Dear Friends
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr Linda Stargel, Academic Dean, for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Exodus 3:1-15
3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb,[a] the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “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 observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[b] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[c] the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.
Devotional
The first two chapters of the Bible paint a picture of a very good world in which God, humans, and all creation exist in harmony with one another. This is quickly undone by the disobedience of both the first couple and the generations that followed. The remainder of the Old Testament narrates God’s mission to restore all creation to these right relationships, and God’s calling, creation, and formation of Israel to participate in this endeavour.
In today’s passage, Moses is shepherding sheep for his father-in-law. This seems anti-climactic after the miraculous stories of his birth and divine preservation from death through his mother, his sister, two mid-wives, the daughter of Pharoah, and seven sisters! Finally, however, God’s plan for Moses is revealed at a burning bush. Moses is being called into God’s restoration plan. Moses answers that call with the words, “Here I am.” Others before and after him—in the Old Testament and the New—have answered God’s invitation with these same words—Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, Isaiah, Mary (the mother of Jesus), Ananias.
We too, who have been restored to a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, are called to participate in God’s restoration plan for all creation. The specifics of how God intends to use us may come suddenly in a “burning bush” or “Damascus Road” moment. Or it may be revealed to us progressively over a gradual sequence of events, through godly people and open doors. The important thing is not how God reveals to us the specifics of our participation, but rather what we do about it.
“Here I am!”
Prayer
God, how we long for the restoration of your harmonious world. Show us the specific way(s) you are calling and empowering us to participate your restoration plan. “Here we are!”
Linda M. Stargel
Academic Dean
Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Biblical Language