The Burning Presence of God
One
The Burning Bush
What is God like? How can we try to imagine Him?
Well, when God first introduced Himself to Moses, the man who would be the great mediator for the entire chosen people, when God first introduced Himself to Moses, it was in the form of fire. More specifically, it was under the form of a burning bush, which burned and was not consumed.
That is God. Fire that is not consumed. Fire that does not burn out, Fire that burns and burns and burns forever.
What should we think about a God who is like fire? Is that a good thing for us, or a scary thing?
The answer is: both.
Two
The Energy Source of All Things
Fire is a natural source of energy that has so much power inside it that it affects everything else. Fire keeps things moving, keeps them alive, keeps things from freezing into a dead stillness. And that’s God. God is a God brimming with energy, with life, with the power that generates and sustains the universe.
It’s God’s life-force that keeps every blade of grass alive. It’s God’s fire that keeps the sun lit, and God’s energy that keeps the planets flying through space, orbiting and spinning on their axes.
When Moses encountered God in the burning bush, he asked for God’s name. And God told Him that His name was “I AM.” Everything else borrows its existence from God. Everything else can be or will be or might not have been. But God is pure existence. God IS.
The Fire that Burns and does not Burn Out. The Energy that Never Tires, and Never Can Tire. The Being that Can Never Not Be. This is God. And it is a great and terrible thing to stand before God. As all of us will do some day.
Three
Approaching the Burning Presence of God
When Moses first realized that God was present in the burning bush, he hid his face, “For he was afraid to look at God.” Moses spent forty years in the presence of God. He spent forty years speaking with that power and that energy that is like a boundless, unquenchable fire. And it affected Moses.
In fact, later on in the Book of Exodus, after Moses has been talking with God on the moutain, he comes down to the rest of the Israelites and they see that his face is shining, it’s beaming, beams of light are coming from his face. And the Israelites hide in fear from the burning face of Moses.
In other words, God’s burning had been transmitted to Moses, he began to burn with the fire of God. The same thing happened later with the Prophet Isaiah. He saw a vision of God and he was terrified. He said, “Woe is me, I am doomed… my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
And Isaiah saw the angels who minister to God, the highest of all angels: the Seraphim, whose name means, guess what? Burning. And like Moses, the Seraphim covered their eyes, the angels themselves, the highest and mightiest of the angels, hesitate to look upon God. And those seraphim took a burning coal from the altar of God to touch the prophet’s mouth so that his preaching could share in the burning of God.
So to summarize: Moses, and Isaiah, and the Seraphim, all of them are afraid of God’s presence, and all of them undergo the burning that comes from standing before the Lord. What then, will happen to us, when we come before God? When we approach the Unquenchable and Boundless fire of the King, the Lord of Hosts?
Four
Imagining that Day
What will it be like to stand before God?
Maybe try this thought-experiment: Have you ever stood next to someone over seven feet tall? It’s amazing how intimidating it is. Obviously, the fact that someone is a foot or two taller than we are doesn’t really amount to anything objectively important but just psychologically it’s really kind of daunting to have someone that much bigger than you are.
So now, imagine that you’re standing in front of someone ten feet tall. Or twenty feet tall. Now imagine you’re talking to a giant as big as a two-story house. Keep going: imagine it’s someone bigger than a tree, bigger than a skyscraper, bigger than a mountain. Now imagine it’s someone bigger than planets, solar systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters. Now imagine that the person is someone bigger than the universe. And not just bigger than the universe, but someone who is brimming, burning with the energy, the fire, the love that keeps the stars lit and the comets coursing.
That someone is God. And someday you are going to meet Him. And He will look at you, and He will know everything about you. And you will be very afraid. Then He will tell you that He loves you, that He died for you. And then He will tell you what is going to happen next. And you will be very afraid.
That is going to happen. So what can you do to prepare for that day? Because like Moses, like Isaiah, like the Seraphim, one day you will stand before the burning infinite presence of God.
Five
Who May Go Up the Mountain of the Lord
Moses met with God on the mountain top. That’s where he encountered the burning presence that made his own face burn with light. So what does it take to survive the encounter with God? What do we do to prepare for the day when we shall ascend God’s mountain?
Psalm 24 tells us. It says, “Who can go up the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place? He whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, who desires not what is vain."
There it is. That’s what needs to be purified before we’re ready to meet God. Our actions, our intentions, and our desires.
Lent is the time to purify, to purify ourselves so that we will not simply go up in smoke and be reduced to spiritual ash when we come before the burning presence of God.
He whose hands are clean. What actions do we need to purify? What do we need to just stop doing?He whose heart is pure. Look at your intentions. We need to purify those too. Where are we lying to ourselves? Where are we refusing to see our compromised motivations? He who desires not what is vain.
What are the useless things we’re still devoting our time and energy to? We need to stop that. We have to work on purifying our desires. We have pressing things to attend to. We can’t waste our time on what is vain. We are going to stand in the presence of the King and Creator of the Universe. And we need to make ourselves ready.
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Try this experiment of imaging meeting someone who is as tall as a building, as tall as a mountain, as tall as a planet. Then really imagine talking to God like this, knowing how great His presence is.
Being in the presence of God is as purifying as fire. What do you need to do right now to be purified and what will it take to burn that thing out of your life?