Burning Bush
The burning bush is the place where Yahweh meets Moses on the back of the wilderness, names himself, and commissions him to bring Israel out of Egypt. The narrative belongs to Exodus 3, but the encounter is named again as a settled landmark — by Moses in his blessing on Joseph, and by Jesus when he argues from the same passage that the dead are raised.
The Encounter at Horeb
Moses comes to Horeb shepherding his father-in-law's flock, "and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb" (Ex 3:1). At the mountain "the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and noticed that the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Ex 3:2). The fire is real but the bush is not destroyed; Moses turns aside to see "this great sight, why the bush is not burnt" (Ex 3:3), and that turning is what brings him within hearing distance.
When Yahweh sees that Moses has turned aside, "[the Speech of] God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses" (Ex 3:4). The voice comes out of the unconsumed bush itself, not from above or beyond it. The first word of the call is restraint and consecration: "Don't come any closer: take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground" (Ex 3:5). The bush has made the place around it holy.
Self-Disclosure and the Name
The voice continues, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God" (Ex 3:6). The disclosure ties the encounter to the patriarchs — the same God who spoke to Abraham is now speaking out of the bush — and Moses' instinctive response is to hide his face.
What follows is the formal commission. Yahweh has "surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt" and has come down "[by my Speech] ... to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Ex 3:7-8). The commission is laid on Moses in person: "Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt" (Ex 3:10). Moses' protest — "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh" (Ex 3:11) — is met with the assurance "Certainly [my Speech] will be with you; and this will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you⁺ will serve God on this mountain" (Ex 3:12).
When Moses asks for the divine name to bring back to Israel, the bush gives him two answers. The first is the name's meaning: "And [the Speech of] God said to Moses, I AM WHO ALWAYS IS: and he said, Thus you will say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you⁺" (Ex 3:14). The second is the name itself: "Thus you will say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you⁺: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations" (Ex 3:15). The bush is the place where the name Yahweh is given as the memorial-name forever.
"Him Who Stayed in the Bush"
The encounter becomes a fixed designation. When Moses blesses Joseph at the end of Deuteronomy, he names Yahweh by reference to it: "And for the precious things of the earth and the fullness of it, And the goodwill of him who stayed in the bush. Let [the blessing] come upon the head of Joseph, And on the top of the head of him who was separate from his brothers" (Deut 33:16). The God of the bush is now invoked as the one whose goodwill is asked for Joseph's portion.
A Witness That the Dead Are Raised
Jesus reaches back to the same passage in his answer to the Sadducees. Mark records his appeal: "But as concerning the dead, that they are raised; have you⁺ not read in the Book of Moses, in [the place concerning] the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I [am] the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" (Mr 12:26). Luke's parallel makes the same argument from the same passage: "But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in [the place concerning] the bush, when he calls Yahweh the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Lu 20:37). What Yahweh said at the bush — "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" — is read by Jesus as a present-tense claim, and so as evidence that the patriarchs are not lost to him in death.