23...BURNING WITH GOD 

Based on Exodus Chs 2-3...Read more there

A man by now, Moses goes one day to visit his fellow Hebrews slaving for the Pharaoh, only to find one of them being struck by an Egyptian. Making sure no-one else is in sight, Moses strikes the Egyptian, killing him, & buries him in the sand. Next day he revisits the scene & this time finds two Hebrews fighting. When he remonstrates with them, one of them challenges him about killing the Egyptian the day before! Realizing his crime has not gone unnoticed after all, & that the Pharaoh has been informed & is hunting for him, Moses flees to the other side of the Red Sea. He flees still further, across the swampy Reed Sea to Midian, an area said to be populated by descendants of Midian, a son of Abraham & his wife Keturah. Moses takes refuge there. After coming to the rescue of a group of shepherdesses, daughters of a local priest, who are struggling to water their sheep against stronger male shepherds jumping the queue at a well, Moses accepts their father's grateful hospitality & eventually marries one of the daughters, Zipporah. He fathers a son, Gershom, with her.

One day when Moses is out looking after his father-in-law's sheep, he leads the flock through the deserts as far as Horeb (Sinai) 'the mountain of God'. There he experiences one of the great mystical appearances of God recorded in the Scriptures. Moses' attention is attracted to a burning bush. Watching the bush, Moses is astonished to find that though it is on fire, it is not being burned up! An angel of YHWH God appears to Moses in the flames of the bush, & from there God calls to Moses telling him not to come any closer. More, he is to take off his sandals because he is standing on holy ground. God then reveals Himself to Moses, but he is afraid to look at God & covers his face, as no-one can see God & live! YHWH tells Moses He is aware of the sufferings of the Hebrews enslaved in Egypt & appoints him to go to the Pharaoh, & tell him he's to free the Hebrew slaves. Moreover, Moses is then to lead them out from Egypt & back to their old homelands via this holy spot where they are to hold an act of worship for YHWH. Moses protests that if he simply goes back to Egypt & tells the Hebrews God has sent him to lead them out from Egypt, they are sure to demand 'Who is this God?' The Hebrews are at least familiar with the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Egyptians, & might not unnaturally wonder which god Moses is on about! God then reveals He is YAHWEH (abbreviated to YHWH), a name meaning, 'I Am who I Am', or maybe, 'I Am Being', & orders Moses to tell the people, “I AM has sent me”! YHWH thus sets in motion the momentous chain of events that is to follow. But that's another story... 24... Conjuring Up A Storm

Notes: (1) There is a differing account of Moses' call in EX 6:2-13 & 6:28-7:7. (2) For an early Christian 'take' on all this see Stephen's defence in AC7: 17+. Early Christians see Moses & his leading of the Hebrews to freedom as a forerunner of Jesus leading His people from death to life. (3) Knowing Midian & its geography, as Moses does from the time he spends there, will stand him & the Hebrews in good stead when he eventually leads the people from Egypt.

Question: Does God ever seem to be asking us to act in some way too outrageous or impossible for us to contemplate?