Scripture: Exodus 3:1-11 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
The Lord said, “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.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Devotional: Moses was an Israelite who, in God’s providence, was raised in the luxury of the Egyptian Pharoah’s household, escaping a murderous edict that saw all other Jewish baby boys executed in that day. As an adult, he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who he observed beating a fellow Hebrew. And now he was living as an ordinary shepherd, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro.
There’s nothing more mundane or ordinary than shepherding a herd of smelly, unintelligent sheep.
It was in this ordinary mundaneness of Moses’ life that God appeared to him in flames of fire from within a burning bush. And he had a most extraordinary assignment for Moses: deliver the oppressed people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
God may not be asking you to deliver an entire nation from centuries of oppression, but Moses’ story shows how He can take an ordinary person, from an ordinary existence, and accomplish His great purpose in and through them.
What might He desire to do in and through you? You may relate to Moses’ response to God, “Who am I?” That is, why in the world would you choose me for this task? But God will use who He will use. And despite Moses’ fierce objections, God did just that.
Reflect:
- Have you sensed any nudges from God to act upon something and you’ve disregarded it for the same kinds of objections Moses gave God?
- How might Moses’ story encourage you to say, “Here I am God,” and follow His lead?