Day 905: God's time - Exodus 2 vs 23 – 3 vs 10

Chapter 2 vs 23-25 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites and took notice. Chapter 3 vs 1-3 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. 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 a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed. So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvellous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?” 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Acts 7:33)

6 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, for he was afraid to look at God. 7-8 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey - the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9-10 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Exodus 2:33-3:10 Berean Study Bible. (For ESV)

God used a bush ablaze with fire, yet not being consumed, to make Himself known to Moses. In the New Testament a man named Paul saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, shining around him and those journeying with him. (Acts 26:12) In both cases God called them by name to the work He had in store for them. They both had key roles in God's plans. As today's reading is a straight forward narrative I'll just make a couple of comments.

The first thing that struck me was that God told Moses that He saw Israel's affliction and suffering, had remembered His promise to Abraham, and was coming to rescue them from Egypt and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But did you notice the first four words of today's reading?

“After a long time.” In fact, hundreds of years had passed since Joseph had brought his brothers to Egypt to save them from the terrible famine in the world. And some 40 years had passed since Moses had fled from Egypt to the region where this vision took place. The point I make is the one the apostle Peter made when he wrote: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (But) The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise.” (2 Peter 3:8-9) As Christians await rescue from the afflictions of this world we mustn’t lose heart as many centuries roll by. God has His own timescale for when He will act.

My other thought was that I wonder if the bush being ablaze, but not consumed, was perhaps a 'visual aid' to encourage Moses? When he realized he was in God's presence and heard the command to remove his sandals because it was holy ground, we read that he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Even though it was just an appearance of God's presence.) When God sent the prophet Malachi to tell of a day when He was going to purify His people, rather than destroy them, God said “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) And in Lamentations 3:22 we read: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”

Hebrews 12:28 says that “God is a consuming fire”, and must be worshipped with reverence and awe. The good news is that, as with that frail bush in the wilderness, true believers, like Moses, are not consumed - because of God's compassionate love.