Footnote Exodus 3:2 - 2 (MC)

(2)flame, (2)thornbush,

The flame of fire denotes the glory of God's holiness, which excluded fallen man from direct contact with God as the tree of life (Gen_3:24 and note). According to Gen_3:17-19 thorns were part of the curse that came because of man's sin. Hence, thorns are a symbol of fallen man under the curse. The thornbush here represents Moses himself as a redeemed sinner. The flame of fire burning within the thornbush signifies that the glory of God's holiness would burn within and upon Moses, God's called one, even though he was a sinner under God's curse. This was possible because of Christ's redemption (Gen_3:21; Gen_4:4), which satisfied the requirements of God's holiness and removed the curse, allowing the divine fire (the Spirit) to visit and to indwell the thorn-bush (the redeemed sinner), making the fire one with the thornbush (Gal_3:13-14). The fact that the fire burned in the thornbush without consuming it indicates that God Himself, not Moses, would be the "fuel" for the burning (cf. Rom_12:11; 2Ti_1:7; Phi_4:13; Col_1:29). Moses would be only a vessel, a channel, through which the glory of God's holiness would be manifested (cf. 2Co_4:7). 

According to Deu_33:16, the thornbush was God's dwelling place. Since God's corporate people are His actual dwelling place (Heb_3:6 and note), this implies that the thornbush refers also to God's redeemed people as a corporate entity. After the tabernacle, a symbol of the children of Israel as God's dwelling place, was built up, at night the cloud of God's glory upon it had the appearance of fire (Num_9:15-16). The fire burning upon the tabernacle signified that the people of Israel were a corporate burning thornbush. The church as God's dwelling place is also a burning thornbush-the Triune God burning within and upon a redeemed humanity (Luk_12:49; Act_2:3-4). Through the burning of the holy divine fire, the once cursed and redeemed thornbush is transformed to be God's dwelling place. This is God's economy.