I have often heard people say
something to the effect of, “If only God would speak to me from a burning bush,
then things would be so much clearer.” I
too have considered that at times. In
this day and age, God seems to communicate in much more subtle ways than he did
in the Old Testament. Yet when I find
myself yearning for the clarity of a burning bush, I remind myself of what that
burning bush did for Moses. It changed
his life forever. It really complicated
his life, and the life of his family. It
turned a shepherd into a leader of an oppressed people, a man who would
challenge the Pharaoh of Egypt. I am
sure there were times when Moses wished God would have been a little more
subtle as that would have made it easier to ignore him.
But Moses did not ignore the
bush. It was curiously that drew him to
the bush. He was beyond the wilderness
tending a flock. He was alone. I imagine he was a little bored, probably
lonely. From a distance he saw what appeared to be a
bush that was on fire. The fact that
there was a bush on fire was not what interested him. What interested him was that the bush was not
consumed by the fire. He was intrigued
and decided that he needed to investigate this a little further. It was only when he drew near to the
miraculous sight that God called to him from the bush. God called his name…he said it twice. He then identified himself as the God of his
father, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
There could be no doubt of who this was or who he was calling.
If only God spoke to us all this
way! God could create something shiny that would grab our attention. God would then call our name and then in no
uncertain terms identify himself. That
is the way that I want God to communicate with me. It seems so straightforward. It was this clarity that led Moses to hide
his face. It was common knowledge at
this time that if you looked at God directly it would be the last thing you
would do. Seeing the face of God would
end in your death. Moses did the safe
and smart thing. He had responded to God
by saying, “Here I am”, he followed God’s directions by removing his shoes and
now he was shielding his face out of deference to the power of God. So far, things are going about as well as can
be expected when a burning bush is involved.
God has never been one for small talk and
immediately got to the point. He knew what was going on in Egypt. He knew that the Hebrew people were suffering
at the hands of the Egyptians. He went as far as to say, “I know their
sufferings…” That meant that not only
was he aware of what was going on, but he had experienced the suffering with
the people. He felt the pain and the
desperation. I imagine that this understanding
was comforting to Moses. Finally someone
was on their side, someone with power and authority. If this God could create a bush that would
burn but never turn to ash, surely God could free his people.
But then God explained how this was all
going to happen. He was going to send
Moses to the Pharaoh and he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Suddenly Moses was wishing he had gone about
his business tending his flock and not investigated this dangerous bush. There is a little detail in this story that
is usually left out. The Hebrew word
that is translated to bush is actually translated to thorn bush. This wasn’t just any old bush. This was a thorn bush and those bushes can be
dangerous. It was a dangerous bush and
an even more dangerous message. Moses
argued with God for a little bit and was eventually worn down. God did not promise Moses that it would be
easy or that it would be safe and sacrifice free. He only promised that he
would be with him through it all.
Whenever I am asked to pray, I almost
always ask for God’s presence and that God’s presence be known. That’s because I believe that God’s presence
is a comfort and reassurance in difficult times as well as good times. Yet as I
consider this rather thorny text, I wonder if that is the right prayer when
seeking solace and comfort. If God wanted to comfort Moses, he could have sent
a rainbow like he did for Noah. But
that’s not what God did. God lit a thorn
bush on fire, a fire that could not be quenched.
God should be a comfort to us all. But
God should also challenge us, challenge us to change. When you have a personal encounter with God,
you will always be changed. You might
even leave with a limp or a scar. It’s
like when you start exercising after not working out for a while, it
hurts. But you know that that the pain
will lead to a positive change. You know
that you will endure. It is the same
with our encounters with God. When we
open ourselves to God, we will be changed and it won’t be an easy change. I am reminded of a quote that I have seen and
probably mentioned before. “God loves
you just the way you are, but God loves you too much to let you stay that way.”
That to me is what the season of Lent is
about. It’s not about beating ourselves
up for our deficiencies or our sins. It
is about opening ourselves up to new encounters with God, even if those
encounters shake us up a little…even if God tells us the exact opposite of what
we want to hear.
Now
you might be thinking, ok, I am ready for this new thorny encounter. Where’s my burning bush?
While the burning bush will probably not
be your sign, there are some things we can learn from Moses’ experience. The
only reason that he saw the bush was because he was looking at the world around
him. If we are perpetually gazing at a
screen…we will probably not see the bush.
Our world is suffering from sensory overload. It is suffocating. Therefore we need to be deliberate about
creating that space to encounter God. It
might just mean turning off the music or podcast. It might even mean silencing the phone. I realize these things sounds drastic, but we
have to give God something to work with.
God did not call out to Moses until Moses turned from his task and went
to investigate the bush. My prayer for
all of us is that God will be present with us and that we will know that
presence. I pray that presence will not
only bring us the peace of God-- but will also disturb our complacency and
light a fire that cannot be quenched.
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