Exodus 3:1-6
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father —the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Our study of Immanuel takes us to another story in the Old Testament in which God came to be with his people in a unique way. You can read Moses’ backstory in the first two chapters of Exodus, but in today’s passage he is in the wilderness tending sheep. This is far from his home and his upbringing in Egypt’s palaces. Even that home had been a displacement from his true identity as a Hebrew, enslaved to the Egyptians. Notice Moses’ response to his God-with-us moment: “Here I am!” He made a choice to enter in with God, but he could only get so close.
Here’s your freedom for today: God has made a way to be fully with you.
Here in the Old Testament, there was always a distance despite how much God made efforts to dwell with his people. He shows up here to Moses, but there is a separation. “Don’t get too close!” is the unfortunate message. The Jewish people never ever pronounced God’s name fully aloud, nevermind stand face to face with him. The heartbreak of that distance reminds us of our desperate need for the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus, we now have full access to God as the Holy Spirit dwells within us. If you want to know more about this, read the book of Acts (you can re-read the Freedom For Today series on Luke and Acts to go more in-depth). We are no longer living in a pre-Jesus world, and for that make time today to be thankful.