Moses is in the desert with the sheep when he sees a bush that's on fire. He's seen such sights before but this particular shrub isn't being consumed by the fire. He decides to take a closer look.
"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.'" (Exodus 3:4) In yesterday's passage we were told that the One speaking to Moses is "the angel of the Lord", so I think it's safe to assume that this is an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ, who is often referred to in the Old Testament as "the angel of the Lord". Christ is not called "an angel" but "the angel" so that we know there's something special and unique about Him.
Does Moses immediately know who this is? I'm not sure, but if someone spoke to me from within flames in the desert I'd definitely suspect this was a supernatural encounter. Moses apparently feels the same way, for he doesn't hesitate to answer when his name is called. He's filled with a reverent fear, as we shall soon see, but I think the fact that he doesn't flee the scene in terror tells us that he has an inkling this is the Lord and not some unholy apparition or figment of his imagination. Instead of running away he keeps moving closer until the Lord calls him to a halt. "'Do not come any closer,' God said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.'" (Exodus 3:5) It is believed that many ancient cultures worshiped in their temples with bare feet as a symbol of humility in the presence of their gods. Because God is in this place in the desert, this place is every bit as holy as any temple. He has sanctified this plot of ground with His presence and Moses is to treat the spot like the holiest of temples.
Moses must stand at the proper distance from the fire for his own safety. There are several places in the Bible where God is referred to as "a consuming fire". He is so holy and we are so unworthy to approach Him that we would be consumed by His holiness if we came into His presence dressed in the rags of our unrighteousness. Moses can only come so close to the Lord here in Exodus 3. It's not that God wants to destroy anyone but that nothing unholy can survive in His presence. But thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave His life to cleanse us from our sins and make us acceptable in the sight of a holy God, when we approach God's throne of grace now we are coming to Him dressed in the beautiful righteousness of Christ. I think we'll always maintain a reverent awe of God our Maker, but we won't have to fear being consumed.
The Lord removes any doubts Moses may harbor regarding the identity of the One speaking to him. "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." (Exodus 3:6) Though none of us has seen God face to face, when we "see" Him spiritually (when we develop an understanding of how utterly holy and pure and perfect and righteous He is) we see ourselves as we really are. Our unrighteousness becomes painfully clear. Our first instinct is to hide, just as Moses does. The instinct of the first human being, Adam, was to hide from God in the Garden of Eden after he sinned against God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. God's holiness shines a light on our unholiness and that makes us want to hide in fear of the living God. We know He's a consuming fire. We know sin and unrighteousness can't dwell in His presence. When Moses encounters God, he remembers his premeditated murder of the Egyptian. He remembers every other sin of his life. From big to small he thinks of them all and finds himself unable to look the Lord in the eyes. But this is a good thing. Acknowledgement of sin is the first step to repentance and salvation. In hiding his face Moses is admitting he's a sinner. He's admitting that he's trespassed against the righteous laws of the Lord. He's admitting his need for redemption.
It's when man's first instinct is not to hide from the living God that we need to worry, for that person is in danger of never seeking redemption for his sins. The person who openly flaunts his sins in the face of God is in danger of standing before the judgment throne someday and having the Lord say to him, "I never knew you. Away from Me, evildoer!" (Matthew 7:23)
For forty years Moses has beaten himself up for announcing himself to the Hebrews as their deliverer in the wrong way. He knows he tried to take matters into his own hands and that he got ahead of God's timing. He thought he disqualified himself to be used by God and that God cast him aside and forgot about him. But God didn't forget about Moses anymore than He forgot about the oppression of the Hebrews in Egypt. The time has come for God to bring His people out of slavery and Moses is still the man He's chosen for the job. "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.'" (Exodus 3:7-10)
When the answer to our prayers seems like it's a long time in coming, we may start to wonder if God has seen our misery. We might develop doubts whether He is concerned about our suffering. But nothing could be further from the truth. He says to us the same thing He says about the plight of the Israelites in Egypt, "I have indeed seen your misery. I have heard your cries. I am coming to the rescue." The rescue doesn't always take place immediately. God sometimes leaves us in our circumstances for a set period of time determined by Him to accomplish something in our lives. It's hard for us to wait, especially when we don't know the reason for the wait---and God often doesn't provide us with the reason, at least not up front. I don't know about you, but as soon as difficult circumstances come into my life I want them gone. And sometimes God clears a problem up the same day it occurs. We all love it when He does that, don't we? Other times it's days or weeks or months before the situation is resolved. Sometimes we wait years to see the answer to our prayers. But that doesn't mean God doesn't see us or hear us. That doesn't mean He isn't concerned. It simply means it isn't the right time yet.
Moses got ahead of God forty years ago when he didn't want to wait for God's timing. We don't know how he came to understand in his younger years that he was the man God intended to use to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, but he didn't wait for the word "go". As a consequence, he's spent many years in the desert convincing himself he missed his destiny due to his poor sense of timing. He thinks he's been decommissioned. He expects to spent the rest of his life herding sheep day in and day out before he eventually dies in obscurity. He believes the Hebrews, the Egyptians, and the Lord have all pretty much forgotten his name. But God never intended him to deliver the Hebrews until now, so what Moses has considered exile and defeat has only been a time of preparation. On the day Moses killed the Egyptian or on the day he separated two Hebrews who were fighting with each other, He wasn't prepared to lead an enormous group of people. He had no idea how God intended to accomplish the deliverance of these people from slavery and no doubt he envisioned it as an uprising of some sort with him leading an army of Hebrews just as he once led the army of Egypt. Whatever plan Moses may have come up with, it would have ended in disaster and in the death of many of the people he was trying to rescue. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt had to be done in God's timing and in God's way. Moses needed to wait for God to say "go" and in today's passage God says, "So now, go."
Now, go. Not forty years ago. But now. We can learn a lesson from this when waiting to move ahead with things in our own lives. We need to make sure we're moving ahead on God's terms and in God's timing. If we've got a big decision to make, we need to wait for God to say, "Now, go!"
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