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Thursday 5 December

Moses and the burning bush

Exodus 3: 1-12

This well-known episode in the Book of the Exodus reveals aspects of the character of Moses: his righteous anger, his fear of exposure after killing an Egyptian, his need to escape, his curiosity, his awe at meeting with God, his trepidation at the prospect ahead and his faithful acceptance of God’s promise to be with him in the task.

The backstory sets the scene. Moses kills an Egyptian man whom he sees beating a Hebrew. Pharoah hears of the crime and intends to kill Moses. Fear grips Moses who escapes to Midian where he marries the priest’s daughter. The angel of the Lord then appears to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush while he minds his father-in-law’s flock. A bush on fire but not consumed by the blaze is unusual.  Moses turns aside to investigate and hears God speaking to him.  

It is in the quiet ordinariness of his day-to-day occupation that Moses had this encounter and it turned his life upside down again.

Moses was attentive, open to the unusual, ready to risk encounter.   He responding with awe at God’s presence. The unexpected outcome was God’s charge to him to lead all the Hebrews away from oppression, just as he had acted against previous oppression. Guilt and memories of past failures assailed Moses as he contemplated the hugeness of what was asked of him.   In faith Moses accepted God’s promise to be with him in the task he faced.

Whatever may be on our consciences this Advent, or causing us anxiety, may we seek the grace to be open to a meeting with God, to be alive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit whatever the circumstances and to know God’s presence in times of ease as well as hardship, with Jesus as our constant companion on the way.

Will you turn aside this Advent to speak anew with God?

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Exodus 3.1-12

Moses 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. There 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.

Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’

When 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.’

Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He 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.

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, and 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. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’

But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ He 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.’