Exodus 3 tells the remarkable encounter Moses had with God and the burning bush. In reading Exodus I’m trying to imagine what it was like for Moses. He wouldn’t remember his mother saving his life when he was only 3 months old, but he knew what it was to be brought up in the home of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was afforded education and training in the best Egypt had to offer. As an adult, he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian and lived as a shepherd in the wilderness far from the wealth of Egypt. Can we see the unique preparations that took decades?

Imagine leading a flock of sheep to the far side of the wilderness, to Horeb, the mountain of God. Imagine seeing a bush burning yet not burned up and going to check out that anomaly. How could a bush be on fire and not be burned up? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” Can you imagine? Try. Moses answered what I hope I would answer! “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. v. 4-6.

I can’t blame Moses for being afraid. Jesus tells us his sheep…us…hear His voice, and He knows us and we follow Him (John 10:27-28); but this encounter was truly unique. Have you ever thought what it would be like if you were going about your day and suddenly God began a conversation with you? How would you feel? I thought about that this morning in prayer. There are so many words all the time in our thoughts, in the continual noise that is this present, noisy world. When our TVs or radios are on the words never, ever stop. God doesn’t saturate us with words. He fills us with His peace and His words have meaning.

God told Moses that he was to go back to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt v. 7-10. How would you feel if you heard God Himself telling you to go bring a nation of slaves out of the country enslaving them? Naturally, the first question Moses had is probably what I would feel. But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” v. 11. Who am I? God knew exactly who Moses was. And God said, “I will be with you.” v. 12. It would not be by Moses’s might that the Children of Israel, a huge nation of slaves, would be freed.

If God had chosen to speak quietly in Moses’s thoughts, I doubt he would have trusted what he heard. God spoke to him from inside a fire burning a bush and that fire did not consume the bush. Moses could see with his own eyes that what was occurring was not normal in the natural order of the world he knew. I will be with you. That had to be the one thing Moses could hold onto as the world he understood changed course abruptly. There was more. “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.” v. 21-22.

I have been experiencing bouts of dizziness of late. I can only imagine how dizzy I would feel standing there talking with God who is telling me to go accomplish something I knew I would be unable to do. How disorienting! Would I hear the first time God oriented me to His truth? I will be with you! I have always found it difficult to read about the Children of Israel because we come to face to face with the stubbornness of their hearts which is so like the stubbornness of our own hearts wanting what we want. So when I read about Moses this time, I want to imagine myself in Moses. I want to glean as much as I can. He had remarkable encounters with God and I want to immerse myself in God as He is…not as I imagine or am comfortable envisioning Him as being. I want Him to speak to me in this amazing encounter our distant relative experienced. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3.

Lets walk an exciting journey together through Moses’s experience. Then, lets go on to experience God in the encounters throughout Scripture and find the God who loves us. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: they they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:1-5. Before the world began. Jesus finished the work He was given. As Creator, He knows us and did a remarkable work with our ancestors. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5.

The darkness is here in this world and we see it’s effects in ourselves and in others. Moses is about to encounter that darkness in Pharaoh and in the Children of Israel, and in himself. But never forget, God’s light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome and never will overcome that light that is God’ truth. What is that truth? God is love. 1 John 4:16. Let’s walk with Him!