Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.1

God’s goal in dealing with His people, the children of Israel, was to obtain a proper dwelling place. Deuteronomy 33:16 speaks of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush. This word, written by Moses, indicates that God possessed that burning thornbush as His house, His dwelling place. Who would ever have thought that God’s habitation on earth would be a thornbush?

In referring to God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush, Moses’ heart must have been full of thanks to God. During the last forty years of his life, Moses knew that he was just a thornbush. But he knew also that God was with him. We all need to have such a realization. Whenever we have a proper spirit before the Lord, we know that we are a thornbush. We know that even our natural virtues, such as kindness, humility, and patience, are “thorns.”...As he was blessing the children of Israel, Moses must have had such a sense about himself.

In Deuteronomy 33:16 Moses spoke of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush. This word was uttered when Moses was one hundred twenty years of age, forty years after he had seen the vision of the burning thornbush. Moses never forgot that vision, even after the tabernacle had been built and God had come to dwell in it. In Deuteronomy 33:16 why did not Moses speak of the good will of “Him who dwelt in the tabernacle”? I believe that for Moses to speak of God dwelling in the tabernacle would not have been as sweet as it was for him to speak of God dwelling in the thornbush. I believe that even when we are in the New Jerusalem we shall recall how we once were a thornbush indwelt by God. How marvellous that a thornbush can be God’s dwelling place on earth today! (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 73-74, 110)