A daily, 32-day Lenten Devotional Series by Rev. Dave Brown
We are told that at a certain point Moses led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Mt. Horeb. Was it the first time he had taken this loop? I doubt it. But on this occasion, something happened that totally reshaped Moses’ life. From this moment onward, Mt. Horeb came to be known as “the mountain of God.” Here Moses came to know what God was like and what God planned to do.
Moses learned that God is a fire who is not only bright and glorious, but also fully capable of disrupting the natural creation by means of his supernatural intervention. The bush that was burning but not consumed reveals his immense power and careful planning. God used it to get Moses’ attention.
God is personal. When Moses turned aside toward this curious phenomenon, the Lord saw him and called Moses by name. Isaiah wrote of this truth at a later date, recording the words of God concerning Israel: “I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)
God is holy. Moses was told: “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, you are standing on holy ground.” What made it holy? It certainly wasn’t the site itself. It was the presence of a holy God that made the place sacred. To his credit, Moses complied. “He hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
God did not consume Moses in his holiness. Instead, God revealed his providential role in history. He said to Moses: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” This sentence would likely have triggered two memories. The first came from his earliest childhood. Moses saw his actual father and mother only in his youngest years while his mother was cramming into Moses’ head the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, before he was permanently taken from them to live in the palace in Egypt.
Then the phrase would have reminded him that God had made a promise to make his people into a great nation and to give them land. None of that had come to pass yet. Something more had to happen.
God is the Redeemer. That’s the central message from this encounter with God. The redemptive plans are spelled out in Exodus 3:7-8. The Lord said: “I have seen the affliction of my people … I have heard their cry…I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them…” The deliverance would come in two parts. God would bring them out of bondage in Egypt and God would bring them in to the land of Canaan. The rest of the book of Exodus describes that liberation and sets the stage for the conquest of Canaan. It’s at the mountain that Moses received a vision for the full scope of this redemption.
Reflections: Wandering in the wilderness is a metaphor for meaningless. What level of curiosity do you have for going beyond that? Do you think God is searching for you as he searched for Moses?
What difference do you think it would make to you if you were to meet this glorious, personal, holy God of history, providence and redemption as he revealed himself at the mountain?