Blogging Exodus 3:
1-6
Now Moses was tending
the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the
flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And
the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.
So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not
consumed.
3 Then Moses said, “I
will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
4 So when the Lord saw
that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and
said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I
am.”
5 Then He said, “Do
not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where
you stand is holy ground.”
6 Moreover He said, “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 upon God (Exodus 3: 1-6).
Moses saw a bush on fire.
In the desert.
And?
Brush fires weren’t unusual in the desert, but this
particular fire was . . . weird. It
didn’t do what fires normally do.
Fire is light and heat.
Fire light reveals, symbolically and literally pushing back darkness.
Your word is a lamp to
my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119: 105).
The heat of a fire transforms the internal chemical nature
of its fuel, and unless exposure to the heat of flame is controlled, fire will
consume and destroy whatever it burns.
For our God is a
consuming fire! (Hebrews 12:29)
A great move of God in your life and the life of a community
can be frightening, like spotting flames in the brush surrounding you. In that
moment your instinct may be to flee or to douse the flames. You might escape into distracting
entertainment, mind-numbing social media, or the soul-clouding anesthetic of
sin. You could quench the Holy Spirit by
rationalizing providence as coincidence or by submerging your head in the sands
of anxiety and self-doubt.
Moses, the introvert, chose to retreat into himself.
And Moses hid his
face, for he was afraid to look upon God (Genesis 3:6).
Fear is the opposite of faith.
Jesus said to them,
“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26).
Fear is also the opposite of love.
There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he
who fears has not been made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).
The only good fear is the fear of God.
The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs
1:7).
Knowledge is also called enLIGHTenment.
Moses hid his face in fear, but not fear of being destroyed by
the Lord’s fiery wrath. He already knew
that this was a fire that didn’t consume.
He looked, and behold,
the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).
Moses hid his face because he was afraid to SEE what new and
disruptive things God wanted to show him.
Moses didn’t want to know. He
didn’t want to be enLIGHTened.
When God lights a fire in your life, you don’t have to
fear. The fire isn’t sent to destroy you. It’s there to light your way.
For I am the Lord, I
do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob (Malachi 3:6).
If you’re afraid like Moses was, do what Moses did: Follow
your curiosity and draw closer to God in study.
Then Moses said, “I
will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn” (Genesis
3:3).
If you’re afraid like Moses, do what Moses did: Draw
closer to God in worship.
Take your sandals off
your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (Genesis 3:5).
If you’re afraid like Moses, do what Moses did: Be
present in the presence of God.
God called to him from
the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I
am” (Genesis 3:4).
When God called me to preach and when He called me to serve in
the community full time, I was a scared as a shepherd watching a weird brush
fire in the desert. I hid from, ran
from, and rationalized away those callings for years. But while I wrestled, I studied, I
worshipped, and I learned by fasting and meditation to be present in the presence
of God. Then I laid all my excuses out
before God. And then I followed His
calling on my life.
It wasn’t and isn’t easy, but it was and is worth it.
So you are not alone.
WE aren’t alone. Moses knew the
same anxiety. He felt the same self-doubt.
He, like us, felt the same fear at what God was going to reveal to us about
us this time. Moses, like us, dealt with
his fear through study, worship, and practicing presence with God.
Those tools still work.
I know they do.
You don’t have to fear the fire.
You can listen to the full sermon that led to this article. The audio version is posted at http://andersontgraves.blogspot.com/2017/03/dont-fear-fire.html
--Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community
organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership
development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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