Behold the Strange – 8/20/2017

WARNING PREACHY…

Exodus 3:1-3

¹Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

I have heard a thousand reasons why people don’t follow Jesus.  Some are very honest like the person who said “I want to live life my way and according to my terms.  I don’t want anyone dictating some moral code to me!”

Fair enough, at last this reasoning is honest.

Others will reason that God doesn’t really exist and Jesus never actually rose back to life from the dead. 

That’s less honest, for History doesn’t allow that reasoning to hold under scrutiny.  It would be like telling a Jewish child that the Holocaust never actually happened, or that it really wasn’t that bad. 

There are plenty more reasons people give for not following Jesus than the two I’ve presented but you get the point.

In the Exodus 3 passage, Moses was at work one day; his job, his daily grind, when he had an inkling.  It wasn’t like a burrito rumble in the tummy type of inkling, more like an overwhelming sense that God is really trying to get my attention inkling.  A bush was burning and wasn’t burring up.

I don’t know how often random bushes in his country would just be on fire but apparently the fact that it burned was not a big enough deal to notice it.  But the fact that it didn’t burn up was.  So Moses thought to himself that he would go over and “see this strange sight.”

It was at that point; the moment in time when Moses went to “see this strange sight” the world for Moses changed forever -- because God called his name and he replied.

There are a thousand excuses (or reasons if you like) that we do not go to God, but the one thing we need to do is take notice of the burning bushes in our own lives and go see the strangeness. 

Just As I Am

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.