April 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed" (Ex. 3:2).

Devotional

This remarkable incident in the history of God's ancient Israel illustrates important truth that bears upon the experiential and practical experience of each believer in Jesus.

The burning bush presents a true and beautiful outline of the church of God.

It also reminds of the two opposite natures of the believer—the fallen and the restored, the fleshly and the spiritual. The one is low, sinful, unlovely, and of the earth—earthly. The other is elevated, holy, glorious, and of heaven—heavenly. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).

Moreover, it illustrates the conflict between these opposite and antagonistic natures in the child of God. As the bush in which the Divinity dwelt was surrounded by flame, so the regenerated man, in whom the eternal God condescends to dwell by his Spirit, is perpetually encircled by the fire of conflict, trial, and suffering. Nature and grace, sin and holiness, are as contrary to one other as any two principles can be. They can no more agree, commingle, or coalesce than can opposite and antagonistic elements in the natural world. Nor can there ever be a truce between them. They must necessarily and perpetually be hostile to and at war with each other. The contest is for supremacy! The great question at issue is, "Which shall reign in the believer—sin or holiness? nature or grace? Satan or God?"

Oh, what a fiery conflict is this! Hear the confession of an inspired apostle, drawn from his own painful experience: "I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Rom. 7:14–15). Who cannot trace the conflict here? He deeply and inveterately abhorred sin. The prevailing tendency of his renewed mind, its habitual and fixed inclination, was to holiness. The bent of his desires was towards God. And yet, in consequence of the native depravity of his heart, by reason of the influence of sinful propensities, because of his corrupt inclinations and desires, he felt like he was chained to a body of death from which he longed to be delivered. Here was that which defined the two natures, marked the perpetual conflict between both, and distinguished the holy man from the sinner.

In addition to this spiritual conflict, there are the flames of suffering and trial which often encircle a dear child of God. This is the baptism of fire connected with and ever following the baptism of the Holy Spirit. "He will baptize you," says John, "with the Holy Spirit, and with fire" (Luke 3:16). God has his "fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem" (Isa. 31:9). But it is not the furnace of justice, nor is it the fire of wrath. Jesus, the Surety, has passed through and sustained all this; he has quenched its flame and extinguished its embers. Rather, it is the discipline of everlasting love and mercy.

Accordingly, even though persecution may be permitted to rage, even though the confessor of Christ may ascend to glory in a chariot of fire, even though trials of various kinds may overtake the child of God, even though his grace and his graces are "tested by fire" (1 Pet. 1:7), yet both the persecution of the church and the trial of the believer are but the fruit of eternal and unchangeable love. They will prove purifying, sanctifying, and saving. Nothing will be consumed except the tinsel of the world and the dross of sin, the alloy so much and so frequently found mixed with the pure gold.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
you who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove
my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

("K" in Rippon's Selection, 1787)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.