1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold,the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
REFLECTION
If time allows, read the whole chapter. Then read the passage for today.
Moses is shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep. In the distance he saw a bush in flames, but the bush mysteriously didn’t burn up. He walked closer, perhaps expecting a miracle, only to have a more unique encounter than he ever imagined. He interacted with the living God.
What has your experience of God been like? When have you felt like you have heard God speaking to you?
When God asked Moses to remove his sandals from his feet, God was reminding Moses that where God is, that place becomes holy. In addition, in the ancient near east, a servant takes off his shoes to show deep respect to his master.
God is holy. What difference does that make in your life and how you think about the Holy Spirit in and with you?
Moses heard from God when he paid attention. Like Moses, we often encounter God when we pay attention to what’s going on around us. Find a quiet place and spend a few moments in utter silence, paying attention to those aspects of your life that you often neglect: people, situations, quiet moments, creation, and so on. As you do this, look for God to interact with.
PRAYER
Ask God to reveal himself to you today in a fresh way, a way that he has never revealed himself before.
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
God Hears Israel’s Groaning
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
REFLECTION
If time allows, read the whole chapter. Then read vv11-24 slowly once more.
Toward the end of the 430 years, God chose Moses to be the leader to deliver His people out of hardship. But, God seemed to take a long time and a convoluted path to shape the soul and destiny of Moses.
Are you aware of God’s hand in shaping your soul and destiny? What is it? How are you responding?
Have a conversation with God. Ask the Holy Spirit to help align your feelings and will with those of God’s.
Read this hymn based on Ps 6:10-12 “God, you are re-arranging my future” by Watchman Nee as a conversation with God. www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/8273
God, You are now rearranging my way
God, You are now rearranging my way. All I have built You’re destroying today.
Those serving faithfully daily decrease. Dishonesty, misunderstandings increase.
My eyes are teary; I can’t see You clearly, As though all Your words aren’t as real as before.
You make me decrease, that You might thus increase, To make Your will sweeter than ever before.
For Your hand stopping I’d almost implore, When I feel I cannot take any more.
Yet You are God! Oh, how can You give way? Please, Lord, do not give in; wait ’till I obey.
If Your good pleasure and will should decree That I must take suffering’s yoke upon me,
Then may my heart’s deepest joy be this thing— Obeying Your will to take the suffering.
It seems the price that’s required for Your joy Is that I’m hindered and knocked down by You;
Therefore I’d welcome Your hindering pull, If thus I could cause Your heart to be joyful.
You’ve given chariots to others instead. You have made them thus to ride o’er my head.
You stretch Your hand out my all now to take, Yet please leave Your stripping hand here for my sake.
The books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers continue the story of how God formed the nation of Israel to play a special role in his plans for the whole world. When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God came to them and worked powerfully through Moses to deliver them. At Mount Sinai, God revealed his laws to Moses, including the Ten Commandments, and confirmed his covenant with the young nation. Israel built a “tabernacle,” or “tent of meeting,” so that God could live among them. The people then traveled through the wilderness to the land of Canaan.
The boundaries between the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are not sharply drawn. The key structure throughout the books relates to the various places the Israelites stopped on their journey. Each location is noted, and the events at each one are described. The key location is Mount Sinai; the second half of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers describe what took place there. Leviticus specifically contains the laws and regulations the Lord gave to Israel. Numbers reports how the people were organized into a fighting force and moved toward the Promised Land.
Numbers reaches back across Leviticus and Exodus and repeats the phrase that structures Genesis: This is the account of the family of Aaron and Moses (Num. 3:1). Appropriately, we hear this phrase for the twelfth time as the twelve tribes are being organized into a nation. Near the end of Numbers the prophet Balaam says to Israel, May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed. This recalls God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. These references show that together these books tell a single story of the beginning of God’s redemptive work in the world.
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
Pharaoh Oppresses Israel
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
REFLECTION
Read this passage slowly. If time allows, read through the whole chapter once before reading the selected portion to gain a better and fuller picture.
The Israelites spent 430 years in Egypt after Jacob’s family traveled there (as we read in the last chapters of Genesis). Their privileged lives in Goshen have been taken away gradually. When their exploding population reached a point that it became a threat to the Egyptians, the Pharaoh issued a decree to kill all baby boys at birth. During this long period of hardship, God appeared to be silent or absent.
There are times in our lives when God seems to ignore or be unaware of our difficulties. The story of Exodus helps us realize that the sense of God’s absence is part of a greater narrative in which, though we may not be able to see it, God continues to be at work.
Usually our understanding of God’s salvation includes God’s continual and active protection against sickness, relationship conflicts, unemployment, death, disappointment and failure. Therefore, when we experience “God’s absence” whether it’s a few weeks, months, or years, for most of us, we don’t think of it as “normal”. But this text, along with numerous others throughout Scripture, argues otherwise.
Have you had any “God’s absence” experience? What was it? How did you feel? Was it resolved? Recall Joseph’s experience in Genesis 37-50, how would that help you see the “Immanuel” God in your own experience?
PRAYER
Tell God your situation right now. Whether you feel “God’s absent” or “Immanuel”, ask God to help you become aware of Him through a small incident today
