February 4, 2025
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 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. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
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.”
“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 father, 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.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Moses was an Israelite who, by God’s purpose and plan, was spared the consequences of other Jewish baby boys, raised in the Egyptian Pharoah’s household, he escaped an edict that saw all other Jewish baby boys executed in that day. Moses as an adult, perhaps you recall this, fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who he observed beating a fellow Hebrew.
Moses is now living as an ordinary shepherd, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. There is nothing more ordinary than shepherding sheep. That is why in the Christmas story that these "ordinary" people, called shepherds were among the first to hear the Good News of Jesus birth was such a shocker.
It was in this ordinary everydayness of Moses’ life that God appeared to him in flames of fire from within a burning bush. Notice, that God had a most extraordinary assignment for Moses: deliver the oppressed people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
God may not be asking you to deliver an entire nation from centuries of oppression, but Moses’ story shows how God can take an ordinary person, from an ordinary existence, and accomplish His great purpose in and through them.
What might God desire to do in and through you?
It was in this ordinary everydayness of Moses’ life that God appeared to him in flames of fire from within a burning bush. Notice, that God had a most extraordinary assignment for Moses: deliver the oppressed people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
God may not be asking you to deliver an entire nation from centuries of oppression, but Moses’ story shows how God can take an ordinary person, from an ordinary existence, and accomplish His great purpose in and through them.
What might God desire to do in and through you?
You may relate to Moses’ response to God, “Who am I?” That is, why in the world would you choose me for this task? This seems to be the human response to God's call, certainly Biblically at least. Here is what we do learn in the Bible is that God will use who He will use. And despite Moses’ fierce objections, God did just that.
Have you sensed any nudges from God to act upon something and you’ve disregarded it for the same kinds of objections Moses gave God?
I pray for all of us, that we might be encouraged by Moses’ story to respond with "Here I am God."
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