Exodus 3:1-15 - God working in unexpected ways

Devotions

Reading

NLT Exodus 3:1 One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he went deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 Suddenly, the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn't burn up. 3 "Amazing!" Moses said to himself. "Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go over to see this." 4 When the LORD saw that he had caught Moses' attention, God called to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" "Here I am!" Moses replied. 5 "Do not come any closer," God told him. "Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your ancestors-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." When Moses heard this, he hid his face in his hands because he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the LORD told him, "You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come to rescue them from the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own good and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey-- the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites live. 9 The cries of the people of Israel have reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians have oppressed them with heavy tasks. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." 11 "But who am I to appear before Pharaoh?" Moses asked God. "How can you expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 Then God told him, "I will be with you. And this will serve as proof that I have sent you: When you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to 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 won't believe me. They will ask, 'Which god are you talking about? What is his name?' Then what should I tell them?" 14 God replied, "I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS. Just tell them, 'I AM has sent me to you.' " 15 God also said, "Tell them, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob-- has sent me to you.' This will be my name forever; it has always been my name, and it will be used throughout all generations.

Meditation

Literal

Moses was about 80 years old when God encountered him in the burning bush. Up to this time Moses has had a life that had no real miracles and a lot of lost dreams. Saved by his mother, sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter he had become a prince of Egypt. He believed at the age of 40 that he would lead his people into a revolt against Egypt but they rejected his leadership and he ran into the desert to avoid being convicted of murder. He became the son-in-law of a Jethro, a priest of Midian, and had lived as a part of that shepherding community for 40 years feeling exiled from his people. At the age of 80 he had lost any dreams of being a great man or doing great things. There had been no miraculous intervention by God in his life. His dream of being God’s deliverer of His people had died long ago. He had become a old man who did not feel that he had gained wisdom but felt despair over the outcome of his life. At this point of despair and weakness, God comes and calls Him.

God comes to Him as the Eternal one who has made a promise to Abraham. The one who is outside of time is found in time because of His promise to Abraham. The people are to know that the God who Moses will represent is the same God that by a miracle brought Isaac to be born because He had promised Abraham that the one who would remove the curse would come through Him. God is reminding Moses and Israel of their historic faith. The name that God will forever be known by is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” This is the covenant name of God. The God who is committed to keeping His promises of His chosen ones is the one true God.

Why does God act now? He responds to the prayers and cries of His people. God the eternal one hears His people and has compassion on them in their pain.

This passage clearly tells us that God’s ways are not our ways. His timing is not our timing. Rev. Pummel had been pastor of the First Baptist Church of Kingsville for thirty years. In that thirty years he had never seen a revival. The church had remained plateaued at about 300 people as one generation of farm and factory workers replaced another generation of farm and factory workers in the small Ohio town. Now in His sixties he did not really expect anything different. Then in a unexpected turn of events a small meeting of seven teenagers at his house explodes into 70. Dozens are getting saved. A core group want to go into full time Christian ministry. The local paper is putting the group on the front page since in a world of drugs, sex, and rock and roll there are now a group of young people turning to Jesus. No one would have guessed that at the end of the school year Rev Pummel will die having had the last year of his life be the most fruitful of over 30 years of ministry. God’s timing and our timing are never the same.

Christocentric: - Christ will be called into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested after living a largely normal life after a miraculous birth. For thirty years he had been a faithful son and carpenter. Then he goes to be baptized by John and the heavens open and He is marked off as the anointed one of God and sent into the wilderness to be tested. It was God’s time.
Moral: Do not doubt that God has a plan just because even decades go by without a revival or reformation. God calls us to be faithful in the quiet times. We are not to doubt in the dark what God has revealed to us in the light. Cry out to God for revival and reformation and He will in time bring us seasons of awakening like we would never dream could happen.
Eternal: One day we will see the eternal one and fully experience the eternal life He has given us.

Prayer: Lord help me not fail to cry out to you and seek you for days of revival and reformation. Give me a heart of prayer. Lord, send us days of awakening and power!

Contemplation: I Am that I am

Action: Examine your life and look for the working of God that is there in the everyday events. At point in my life did I have a “burning bush” experience? How did it change me? Pray for revival without ceasing and do not be discouraged by the “quiet times”.

Psalm 67 - God will win in our lives!

Reading

NLT Psalm 67:1 For the choir director: A psalm, to be accompanied by stringed instruments. A song. May God be merciful and bless us. May his face shine with favor upon us. Interlude 2 May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. 3 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 4 How glad the nations will be, singing for joy, because you govern them with justice and direct the actions of the whole world. Interlude 5 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 6 Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. 7 Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him.

Meditation:

Literal - This is a royal psalm. Scholars often refer to a number of the psalms as royal psalms. These psalms are not all of one literary type, such as prayers of petition and songs of thanksgiving, but they are linked thematically by their emphasis on how God works through the office of king.

Like Psalms 65, 118 and 124, this is a Psalm of national thanksgiving, possibly used at the Hebrew New Year. At this time, Israel were exhorted to be joyful (Deut. 16:15; Lev. 23:40) The opening verse recalls the Aaronic Blessing that we frequently use in Christian worship (Num. 6:24-26). The Psalm first attends not to human experience but to God and to God’s grace.

The Psalm asks for God to have mercy on his people and favor them with His embrace. It then prays for all the nations that they may learn the ways of God and be touched by His Holy Spirit so that they may be delivered from the worship of idols and darkness into the light of worship in spirit and truth. This desire for global revival is because the psalmist desires global praise and worship of the true God. God’s kingdom coming to the earth will bring about harmony, peace, and gladness. To be under the rule of God is to be blessed. Here is clear proof that the Old Testament desired and saw a day when every nation would be called to faith. Here we have a prayer for true and substantial revival for all the earth.

Christocentric - Christ echoed this prayer when He taught us to pray; Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. He also called upon us to put feet to this prayer when He said to us, “Go into the whole world and make disciple, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Christ in His death has destroyed the work of the devil and in His resurrection has been given universal authority and power. Christ is the means by which God’s kingdom will come to earth. God will exult the people of the Lord and all nations will come to learn of His ways so that every culture and people will be transformed by His amazing Grace (Isaiah 2:1-5). Jesus Christ is the answer to this psalm.

Moral: We must desire to see God’s will done on earth as in heaven. We must bow the knee to Christ Jesus and have Him practically govern over us. We must learn His ways and not just have Him as our Savior but really have Him as our Lord. The kingdom of God must start in our heart, then our homes, and then it can reach out to govern the entire world. Personal piety is the beginning of global dominion for God’s kingdom. We must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in a sincere and real way in our own private worlds before we will see cultures consistently change to become Christ like.

Eternal: There is no doubt this prayer will be answered. When Jesus the Christ returns there will be much gladness, joy, and rejoicing among all nations, peoples, and tribes for His perfect rule will have come. The creation itself groans in deep desire to see the perfect peace the Prince of Peace will bring to all the earth. We should rejoice today in the knowledge that God’s will is going to be done on the earth and righteousness will dominate every nation. God’s kingdom will come and God’s will be done – Halleluiah!

Prayer: Matthew 6:9-13 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 'Give us this day our daily bread. 12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.'

Contemplation: Why do you call me “Lord, Lord” and not do the things that I say? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Action: I will pray for global revival. I will seek to promote and support missions more than I do. I will seek to make disciples in my daily life more that God may be praised.