“I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”  Moses’ first encounter with the almighty was a captivating one; the appearance of God in a bush was the farthest thing from Moses’ mind at the time.  The bush which burned and was not consumed called out to Moses, it drew him near.  While many of us are aware of the transaction that takes place at this scene; Moses being sent out to free the people of God from the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh we often move on with a simple knowledge of the revelation of the name of God to Moses, YHWH.

This revelation, which approached from different points of view holds different understandings by many, the mere revelation of the name YHWH, which was not revealed to Jacob, nor to Manoah (jdg 13:18).  Moses’ motivation for such knowledge was of course different from the others, but such a revelation was a higher honor than had been received before.  The name of the divine YHWH, most often translated as ‘I AM’ may be just as easily translated ‘I Will Be.’ The name ehyeh ăšer ehyeh (transliterated from the Hebrew), has been taken by many to be an existence statement of God’s eternality and being.  Yet, the word ehyeh was present earlier when Moses questioned how he would go to the people, God responded “ehyeh,” “I will be with you.”

YHWH in this statement of his personhood is not simply stating an audible name of what He may be addressed as, but is giving insight to Moses into who He is in His essence.  God is not telling Moses, ‘hello, my name’s YHWH’ he is saying “I am the God who was with your forefathers, and now I am the God who is with you.”  For YHWH to start this address with, I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob doesn’t simply identify that He is the God of the Hebrews, it is stating more than that.  It is stating that the God who prospered those men, the God who kept them and prospered them, the God who guided the line of Abraham into Egypt in Joseph, that God is not distant, He isn’t sleeping and not paying attention.  He is the God who hears His people and seeks to deliver them.  Ex 3:7-8 explains that God has heard their cries and sees their affliction, He has promised to their forefathers that He would make them a mighty people who would inherit a beautiful land, and He has come to do that now, through Moses.

The revelation to Moses is revealing more than the fact that God can be called upon as a personal name; He is a God who desires to be near His people.

There is no imagination wherewith man is besotted, more foolish, none so pernicious, as this–that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in their life, should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. Neither can such persons enjoy God, nor would God be a reward to them. . . .  Holiness is indeed perfected in Heaven: but the beginning of it is invariably confined to this world. – John Owen, The Holy Spirit.

It was an interesting proposition when I read it the first time, posed by John Piper in God is the Gospel; which was the book that turned me onto John Owen.  John Owen surely poses the question in words we no longer understand, but the concept was the same.  When we consider heaven, we consider it with creature comforts.  We have come to think of heaven as an ideal domain for man, as an everlasting Disneyland where all of the vendors don’t charge a fee and admission is paid for by Jesus.  Well, not really but as Piper speaks of heaven and wanting to be there, it is a place where we want to go because there is no pain, everyone we love is there or we just don’t want to go to hell.  It is inoften that someone replies that they want to go to heaven because Jesus is there.

                Piper’s version is most definitely a simpler version of Owen’s argument, it is simple because it does not grasp the meaning of Owen’s and leaves the reader feeling ashamed for not placing Christ at the center.  The reality as Owen places it before us is that there is nothing for the unsanctified soul to enjoy in the eternity of heaven.  The domain of heaven is the domain of God.  God dwells in utter holiness, he emanates holiness and he demands that those who serve Him would love holiness i.e. “Be holy for I am holy.”  God does not delight in the things that man delights in; God has no need for food, for entertainment, for dramas or any creature comforts.  God delights in holiness, if we would look to the commands set back in the Old Testament, the host of purity laws we find that they revolve around holiness, they are about purity.  God is sending a message to these people, that they should love holiness and conduct themselves thus in holy community.

                The essential argument for conduct then is that the Christian is a person who in their life desires the things of God, not the things of man.  Indeed it should be a plain and evident fact of the life of the believer that they are being changed to represent the holiness of God, moreso that they would be a person who would delight in the holiness of God.  Their actions, thoughts and meditations would constantly move them heavenward into a higher and more disciplined view of holiness, the absolute transcendence and set-apartness of God.  These movements are not only present in the believer’s life, but are evident that they are from the One Creator God (John 3:21).

                In this sanctified life, believers are then being prepared to love that eternal kingdom which exists beyond the veil of this world that we know, that abode of God which lasts forever.  This kingdom which images are told to us from prophets, that the glory of God is so grand that God’s eternal servants the seraphim cry out eternally “holy, holy, holy.”  This kingdom, which displays the glory of God eternally, we will no longer perceive it as through a glass (1 Cor 13:12), but that veil will be removed, His glory, eternally displayed. 

If we don’t love such glory and such holiness now, how will we love it eternally?  If we feel as a caged bird in this life now, how will we feel come eternity?