Have you ever walked through a fiery season of life, thinking all along that it was persecution only to gratefully discover on the other side of it that it was actually an orchestration of God?
I think it’s easy to declare hardships as persecution - & a lot of times it IS - but sometimes, the Lord uses fires to cause us to pause & hear His voice.
This was the case with Moses. He lives his first 40 in Egypt watching his people suffer as slaves. The injustice becomes too much, however & he is forced to flee after he murders an Egyptian who had beaten a Hebrew slave.
God sees the suffering of His people & decides it is time to act. Moses, unknowingly, is about to become His messenger.
One day, as Moses tends his sheep, he sees the most inexplicable thing: a fiery bush that’s not burning.
He thinks it so amazing that he decides to draw near. And when he does? I can only imagine the shock & awe when he hears God call from the MIDDLE of the fiery bush,
“Moses! Moses!”
With eyes of wonder & a heart to hear, he replies, “Here I am!”
The Lord tells him to remove his shoes for he is on holy ground. Then He introduces Himself as the God of Moses’s ancestors.
He’s seen the suffering of His people & has come to rescue them, but He needs a helper to lead them to the Promised Land, so He ends with an imperative:
“Now go… Lead my people out of Egypt.”
Moses responds with lots of buts… in today’s reading he interrupts God with, “but who am I… but what is your name?”
Sometimes God not only allows fires, but orchestrates them to grab our attention.
We will experience hard things this side of heaven, things that feel like that burning bush! Sometimes, maybe all the time, God can & will speak through it. We just need draw near & have ears to listen to the call.
Father, when fires spring up in our lives, remind us that we just might be standing on holy ground & like that bush, we may be in the fire, but we will not burn. As we draw near, give us ears to hear You speak from the middle of the fire, reminding us of who we are & Who You are as YAHWEH! Give us courage to reply, “Here I am!” when the Great I AM comes calling…even if it’s from the middle of a burning bush!
EXODUS 2:11-3:22
MATTHEW 17:10-27
PSALM 22:1-18
PROVERBS 5:7-1
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