When God Works In The Ordinary Series

Introduction

A “Holy Moment” is when God meets with you or me, and that particular moment He has gotten my full attention, the whole world is tuned out and it is just God and me in a conversation.

We first saw that with Jonah on a ship heading to Tarshish. Although there was a ship full of sailors, Jonah knew that he and God were having a one-on-one discussion about the angry sea.

And last week, we saw that God had a “Holy Moment” with Cornelius, a Roman soldier who was at a God-fearer. And the Apostle Peter had a “Holy Moment” with God the next day. And God uses these two “Holy Moments” combined them together in an unlikely scenario and the result was that the church exploded in growth because the Gentiles were now welcomed in.

Today, we want to look at one of the more famous “Holy Moments” in the Bible. Everyone should know the story of Moses and how he fled Egypt after he discovered that some of his Jewish brethren saw him kill an Egyptian. Moses knew if these Jewish men knew, Pharaoh would eventually find out so, Moses fled. He ended up in the land of Midian, in the desert, married to one of Jethro’s daughters, and tending to the flock of Jethro as his occupation for the next forty (40) years.

We are not told in the Scripture of any communication between God and Moses for those forty years. It might have been more than a dry place physically for Moses, it might also have been a dry place spiritually for Moses. That is until that “Holy Moment” at the burning bush.

So, let us see what we can learn when God meets Moses at the burning bush. Please turn in your Bible to Exodus 3:1-6.

Scripture

Exodus 3:1–6 NKJV

1 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.

Point #1

God used a Holy Moment even though possibly forty years too late by Moses’ thinking but right on time by God’s thinking to reveal to Moses that God was planning to do something big in his life.

Ordinary life for Moses now was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in law in the desert. His ordinary life forty years earlier was living in Pharaoh's palace and eating the Pharaoh's food. It was there in that palace he saw the plight of the Jews and got the idea God may use him to free the Israelites from slavery. But God was not ready just yet, but Moses ran ahead of God. Have you ever run ahead of God and failed miserably? Moses did, he killed an Egyptian, and some of his Jewish brethren saw it, and so Moses knew he had to flee Egypt before Pharaoh discovered that news and sought to kill Moses.

So, now, for the next forty years, ordinary life for Moses was tending a flock in the desert. Day in and day out, it was Moses and his flock out in that hot desert sun. No real contact with a lot of people. Probably just very little information got to Midian about the struggles of the Jews in Egypt. Any thoughts of Moses doing something great for the Jews was long gone from his head.

And God was waiting for Moses to become ready. You see if God would have taken these Jews out of Egypt while Moses was still in Pharaoh’s home, Moses would tried to have done it in his own strength. And isn’t that exactly what he tried to do? Isn’t that what we try to do a lot of time-something in our own strength and fail miserably?

And so now forty years have passed, Moses’ pride and self-reliance has been long gone by the waste side. Sometimes God has to get the pride out of you and me and the self-reliance out of you and me before He can use us.