Moses and The burning Bush

A time of wondering

Ancestry.com seems like a fun thing. Tracing lineage back through the ages. I have many friends that have participated in this endeavor. My sister-in-law has traced her heritage to British royal family line. I don’t know much about my family heritage. We don’t know where we came from, what history that is worthy of remembering, none. It would be nice but for my family it had not ever been important. Some say knowing who you are is vital to understanding yourself. But knowing your lineage may not always play out the way you hope.

Encountering God in the wilderness.

Located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Greek Orthodox monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai is located at the very place where God appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, beneath the Mount of the Decalogue. In the providence of God, it is at this site also that the holy relics of Saint Catherine are enshrined. This is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, with a history that can be traced back over seventeen centuries. The monastery predates the divisions of the Christian world, its origins extending to late antiquity.

The monastery has never been destroyed in all its history, and thus it can be said to have preserved intact the distinctive qualities of its Greek and Roman heritage.

Moses or Mosheh, is an Egyptian name meaning “drawn from” the water

Born a Hebrew, set a drift in the river to be discovered by Pharaoh's daughter. He was pulled from the Nile and placed in the house of the Egyptian Pharaoh and raised as a son.

Moses rejected his household.

Hebrews 11:24–25 “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

Moses fled Egypt after he murdered an Egyptian Guard.

The imputed identity

Moses is caring for the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro. He comes to a new pasture in the mountains of Horeb also, known as Sinai.

Hebrew term for bush סְנֶה sĕneh is and a foreshadowing of Mt. Sinai.

Removes his sandals. This is a reverent act upon a holy place. God demands that Moses remove any uncleanliness.

Moses hides his face: Isaiah the prophet, Elijah,. This is dissimilar from Adam and Eve who hid because of sin and shame. Moses covers his face out of reverence to God’s introduction of himself.

God invited Moses not commanded him to go down to Egypt. Ex3:10

Exodus 3:10 NRSV

So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

Moses responded with a question: “Who am I, that I should go?”

Who are you? Who? Who?

Question of lineage, relationship, and authority.

Moses feels he has been rejected by the Hebrews.

He has rejected pharaoh by killing a guard.

He is a shepherd in the wilderness for his father-in-law.

It is not about who Moses is or is not but about God’s invitation to come.

To God status, history, authority, ability does not matter.

God is your status, present and future, and your agency.

God calls those whom he desires for his purpose.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

1 John 3:1 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Exodus 4:2 “The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.””

God calls, qualifies, and equips those whom he sends.

Hineni : Readiness to submit and obey.

Here I am, send me!

The identity of God

Who is it that I should say is sending me.

“I AM” has sent you. Can you imagine?

God is undefinable. Sovereign over all creation. He the covenant maker and walks in relationship to his creature. There is no name that can command His obedience only he is self existent.

His name is a proclamation that He is faithful and all powerful.

God declares Moses’s heritage “I Am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

God confirms any doubts Moses has about his heritage. Moses is a son of Abraham. He belongs to his father and carries the covenant made so long ago. 400 yrs.

Moses lived away from God, far from the morality of the divine. Here we witness that full reception into God’s presence is only through the invitation. “Come, and I will go with you.”

We no longer need to hide our faces. Our lineage has been traced back all the way to Jesus. Our identity is in the cross of Jesus Christ.

God calls us to the cross of Jesus Christ. Like the staff of Moses the cross is the sign of of great power, God’s power. We are known by God’s name, we are in the heritage of Jesus Christ. Moses takes the staff and it is an object of Divine obedience to the will of God. Jesus takes his cross to Golgotha that the will of the Father be done.

God is calling you out of the mundane, out of the comfortable, out of the familiar to a life of obedience, power, and blessing! Are you on holy ground? Do you hear His voice? Will you remove the sandals from your feet? Will you answer Heneni?