A Burning Bush

A Quick Look: Exodus 3: 11 – 12

Really Read It: Exodus 3 – 4

Memorize: Deuteronomy 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. NIV

God had a job for Moses that was more difficult than any job I can imagine today. And, I believe that God trained Moses and prepared his heart from the time Moses was three months old until he saw that burning bush at age 80.

Moses was a Jew, a Hebrew. He knew the language, the culture, the holidays, the food, the ways, the history, the faith of these people as only a Jew could. A super-smart guy who studied for 40 years might do pretty well, but still he wouldn’t have being a Jew down as well as an actual Jew.

Moses was an Egyptian, a royal Egyptian. He knew the language, the culture, the holidays, the food, the ways, the history, the faith of these people as only an Egyptian could. A super-smart guy who studied and went to the best schools like Moses might do pretty well, but still he wouldn’t have being an Egyptian down as well as an actual Egyptian.

God gave Moses as life as both a Jew and an Egyptian. If a movie tried to make up a story about a kid who was all the way in two different cultures at the same time, I wouldn’t believe it. It sounds too impossible to believe, but God wrote that story and Moses lived it.

I think Moses lived knowing who he was from the time he was a baby.
Others have different guesses, and it would be more dramatic for Moses to find out about his “secret” Jewish family as an adult. Sorry that my way makes the story a bit more boring. But I think Moses knew and loved and learned from his Jewish family as he grew up. AND he knew and loved and learned from his Egyptian family as he grew up.

God set Moses up in this perfect, unbelievable training to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. His time as a shepherd was important training too. But when God talked to Moses through the burning bush and gave Moses his big job, Moses didn’t feel prepared. He didn’t know his life had the perfect steps to lead him to his job. And God didn’t tell him that.

When Moses said, “Who am I that I should go?” I would have told him all that stuff about how he knows how to talk to an Egyptian king, because he learned it growing up and he understood the slaves because he was a Jew like them. But God didn’t bring up anything close to that.

God said, “I will be with you.”

That is a lot better. Maybe Moses was trained for his job, but that didn’t matter. The God that made everything promised to be with him. That mattered.

And that is all that matters in your life. But God doesn’t promise to be with you just because you’re cute or because you remember to say please. God promises His presence and His help when you are doing his work. God is not going to come close to you so you can have more fun watching TV.

God will come close when you are joining with Him to make his kingdom bigger on the earth. God will be all the help you need when you are working to give glory to His name, make His name great, make Him famous. Then God will tell you the same thing that He told Moses. "I will be with you." That matters.