Moses Meets God Series

J. B. Phillips in his book Your God Is Too Small tells of how

he asked a group of young people to give a snap answer to the

question, "Do you think God understands radar?" They all

said no, and then they roared with laughter as they

considered how foolish their answer was. It showed that in

the back of their minds they thought of God as an old man

who lived in the past and was rather bewildered by modern

progress. Nothing is more pathetic than a mature person

with an immature concept of God. Such an adult is seldom a

dedicated Christian, or an active servant of God. More than

likely they reject God completely. They mature in all other

areas of life, but in their concept of God they remain childish.

To make things worse, they think the rest of us are

worshipping the God of their immature conception. They

think we are quite simple and unacquainted with the hard

facts of life.

These people have not rejected God, for they don't even

know Him. They have only rejected a god who doesn't exist

anyway except in their own mind. What these people need is

a true biblical concept of God. This is what we all need, for

our conception of God controls our attitudes and actions, and

it determines the measure of our devotion to Him and His

will. Is your God just a spare time God you call upon only in

emergencies? You answer that by your commitment to Him.

The person who gives his God only one hour a week of his life

has a very small God and not the God of our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ.

One cannot stand in the pulpit and hand over to you an

experience of the greatness of God any more than one can

measure the horizon with a ruler. This can only come when a

person says with Moses, "I will turn aside and see this great

sight." A man has to be willing to forsake his old concepts if

he would grow in the knowledge of God as He really is. When

Martin Niemoller was in Hitler's prison he had time to think,

and he turned his thought toward God. He had to give up his

old opinions about God. He wrote, "It took me a long time to

learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not

even the enemy of His enemies." He had to give up the God

He had created in his own image, and he came to see that God

is love.

Moses needed to grow in his knowledge of God as well.

God had prepared him to lead the children of Israel out of

Egypt. The first 40 years of his life he gained the best

education possible in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but this

knowledge was not enough for the task God had for him. He

needed some good practical experience, and so God in His

providence saw that he got it, and for the next 40 years he was

a shepherd in Midian where he learned the ways of desert life.

He learned about the plants and animals, and about water

sources and hardships. Now the second 40 year training

period was over, and all Moses needed now was to meet God,

and this he did at the burning bush, which is the Damascus

Road experience of the Old Testament. We want to look at

this experience and draw from it 3 things which God does

that enlarge our concept of Him.

I. HE DEMANDS REVERENCE. v. 4-5

You will notice that God appealed to the curiosity of

Moses. Some people feel that faith and curiosity are

contradictory, but this is not so. The impulse to inquire and

learn is essential to a growing faith. God says, "Come now let

us reason together," and all of nature is a stimulus to

investigation. Curiosity is what made Watts ask why the lid

on a boiling kettle bobbed up and down? His search for an

answer led to the first workable steam engine. Curiosity is

what made Sir Alexander Fleming investigate a mold, which

led to the discovery of penicillin. Curiosity is what led

Zaccheaus climb a tree to see Jesus, which led to his

conversion. It may have killed the cat but curiosity saved him

and many others.

God wants people to investigate, but we see that when

Moses came near He stopped him and tells him to take off his

shoes. This was a sign of reverence and God demands that.

If one is going gain from his search he must come in reverence

and humility, for neither God nor His creation will reveal its

secrets to the proud and irreverent. "Moses was led through