12:3). God also wanted to remind Moses that, just as He was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was also with Moses. He is the God who will fulfill His promises.Ā
Moses asked God, ‘What should I tell the Israelites? Your name is?’ (Exodus 3:13) God answered, āI AM WHO I AM.ā Here, God is telling us three things.
He is Eternal
No matter when or where Jesus is there. He is eternal. Moses, author of Psalm 90, beautifully writes of Godās eternal nature: āBefore the mountains were bornāÆor you brought forth the whole world,āÆ from everlasting to everlastingāÆyou are God” (Psalm 90:2).Ā
He is Self-Sufficient
Jesus doesnāt depend on anything or anyone else for His existence. He is self-sufficient. Again, we turn to a Psalm to majestically echo this truth: āForāÆevery beast of the forest is Mine,Ā the cattle on a thousand hills.Ā I know everyāÆbird of the mountains,Ā and everything that moves in the fieldĀ isĀ Mine.Ā If I were hungry I would not tell you,Ā for theāÆworld is Mine, andāÆallĀ itĀ containsāĀ (Psalm 50:10-12).
He is the Source of Everything
God is the source of all that we see and all that we donāt see. In God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). The Prophet Isaiah reminds us, āDo you not know?āÆāÆHave you not heard?Ā TheāÆLordāÆis the everlastingāÆGod,āÆthe CreatorāÆof the ends of the earth.Ā He will not grow tired or weary,āÆand his understanding no one can fathomāĀ (Isaiah 40:28).Ā
Jesus as a Personal God
After reminding Moses of who He was to Mosesā forefathers, He then gave Moses His personal name: YAHWEH (Exodus 3:15). YAHWEH is the ancient form of “He will be” or āI AM.ā YAHWEH appears over 6,500 times in the Old Testament. In our English Bible, Godās personal name YAHWEH is āLORDā in all caps.Ā Ā
God wanted to remind Moses that He is a personal GodāHe is about relationships and covenant. He demonstrates that He is personal when He heard the Israelites’ cries from their bondage in Egypt (Exodus 2:24), and He saw their misery (Exodus 3:7). But He didnāt just leave them crying out in misery, He rescued them! (Exodus 3:8).Ā Ā
Jesus Said He Was “I Am”
Jesus in John 8:58 said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was,Ā I am.” The Jews recognized this reference to God and were ready to stone Jesus to death for such blasphemy (John 8:59). By making this statement, Jesus is telling us the same three things that God told us when he said, āI AM.āĀ Ā
Jesus is saying that no matter when or where He is, He is there. He is eternal. In Revelation, He said, āI am the Alpha and the Omega,āāÆā¦.Ā āwho is, and who was, and who is to come,āÆthe Almightyā Revelation 1:8.Ā
Jesus is saying,Ā He doesnāt depend on anything or anyone for His existence. He isĀ self-sufficient.Ā āHe is before all things,āÆand in him all things hold togetherāĀ (Colossians 1:17).Ā Ā
Jesus is saying, He is theĀ source of everything.Ā āFor in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for himāĀ (Colossians 1:16).Ā
In the first three chapters of Exodus, through God’s interactions with Moses, we are given a clear picture of the very nature of Jesus. We learn that He is fully God and fully man without losing His divinity. We learn that He is eternal, self-sufficient, and the source of everything. But above all, we see that He is a God of relationship and covenant āa God who sees us, hears us, and will rescue us!
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Making Him Known August 13, 2025 4:20 pm