Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Pam Reed 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 (NLT)
1One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
5 “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 6 I am the God of your father —the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. 9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”
13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”
14 God replied to Moses, “I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, 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 eternal name,
my name to remember for all generations.
Devotional Thought:
Have you ever felt abandoned by God? Have you thought that you are too old (or too young) to start ministry for God? Perhaps because of a past failure you have felt that you are no longer worthy to be in leadership or ministry?
Moses, saved from death and brought up by a daughter of the Pharaoh, was an Israelite of rare privilege and influence (Exodus 2:1-10). As a young man, he failed spectacularly when trying to help his enslaved people (Ex 2:11-15). In killing an Egyptian foreman, he encountered the ire of not just the Pharaoh but his own people as well. He fled from Egypt to Midian and settled there in obscurity.
Forty years passed. Did Moses wonder what would become of his people? As a shepherd in the desert, did he regret all that wasted potential – the education and privilege that could have been used to assist his people? Did he wonder whether God could still use him – or did he think that at 80 years of age (Ex 7:7) he was too old to work for God?
All that changes in an instant! In his normal task of tending sheep, Moses goes to Mt Sinai and there encounters something spectacular. A bush burning and yet not burning up – how can that be?
Having got his attention, God commands Moses to remove his sandals as he approaches, because the place is holy ground. What did Moses think about removing his sandals? After all, this wasn’t the smooth floor of a temple, but the stony, thorny ground of the desert lands. But he obeys, and with this obedience God can speak to him about the new and great (and frustrating) leadership task he is calling Moses to fulfil.
Just when it seemed that Moses could never help his people, just when it seemed that he was too old to make a difference, God called him to start again. Moses’ previous life and training were not wasted, because he understood the court of the Pharaoh. Nor was his experience of desert living wasted, because God was calling Moses to lead his people out of Egypt through desert lands to spend time, and receive guidance and laws, at Mt Sinai.
Despite everything in Moses’ past, and despite his failures, God had not abandoned him (or the Israelites either). And God does not abandon us or reject us when we have failed. If we are open to God’s leading, we can begin again to follow God in his ways.
Prayer:
God of compassion and mercy, you know our innermost thoughts and desires. You know when we have failed you and yet you forgive when we seek your pardon. Thank you that our failures do not make us unlovable to you. Help us, in circumstances when we feel abandoned, to know that you are still walking with us and still want to teach and guide us into new places where we can share your love with others. Amen.