Moses at the Burning Bush

3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.²There 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.³Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’⁴When 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.’⁵Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’⁶He 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,⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’¹¹But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’¹²He 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 worship God on this mountain.’

The Lectionary now takes us from the ancient nomadic origins of Israel to the event which more than any other it celebrated as foundational: the exodus from slavery in Egypt, which not only determines the nature of the people but also reveals the nature of their God. God is the One who does not forget his people although they may forget their God; who has a peculiar affection for this one people whom, they believe, he has selected to convey his blessing to all nations; who retains his mysterious holiness yet talks face to face with Moses his chosen leader; who supports the oppressed and opposes the mighty ones of the earth. The crucial utterances of God are: I have observed he misery of my people…..I have heard their cry….. I know their sufferings…. I have come down to deliver. This is the meaning of the holiness of God. The mystery is not beyond human comprehension: it is the saving justice of God.

Although Christians believe that this saving justice is definitively displayed in Jesus Christ, they understand Jesus, as Jesus understood himself, in the tradition of Moses, the friend of God.

Moses asks in fear and bewilderment, “Who am I?” and is answered with the fearful and bewildering words, “I will be with you.” which mean, “You don’t yet know who you are but I will be with you as you find out. I, God will be the companion of a man. I, the invisible One will be your strength against all the visible powers of the world.” Yes, here is a God who is present ONLY as the invisible One. Moses might well have answered, “What use is a power that nobody can see?”

The story of the Bible is the story of how a people comes to know itself as it comes to know the saving justice of the Invisible One. It can also be the story of individual lives. I’ve been reading the biography of John Newton the author of “Amazing Grace” and what stands out is the fact that although he dated his conversion as taking place in 1748, he continued to 1754 as a captain of slave ships; and for some time thereafter as an investor in the trade. It was only as he lived with God and was challenged by evangelicals who were opposed to the trade, that he knew truly who he had been, and who he now was. His confessional pamphlet “Reflections on the Slave Trade” is an honest illustration of the words, “was blind, but now I see.”

Journeying with God means discovering ourselves, which is seldom comfortable.