Exodus 3: 1-6: “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy 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 upon God.”
In spite of what many people say today, the desert is a good place to get to know God. When Moses had to spend time out in the desert with the flocks looking for water and feed, he had plenty of time to see the greatness and majesty of the Lord as he looked into the sky. The Egyptians didn’t like shepherds who kept flocks and herds (see Gen 46: 34, “for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.”) so they didn’t have the same experience of spending time under the stars in the night. Their view of God was much smaller and restricted because they kept away from the wide open spaces and stayed close to the river. They worshipped gods that were related to the river and the yearly flood season bringing the life they depended on. On the other hand, Moses had forty years to expand his understanding of the Lord and know that the Lord is far greater than any of the gods of Egypt. Moses was in Midian and came to a mountain called Horeb, there he saw a bush that was burning but wasn’t destroyed in the fire. He went over to bush to see what was happening. The Lord called out to Moses from the bush, for He was there, causing the bush to burn. The Lord told Moses to take his shoes off because he was standing on holy ground and told Moses that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even though Moses had been trained in the best schools of Egypt, he understood what the Lord was talking about because his mother trained him first and taught him all about the Lord. Moses understood the situation and was afraid to look at the Lord. The time had come and Moses was prepared to do the job the Lord had prepared for him even though he needed some persuading.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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