The Gruesome Possibility of Missing God -- Exodus 3:4-5

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses, Moses!”  And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

You will remember that Moses had seen the blazing fire in the bush and had noticed

it was not being consumed or burned up.  So, he turned (or went towards it) for a closer examination of the phenomenon.  And I love the beginning of this section, “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look”.  God was watching Moses’ moves.

He knew that Moses was getting too close to the bush.  It wasn’t the potential impact of the fire God was worried about for Moses’ sake; it was that this man was getting too close to the Holiness of God.

The Scripture commentator David Guzik points out that it is important to note that God did not speak to Moses until He had his attention.  Moses turned to see how it was that this bush was not burning up and then God spoke to him.  If we want God to pour into our life, we need to give Him our full attention.  As we run the race of life, many of us treat God like one of the bystanders cheering us on instead of us our Trainer and Coach.  But we must go even beyond that.  Guzik says, “The burning bush was a spectacular phenomenon that captured Moses' attention; but it changed nothing until Moses received the Word of God there.”  God getting our attention does not necessarily change anything just as the Coach getting our attention doesn’t make us run better or faster.  The change or impact comes in accepting the instruction and implementing it.

So God watches our moves.  Not only to instruct us, but also sometimes to protect us like a loving father wants to protect his child.  When we get too close to danger, God does not forcibly stop us, but He sends out warnings that need to be heeded.

And these warnings are personal.  God called Moses by his name, uttering it twice.  It did not matter how Moses now felt about himself – having come from a key position in Egypt to being what Guzik calls “a forgotten shepherd on the backside of the desert”.  God still knew him by name and he was important to God.  Can we find encouragement in that today?  Now matter what you were or what you are now, God loves you.  He knows you by name and He is calling out to you.

Matthew Henry says God gave Moses a gracious call because He had his attention.  Had Moses neglected what he had seen in the bush, dismissing it as something not worthy of notice, God may have left the scene, having said nothing to him.  What a thought. What a disaster to miss out on God’s presence and His special word to us because of our neglect to notice the supernatural in our lives.   But Moses did notice, and when he heard God call, he responded readily.  Can you imagine the surprise he must have felt.  There he was in the middle of the desert looking at a burning bush (like you or I staring at our night’s campfire on a solo camping trip in the middle of a National Park) and then hearing God calling his name.  And what a delight it must have been for God to hear His servant replying, “Here I am.”   Have you heard God calling you by name?  Have you delighted Him in your response?

Robert Jamieson, another commentator of Scripture, describes the significance of this revelation of God’s presence as follows: “The manifestations which God anciently made of Himself were always accompanied by clear, unmistakable signs that the communications were really from heaven. This certain evidence was given to Moses. He saw a fire, but no human agent to kindle it; he heard a voice, but no human lips from which it came; he saw no living Being, but One was in the bush, in the heat of the flames, who knew him and addressed him by name. Who could this be but the Divine Being?”  When God calls you and reveals Himself to you, you will know it.

Henry goes on to suggest that God wants us to draw near to Him, but not so near “as to pry”.  He suggests that we must have our conscience, not our curiosity, satisfied and that we must be careful not to become too familiar with God socially as to breed contempt.  We must be aware of and “deeply affected with the infinite distance there is between us and God” as the author of a later book in the Old Testament tells us in Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, verse 2.  While I believe we can approach God with boldness, we must remain fully aware of Who He is and who we are.

So what does God (as Coach and Trainer) tell Moses to do?  Two things.  First he tells him to not go any closer, to keep his distance.  In fact, it really meant, “Stop right there.”  Matthew Henry suggests God is saying something akin to, “Moses the ground you are about to step on is holy ground, and you can’t be allowed to trod upon it with soiled shoes.”

And further to that, God secondly tells him to show reverence for His own presence by telling Moses to take off his sandals.  Because God was there this spot, this location, this place, demanded special respect and honor.  By so doing, Moses would be showing his humility before God based on the fact that the poor and needy and the servants of this world have no shoes.  Willingness to exercise this act of humility signifies Moses’ acceptance of the immediate presence of God, or in being in His ‘house’.

Some have suggested that taking off ones shoes in that ancient culture is similar to us taking off our hat when we enter a place of worship or some otherwise solemn building or event (e.g. a funeral) or when we pray in public.  But Jamieson notes a difference: “The Eastern idea is not precisely the same as the Western. With us, the removal of the hat is an expression of reverence for the place we enter, or rather of Him who is worshipped there. With them the removal of the shoes is a confession of personal defilement and conscious unworthiness to stand in the presence of unspotted holiness.”  Moses understood what that meant.

Have you got your relationship ‘distance’ just right with God?  Do you marvel at His Holiness, yet bold enough to approach Him?  Have you got a good understanding of your shortcomings as a sinner and of your worthiness being solely due to what God has done for you through His Son, Jesus Christ?  I encourage thinking hard about getting those two things correct right away.  Then, as we will see with Moses soon, you will get to know God better and have a clearer understanding of your mission in life.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Man’s Curiosity and the Supernatural -- Exodus 3:3

So Moses said, “I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”

This very short passage describes one of the closest encounters between a human being and the God of the universe in the Old Testament.  It also lends itself to a great application for our lives.  God’s presence in the ‘burning bush’ appeared to Moses as a blaze, a flame that he initially did not identify as the living God.  It was the supernatural phenomenon of the bush not being consumed by the flame that sparked Moses curiosity and caused him to look more closely at it.  In verse two, earlier in the chapter, Moses had already seen the flame and noted that the bush was not burning.  But here in verse three, his curiosity causes him to look more closely and intently at the spectacle.  He even calls it a “marvelous sight”.

Here’s the application.  When something out of the ordinary occurs in our lives, something that we didn’t expect, something that we are either pleasantly surprised by or in awe of – do we even notice it as being something ‘special’ in our life?  Or are we too busy or too over-stimulated by the world that we miss it completely or take it for granted?

If it does by chance cause us to wonder at its presence, do we stop long enough, and are we interested enough, to further examine its possible source and/or to investigate its properties and purpose?

Moses did just that and he became a different person following that experience.  It is my prayer for us all, that we live life in such a way that we can notice the unusual, pursue our understanding of it, and find (as we see later in the chapter) what Moses found.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

The Angel of the Lord Appears in a Burning Bush -- Exodus 3:1-2

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

So Moses stays in Midian, marries Zipporah, daughter of Reuel, has a son they name Gershom and he works as a shepherd taking care of his father-in-law’s flock.  In this particular text, Zipporah’s father is referred to as Jethro, not Reuel.  Why is that?  The commentators are all over the place on this one.  First there is the possibility that people had more than one name as per the ancient Near Eastern practice.  (That would mean Jethro and Reuel were one and the same.)  Then there is the idea floated by some that Reuel was really a title or a “family patriot” who actually gives the younger women his blessing.  As the chief patriarch (grandfather, or great-grandfather), he arranges or approves the marriages for the female descendants of his clan.  (This would mean that Jethro was Reuel’s son.)

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that the different names of Jethro puzzled the Talmudists (authors of the Talmud, comprising some of Judaism holy books).  Some of them thought that his real name was "Hobab," (whom we will come across much later in the Scriptures) and that Reuel was his father; others thought that his name was "Reuel," interpreting it "the friend of God”.  Some modern scholars hold that his own name was "Reuel," and that "Jethro" was a title, meaning "his Excellency". According to Simeon b. Yoḥai, a famous 1st-century sage in ancient Israel and active after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, he had two names, "Hobab" and "Jethro".  The Jewish Encyclopedia goes on to say that it is, however, generally accepted that he had seven names: "Reuel," "Jether," "Jethro," "Hobab," "Heber," "Keni" (compare Judges 1:16; and 4:11), and "Putiel".  Somewhere in these options lies the truth and one day we’ll know.

In any case, Moses leads his father-in-law’s flock to the west end of the Midianite wilderness or desert and comes to Mount Horeb, the “mountain of God”.  This is the first time we come to hear the name of this mountain, but it is understood to be another name for Mount Sinai from which God (much later) gave the law to Moses and the Israelites.

It is there the “angel of the Lord” appeared to him.  This is the third record that we have to one called the “angel of the Lord”.  The first was in Genesis 16 when he appeared to Hagar.  The second was in Genesis 22 when he appeared to Abraham.  And now he appears many years later to Moses.  The term is used later in Scripture as well.  There is much that has been written about who this angel is and a search on Google will give you much of that.  Generally speaking, especially as his presence progresses through Scripture, there is agreement that this “angel”, for many reasons, is none other than the Lord or God Himself.

We then have here the famous reference to the “burning bush” (a misnomer) in which the angel of the Lord appears.  In actuality the bush was not burning at all.  The Scriptures correctly state there was a “blazing fire” in the midst of the bush, but it did not consume the bush.  It is understood that the bush was a thorn bush (with all the symbolism that can present and which many draw on) and because of the very dry desert environment and the acacia (thorn) being brittle, it is possible for it to easily be lit by any small spark, which would start a blaze.  The event was very rare and Moses was clearly attracted to it.  The equivalent for us would be to see what we think was a log fire but the logs were never burning.  Upon closer examination, we could detect that in fact what we thought was a wood fireplace, was a gas fireplace being fed by a continuous supply of natural gas.  The logs are never consumed.

So what then is the application for us today?  Let me suggest that we need to stop long enough and ask ourselves the following questions: “Am I aware of the ‘burning bushes’ that God places in my life, especially in my desert?  Do I realize His presence in them and am I attracted to it?  Do I realize the continuous availability of His power and sustenance to my life?  Am I dependent on it?”

I challenge you today to realize that without Him, you have no power to live a victorious life.  With Him, and in Him, and through Him, you have already won against the enemy.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.