Divine Interruptions

Divine Interruptions

Exodus 3:1-10

8-25-02

Intro:

Ex 3:1-10

3:1Now 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. 2And 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. 3Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." 4So 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." 5Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." 6Moreover 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.

7And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." NKJV

Moses’ life was wonderfully blessed with divine interruptions like the one we find here in this passage. God just would not leave him alone. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t leave us to our own devices and plans? Aren’t you glad “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord?”

There were those pivotal moments in Moses’ life when God unexpectedly showed and changed his life forever. Forty years prior to this time God had intervened in Moses’ life in a special way. We do not know the details like we know this event. But we know something significant happened. He had been raised as a prince in Egypt. In that position he had all the wealth, all the recognition, all the privileges anyone could ever want. But something happened that caused him to give all that up and identify himself with a bunch of oppressed slaves.

What would cause a person to do something like that? What causes a person to put his career on the line—relinquish all his money, his security, his status, to help a bunch of underprivileged slaves?

Hebrews 11:24-27 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. 27By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” NKJV

There is more than a hint in those verses as to why Moses made that choice.

He saw something other people were not seeing! He saw beyond the veil of this life into the glories of a higher realm. He saw beyond the temporal to the eternal. He saw a reward that is infinitely more valuable than anything Egypt had to offer. God interrupted his pursuit of worldly success with an offer he could not refuse. It is the unveiling of the eternal that causes a person to live by a different set of values and to pursue a different set of goals than the world.

Have you ever been interrupted in life by an intervention of God? If so you are blessed. It is a demonstration of mercy and grace when God does that. I am forever grateful for those divine interruptions in the course of my life. When I was fourteen years old God came into my life in a special way. He made me aware of my sin. He made me aware of my need for forgiveness. He granted me repentance and brought me into His glorious kingdom. In fact, He placed His hand upon my whole family and turned us all toward Him. When I was twenty-two there came another divine interruption.