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
So, here’s a thought
to grapple with today:
What would YOUR burning bush look like?
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©
