COME AS A CHILD LESSON 115 LISTENING TO THE BURNING BUSH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law while living in Midian. 

One day Moses took the flock over to the far side of the wilderness, to a mountain named Horeb, the place scriptures call “The Mountain of God.”

While Moses was there on the mountain The Angel of The LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  The bush was clearly on fire; but it never burned up.  Moses moved closer, very curious as to why this strange bush never burned up.

As Moses stepped closer and closer; the LORD saw that Moses was approaching and he called out to him; “Moses!  Moses!”

As we have mentioned before, when God calls your name two times in a row, you better pay attention!  The only correct answer is the very one that came out of Moses mouth at the time:  “Here I am.” 

God told Moses not to come any closer.  He instructed him to take off his sandals, because the place where he was standing was holy ground.  Then God said:  “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Up until this point, Moses had only known Egypt and life in the palace, then his present life as a shepherd in Midian.  He did not know much about his original heritage at all, except that he had learned he was a Hebrew raised as an Egyptian.  After finding this out he had run away. 

Now God himself had come down to speak to him about his heritage! 

Moses could not escape his own reality.  

God is telling Moses that He is the God of his father and their fathers! It is pretty clear that God wasn’t referring to Pharaoh.   God gives Moses a brief history lesson by mentioning the family linage; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Not only had Moses run away from his problems in Egypt, he had also ran away from who he really was; an Israelite.  God was forcing Moses to face his heritage head-on.  There was no running away this time.

Moses was one of God's people.  Are you running away from being one of God's people too?  You can't run and you can't hide.  If you belong to God he will find you.  He will find you in a palace or in a tent.  He will find you in a garden or in a desert.  If you belong to God; He is not going to let you forget.  Just ask Moses!     

When Moses heard these words from God he hid his face because he was afraid.  He was afraid to look at God, and he was afraid to face who he really was. 

God continued to speak to Moses: “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.”

There is so much information to retain from that one little paragraph where God spoke to Moses! 

Can you imagine how it felt to see a bush that did not burn up, and then to hear the voice of God coming from it? 

What did it feel like to Moses to be standing on holy ground and to be hearing the voice of God speaking to him?

To me, the most striking words spoken by God were “So I have come down…”  God had come down to earth because he had heard the Israelites praying over and over again, begging for relief from their misery. 

Have you ever prayed this way?  

What if you were praying in one of THOSE moments and you physically KNEW when God came down to help you?  Not an angel, not a spirit; but GOD, HIMSELF (IN PERSON) gave up His time in heaven to look down on a nation of poor pitiful people who were praying during the time of their suffering. 

Well, it actually isn’t that rare!  It really isn’t that strange when you think about it for a long time.  God does this all the time.  We just don’t see the physical evidence of it; like Moses did here.  If we did; we would probably be like Moses and hide our faces in fear, afraid of what was about to happen next; afraid to SEE God in person. 

If you actually saw God with your own eyes, like was possible with Moses in this story, you would never again have any argument for the existence of God.  You would know without a doubt that God was real.  There would be no denying it; and that would mean you might have to listen, obey and follow His instructions.  No pressure at all....; I think Moses was in one of THOSE moments here. 

He had NO choice but to obey.  It was God speaking! 

Had God already looked down and noticed that Moses had great compassion on the Hebrews? 

People always marvel at how God chose Moses, but don’t you think God knew that Moses had a passion for these people and their suffering?  

Don’t you think God was looking over the fence when Moses went out from the comfort of Pharaoh’s palace to see how the people of his true heritage were getting along in Egypt?  

Do you think God took notice when Moses cared enough about their welfare to risk his own life to defend his fellow Israelite? 

God KNEW the heart of Moses.  God KNOWS the heart of all of his children.

I think God had been watching Moses from the moment of his birth, guiding that little basket through the bulrushes and placing him strategically in the places where he could fulfill his God-planned and God given destiny.  Now it was time for Moses to learn more of that destiny; straight from the horse’s mouth.  God didn’t send a messenger, He came in person. 

The next words God had to say to Moses were pretty plain:  

GO!!!

How many people had heard God say “go” before Moses?  Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now we come to Moses.  Moses more than likely knew about those guys from the things that his birth mother had taught him when he was very young during the time she tended to him for Pharaoh’s daughter. 

Moses knew when God said “go” He wasn’t being casual.  He meant it. 

God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.  He was asking Moses to go right back to the very things he had run away from.  Moses must have considered how dangerous that would be.  He gave God an answer that stalled for time.

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

God didn’t answer Moses by telling him how equipped he was and how his whole life had been a preparation for this moment.  God simply said “I will be with you!”   How many times have those called by God had to learn that he doesn't call the equipped, but He equips the called?  Moses was no different than any other man in this respect.  God said He would go with Moses!

 That in itself should have been enough! Dayenu!  If God is for us, who can stand against us? 

God did give Moses some more information for assurance though.  He told Moses He would give him a sign that He had sent him.  God said “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”  

It is odd to some people that God speaks of himself in the third person here, but it is simply proof that The Angel of The LORD was once again a Christophany; or the appearance of Jesus in another form, before the Incarnation when He came as Savior of the world.  Jesus could speak of himself as God both then and now, because the Father and the Son are One.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had seen this pre-incarnate form of Christ too.  Now Moses had seen Him. 

Jesus was saying to Moses, when you have done what God instructed, you will come here to this place again and worship on this mountain. 

So Moses finally begins to think in terms of what he must do.  He knew if he had questions, this was definitely the time to be asking them!  

So Moses said to God:  “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them “The God of your Fathers has sent me to you.”  What if they ask me; “What is His name?”  What shall I tell them?”

God’s answer was “I AM THAT I AM. 

This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  “I AM has sent me to you.” 

Then God added a second part to that statement.  He told Moses to say “The LORD, The God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.  This is My name forever, the name you shall call Me from generation to generation.”

So God repeated it all to Moses again, probably so he would not forget all the details:  

“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – appeared to me and said:  I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.  And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – a land flowing with milk and honey.  The elders of Israel will listen to you.  Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.  Let us take a three day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.  But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.  So, I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them.  After that, he will let you go.  And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty handed.  Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters.  And so you will plunder the Egyptians."