Fugitive from Futility

“Do not come any closer,’ God said….. – Exodus 3:5

 
            This is the first command God gave directly to Moses. “Do not come any closer”. God told Moses to stop in his tracks and remove his shoes. God said, “Halt”, like an officer of the law making an arrest; Moses, you have gone far enough. Take off your shoes, Moses. An arresting officer today might say something like, "get out of the car. Keep your hands where I can see them". God never told Moses to turn and look, Moses choose that on his own. No the very first time God spoke to his friend Moses, God told Moses to stop in his tracks.

Here in the faraway land of Midian where Moses, an heir to the promise of Abraham through Isaac,  lived among the sons of Ishmael . Moses was far, far from home in both time and distance. How did Moses end up like this? How did he happen upon the burning bush?

Moses was simply taking care of his father-in-law's business, he had become a shepherd. Apparently he had been doing this for 40 years.  And in the course of taking care of the mundane things Moses had a heavenly encounter.

            How did Moses end up taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep? He met his wife by a well, where she and here sisters women were being harassed by some other shepherds. Moses “rescued them” (see Exodus 2:19).

            Why was Moses there at the well? Moses was at the well because he left the palace of Pharaoh  as a fugitive. He had committed murder. Moses killed an Egyptian solider because he saw him abusing one of Moses' country men. At some point in Moses’ early life he became aware that he was a slave by birth and the injustice of the treatment of his country men troubled him. Moses might have been thinking I am in a position of influence I can do something about this injustice. Surely God will use me to change this situation.

            Moses was right, we know, God wanted to use him, but Pharaoh’s court could not prepare a man for the work of God. So Moses made a tragic, horrible mistake that cost him everything. He ran away and ended up so far from Egypt that he would never be found out. The truth about Moses would never be told.

            But God did find Moses. God called out to him through a burning bush, “Moses, Moses” and just as Moses turned to look, to see why the bush burn “but was not consumed”, God sprang the trap, “Come no further”. Not one more step in your shoes, this is a place you have never been before. This is Holy Ground. “Stop”!

Many of us have walked in Moses’ shoes. We saw a need, thought God would use us, acted in faith and then WHAM! next thing that happened was we had to run for our lives. Many of us have tried to out run the hound of heaven. Only to wake up one day and hear Him calling us by name.  In America today we are obsessed with self reflection. People hang onto to issues from childhood to the grave. We have untold millions of people running from themselves. The good news of the Gospel is that we have died with Christ. We are not reformed, we are a new creation in Christ. Not only is the past is not prelude, it does not even exist!

Stop! Take off your shoes! It ended at Calvary, how much time it takes for any one of us to realize it and live out the reality of it I do not know. It is different for each one of us. But God there is a day in our lives when God provides us a bush that burns and is not consumed and He waits for us to turn aside and look. This is Holy Ground.

             Did Moses run so far away that it took God 40 years to find him? Or did it take Moses 40 years to be willing to obey the command of ceasing from relying on his self? Either way the truth remains: anyone who will be used of God must first be stopped by God. (Think of Paul) Moses had become a fugitive from the futility of his own ways. The thing he was running from was Moses. Thank God for these transforming moments, the Holy Ground where he speaks to us and saves us from ourselves. The end result is a stunning transformation, sung about in the Song of Songs, “Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?” SOS 8:5 . Blessed is the man who has been cleansed, not merely from his past, but from his own self.