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Nevertheless, his mistaken action brought him to the place of revelation, an instance
of "all things work together for good". Having fled from Egypt and the wrath of
Pharaoh, Moses went into Midian, where he came in touch with Jethro, the priest of
Midian. Tending Jethro's sheep Moses saw the burning bush, from which God spoke to
him:
"Now Moses kept the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he
led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to
Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of
a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not
consumed" (Exod. 3: 1, 2).
It has been suggested that the burning bush signified the affliction of the Hebrew
nation: the bush burned, but was not consumed. For Israel the fire still, to this day, burns
on, yet the nation is not, and has not been consumed. But may it not (also) signify the
affliction of Moses as God's man? We have already seen that Paul, writing to the
Hebrews pointed out that Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,
rather than the pleasures of sin, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than
those of Egypt. Moreover others of those whom God called were confronted with more
than the possibility of suffering in the service of God. Paul is perhaps the outstanding
example of this, for he was told at the time of his call "how great things he must suffer
for My name's sake" (Acts 9: 16). Paul is the one who makes quite clear what is at issue
here:
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord:
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ" (Phil. 3: 7, 8).
"Win" would be better translated "gain", for here Paul is setting forth a spiritual
`profit and loss account': the `treasures of Egypt' are not to be compared with the
incalculable gain of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Again like others called to God's service, Moses was made aware of the holiness of
the One calling him.
"And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am 1: And He said, Draw
not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is
holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of thy 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" (Exod. 3: 4-6).
Without the sense of God's holiness and greatness, service relies too much on `the arm
of flesh'. As we saw in the last study, Abraham experienced `an horror of great darkness'
at the time when the covenant was enacted. Without the sense of the greatness of God,
we have a God Who is `too small'.