One of my favorite stories is Moses
and the burning bush. Moses had fled from Egypt after killing a man and made a
pretty nice little life for himself in Midian. But whatever Moses thought
himself capable of, God wanted way more
from him.
So God sends this burning bush, to
kind of get Moses’ attention as well as let him know what needs to be done. An interesting
thing about this bush, that Moses notices as well, is that “the bush was
burning, yet it was not consumed.” I think in all of our lives we should do our
best to burn for God, so anyone who knows us will be able to see Him through
us. But at the same time, we can’t burn so fast and hard that we burn out. I’ve
definitely made that mistake in my life. Indeed, God’s word must be proclaimed
to all who might receive it, but when we think about structures and time commitments,
you can’t stretch yourself too far. If you do overcommit overzealously, you
will not be able to impact as many
people as well.
Next God starts conversing with
Moses (how freaking cool is that????), letting him know how to save the Israelites
out of Egypt and how to get them to listen. Moses has many excuses, but God has
an answer for all of them. Finally Moses says to God, “I am not eloquent… but
am slow of speech and of tongue.” I’ve heard it said before that some people
think Moses had a stutter or some kind of speech impediment. At this last excuse God is
like, “Listen here buddy. Who MADE your mouth?! Who MADE you?! I will be with there with you every step of the way, and I
will tell you what to say.” In other words Moses has the easiest gig in the world.
But he still doesn’t believe the
Israelites will listen to him and begs God to send someone else.
At this point, the human rationale would
expect God’s response to Moses’ behavior to be along the lines of, “Alright,
Moses, I’m about to save your people from slavery, throw in some bangin’
miracles along the way, and you seriously don’t want a part of this? I’m doing all
the work and you get to slap your name on it when it’s over. Alright, fine, I’ll
just get someone else.” But God, being the super patient, merciful God that He
is, tells Moses to meet his brother Aaron, and He will use the both of them to
carry out His plan. “You shall speak to [Aaron] and put the words in his mouth,
and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what
to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and
you shall be as God to him.”
This story reminds me a lot of Job, when
he has been basically reduced to nothing and resorts to complaining, but God
gently reminds him who indeed made the heavens and the earth, who the lightning
asks where to strike, who set the stars in the sky, and who set the oceans in
their rhythm of ebb and flow. I think we can learn so much from this. No matter
who we are, where we are, what we’re going through, simply remember that God is
GOD, and He has created each and every one of us. He loves us sooooooo much and
has such great plans for every last individual. How could we not be absolutely
ecstatic to serve a God like Him??
Note: This has been taken from Exodus
3 and 4, and is a very loose interpretation of what I think the Bible may be
trying to convey
Also if you want to watch something that will blow your mind and/or make you cry, here is a music video based on the last few chapters in Job.
Also if you want to watch something that will blow your mind and/or make you cry, here is a music video based on the last few chapters in Job.
