Read with Me
Exodus 3:1-6 (HCSB)
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. So Moses thought: I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
“Do not come closer,” He said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then He continued, “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.
Listen with Me
Moses’ life over the previous forty years had fallen into an easy, predictable rhythm of his work as a shepherd and his family life. That rhythm was severely disrupted one day when the Lord, the God of his forefathers, appeared to him.
There is much debate as to exactly where this encounter took place. But the currently identified mountain in the southern end of the Sinai peninsula is certainly not it. To get to that location from even the furthest northern part of Midian, which lay on the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba, would have required driving his sheep more than 100 miles each way! No shepherd would do that unless he was moving permanently to a new area as Jacob once did.
Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai, was well-known to the Midianites as “the mountain of God”. Remember that Moses’ father-in-law, Reuel, was a priest in Midian (Exodus 2:16), and he was a direct descendant of Abraham through Keturah, the woman he married after Sarah died (Genesis 25:1-4). So, even though Reuel did not know the Lord as well as the patriarchs of the Israelites, he had retained in his family the religious understanding of Abraham that had been passed on to his descendants. Those he also taught Moses over the forty years that they had lived together.
Up on the slopes of this “mountain of God”, Moses saw a bush that looked like it was on fire, but the leaves weren’t turning black. So, he went over to investigate. That was when he heard a voice coming from the midst of the fire, calling him by name.
Moses responded with the standard reply: “Here I am”, and started to move closer, trying to see who might be hiding behind bush. But when the voice told Moses to not come any closer, but to take off his sandals so as not to contaminate holy ground, he obeyed.
And when the voice identified itself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God Moses had been learning about from his father-in-law, he was terrified. This was not one of the hundreds of gods in Egypt who were mute and inert. This God gave commandments! So, moses fell on his face and waited.
Pray with Me
Father, I hadn’t really considered the fact that Moses would have been taught about You by his father-in-law, but that makes perfect sense. But there is also a massive difference between knowing about You (head knowledge), and having a personal encounter with You. The former might result in fear and obedience, but the latter is completely transformative. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to have my own transformative encounter with You. Amen.