Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.3

Both the thornbush and the tabernacle are symbols. God’s actual dwelling place was neither the physical thornbush nor the tabernacle; it was His people. After the children of Israel had been dealt with by God, they became acacia wood overlaid with gold and also linen embroidered with golden thread. The church today is the fulfillment of this type. At present the church may be a redeemed thornbush. However, the day is coming when we shall be gold, pearl, and precious stone. Praise the Lord for the marvellous vision of God’s dwelling place! This vision covers God’s habitation from the initial stage, the stage of the thornbush, to the consummate stage, the stage of the New Jerusalem. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 111)

When Moses was called by God, he saw the holy fire burning within the thornbush. When Paul was called, he saw the same vision, at least in principle. He saw the Triune God burning within His redeemed ones. Through this divine burning, the holy fire was one with the thornbush, and the thornbush was one with the fire, which is the Triune God Himself. Today God the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit have come down upon us as fire. The Lord Jesus once said that He came to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came in the form of tongues of fire. Today the Lord is still casting fire upon the earth. This holy fire, this divine burning, has captured us, and now we are part of the thornbush that is burning with the Triune God. The Triune God is burning within and upon the church He has chosen and  redeemed. Thus, the church is the Triune God burning within a redeemed humanity. This is the divine economy (1 Tim. 1:4).