Holy Ground

Friday, May 5, 2023

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian.  He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.  Moses stared in amazement.  Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.  “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself.  “Why isn’t that bush burning up?  I must go see it.”  When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  “Here I am!” Moses replied.  “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned.  “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.  I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.  Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.  I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers.  Yes, I am aware of their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.  It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.  Look!  The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them.  Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”  But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?  Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”  God answered, “I will be with you.  And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you:  When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”  Exodus 3:1-12

Moses is both a much-revered and enigmatic part of God’s revelation to us.  Born the son of an enslaved Hebrew couple, destined to die in a political power move, his mother put him in a basket made of reeds, and set him adrift near the palace of their oppressor.  The Pharaoh’s daughter rescued the baby and raised him in the palace as her own.  By the time Moses is 40, he discovers his heritage, Jew, not Egyptian.  He gets himself banished from Pharaoh’s good favor when he kills an Egyptian who was beating a fellow Jew.  Forty years later, as a humble shepherd, minding the sheep of his father-in-law in the Midian desert, the back side of nowhere, Moses meets God.  The man whose life could have easily been snuffed-out (more than once) by the king of Egypt, yet bravely defied him to defend the very people Pharaoh had enslaved, is now humbled by a burning bush, and a disembodied voice, claiming to be God. 

Another forty years passes in the miracle of the birth of a newly-freed nation, and the subsequent divine hand of God leading them through crises and victories.  In all, Moses kept his eye on the goal…bringing God’s chosen to a place of worship.  God had made it plain:  When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.

For You Today 

Moses, the man, the hero, understood his job was not to be a hero, but a tool in the hand of God, to bless the nations of God’s creation.  His earlier quest to know God led to an opportunity to serve God, and Moses surrendered his life in that service to honor the God who inhabits holy ground.

So, here’s a thought to grapple with today:

What would YOUR burning bush look like?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Is That Enough?  and  Just When...   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Holy Ground

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

Monday, February 24, 2020

“Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush.  When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.  As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him, ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.  “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.  I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.  I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them.  Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.’  Acts 7:30-34[1]

“Forty years later…” that sounds about right.  When a story picks up in the middle some background perspective ought not be ignored; otherwise you can miss the point.  Forty years earlier Moses had escaped Egypt with his pinfeathers on fire.  Although his motive had been godly and well-intentioned, he’d overstepped his authority and was guilty of murder.  Banished from the place he’d grown up, Moses wandered into Midian, and became a nobody (instead of the important somebody he’d been). 

Moses was forty when he left Egypt as a convicted felon.  He crossed the desert fighting snakes and scorpions all the way until he arrived at Midian and became a sheep herder just to earn a living.  For the forty years of today’s text, Moses had become a husband, father, and trusted shepherd in the back country of nowhere.

When you’re young and full of dreams, ready to change the world, the dreams sometimes take a detour.  That doesn’t mean God is done with you; it means the dreams you thought were plans were only the beginning of what God’s been up to in your development.  Moses wanted to see his people (the Israelites he’d only recently discovered were his people) experience the freedom their God-given heritage promised.  He wanted to see injustice and hatred cease.  He wanted the bondage gone.  But, by the time the next forty years went by…far from Egypt’s epicenter of world events, Moses figured his day had come and gone. 

Cue the burning bush catching the eye of the adopted son of Pharaoh (now demoted to lowly shepherd) who’s wondering if he’s going crazy in the noonday heat; when does a bush burn, and never run out of branches to fuel the fire?

I can imagine Moses had built quite a comfortable life for himself, and now, at 80 he’s thinking retirement, and letting the kids take over the flocks.  But what was he really thinking…deep, down on the inside of his soul, when that voice spoke his name, telling him to slip off his sandals and get ready for the dream/reality of setting the people free?  We know he offered some excuses…I’m too old…I don’t talk so well…they wouldn’t listen…and probably more.  But what was he really thinking on the inside?  Doubt?  Fear?  Too tired?  Hey…I tried this once before and look what it got me…no…I can’t do this anymore.

Sound familiar?

I believe we humans too-often get gun-shy when it comes to stepping-out.  Particularly with age and the diminishing strength and stamina we feel.  On top of that physical reality looms the culture in which we live, extolling everything about being young, looking young, and how old is something to be avoided; the message is that young is where it’s at, and old is done.

But, is it really?  Over the next 40 years Moses became the mightiest leader the world has ever known.  And even then….

Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever.  Deuteronomy 34:7

For You Today

Moses has been described as someone who had been a somebody but had to learn how to be a nobody before he was ready for the dream.  Where are you in that process?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] For another post on Moses at the Burning Bush see Battling the Dark 

Battling the Dark

[i]

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian.  He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.  Moses stared in amazement.  Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.  “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself.  “Why isn’t that bush burning up?  I must go see it.”  When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  “Here I am!” Moses replied.  “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned.  “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.  Exodus 3:1-5^(NLT)

Moses was drawn to the fire of God like a moth to a bulb on a Savannah night.  Not so for my friend Paul, who told me a story about his youthful battle against the darkness.  As a young man Paul didn’t own a car, so after night-fall he was walking home along Little Beane Store Road.  It was so dark the only way he could be positive he was still following the road was to feel the rough places at the roadside under his bare feet.  At one point he fell because he’d stepped on something that felt slick and rope-like.  Fearing the worst he jumped up and stomped the unknown dark, slithering evil several times, and then ran home like the wind. 

In the morning Paul returned to the battlefield to see exactly what he’d killed.  When he got to the spot of the nighttime struggle he discovered his vanquished foe in the grass beside the road – one very mangled corn stalk!

Battling the unknown is a metaphor for coming to terms with the fear we have because of the darkness around and within us.  Paul’s youthful fear imagined a reptile laying in wait for him on that summer night.  Living in rural North Carolina with corn, greens, and food growing everywhere, the reality of snakes on the hunt for a meal became larger because of the eerie feeling you get walking alone in the dark.

Moses had his own battle with the darkness, coming to terms with the fact that he really wasn’t an Egyptian prince; that was just what people thought.  Moses had to contend with his real DNA – he was a Hebrew, and the God of the slaves was his God.  Talk about stepping on a snake in the dark.

But then the God of Abraham’s flock called to Moses from a bush that was on fire, but wouldn’t burn down.  Moses was drawn to the fire, curious and unafraid.  But that was before God spoke – this is holy ground, take off your shoes!  It is my firm belief that one sentence is where Moses developed his stutter!

To his credit, Moses didn’t run from God like my friend Paul ran from the snake.  (Had it been me that night, I’d still be running!)  But Moses’ encounter was with the light of a burning bush; that’s different than running from a snake in the night.  The real fight for Moses that day was not the light, but the darkness within.  Moses had to deal with the fear that this God who does everything in the light might consume him because of the darkness inside Moses.  After all, when light comes, darkness has to go!

That’s the real fear most people have when it comes to drawing near God.  After all, we know what fire does…it burns and provides light.  We humans are most-burnable and we have this darkness within that is comfortably entrenched.  We fear light, and we sense that we ought to, because we understand the difference between God and us:

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.  1 John 1:5^(NLT)

This is why we venerate Moses; despite his own darkness he went towards the light.  And that is how to battle the dark!

For You Today

When, in your times of meditation on God’s Word, you stumble across something quite dark within yourself, don’t just do battle and run home; run to the light!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title image: Gebhard Fugel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons