A Day with Moses

Exodus 3:1-5

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian…
Maybe it’s not working for your father-in-law, but perhaps for you it is just another day like any other day.

 and (Moses) led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Many of us can describe the landscape of our lives as “desert.”  Your desert, your wilderness wonderings through this life, may be arid, lacking vision and hope, bearing no fruit.  For you, it may be living day after day with the affects of past trauma.  It may be pain, disappoint… anxiety about the future… guilt about the past… broken relationships.  There are a lot of things that can take a life and turn it into desert.   Is there a far side to your wilderness?  You hope there is!  Perhaps you feel beyond hope… There seems to be no far side to your wilderness. 

For Moses, his wilderness is framed by an abandonment of identity… Is he a prince of Egypt and master all things worldly, or is he just a shepherd who knows how to get by?  Moses’ real identity, it turns out and He is soon to re-discover, is as a Hebrew, counted among the people of God, with a home in the very presence of God? 

Moses’ wilderness is also framed by a loss of purpose and destiny.  Does not God have something more for Moses? …for you?  Jesus says that He came not just to bring life, but to bring it in abundance?  Where is the abundance in the middle of your wilderness?  What does God have for you on the far side of your wilderness wonderings?

 ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

God was on the far side of Moses’ wilderness just waiting for him to draw near.  When he does, he gets a glimpse of the divine.  How about you?  Are you there yet?

⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

In a tone of submission, obedience and awe, Moses says, “Here I am, Lord.”  Like Moses, is this your day to submit to the Almighty?  There is an alternative: You can turn around and head back out into the desert.

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

God is inviting you into His holy presence, onto “Holy Ground.”  Does God intend to sanctify your life and make it holy?  That is obviously His plan for Moses.  That is, for sure, God’s plan for you.  Will you allow it?  Will you today, perhaps a bit more than yesterday, open yourself  to the sanctifying work of God’s Holy Spirit in you?  This is the only way is you will be able to eternally remain in His presence and on this “Holy Ground.”  The Church has long understood Christianity to be God’s invitation into the very presence of God, but first He asks us to “take off your sandals” that are so covered with the filth of our not-so-holy wilderness wonderings. 

The story is far from over for Moses.  God sets him on a grand adventure punctuated with power and purpose.  What does God have in store for you as you move forward from this day?                                                         

Father Rob