Exodus 3 · a question people ask
Who was in the bush: an angel, or God?
The chapter says both. "The LORD’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush" (3:2). Then "God called to him out of the middle of the bush" (3:4), and the voice says, "I am the God of your father" (3:6). Everyone agrees that it was God who called Moses and sent him (3:4, 10); Jesus says of this scene that "God spoke to him" (Mark 12:26). Christians read the angel in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD himself, appearing
The one who appears as "the LORD’s angel" (3:2) speaks as God: "I am the God of your father" (3:6). Genesis does the same: after the LORD's angel speaks to Hagar, she calls "the LORD who spoke to her" "You are a God who sees" (Genesis 16:7-13), and the angel of God tells Jacob, "I am the God of Bethel" (Genesis 31:11-13). Many who hold this view read the angel as the Son before he became a man, since "No one has seen God at any time. The only born Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him" (John 1:18).
Exodus 3:2-6 · Genesis 16:7-13 · Genesis 31:11-13 · John 1:18
A messenger speaking in God's name
The Hebrew word for angel means messenger (see the word study). Stephen says God sent Moses "by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush" (Acts 7:35), and speaks of "the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai" (Acts 7:38). On this reading the angel is God's messenger, and God speaks through him.
Acts 7:35 · Acts 7:38
The verses
“The LORD’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
“When the LORD saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.”
“Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.””
“But about the dead, that they are raised, haven’t you read in the book of Moses about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?”