Exodus 3:1-6
A great historical record of all the
things Moses looked upon during his lifetime does not exist. It would be a pretty incredible thing if it
did, though, right? The eyes that
surveyed and registered such an epic life surely could tell the story
well. Though this complete account
doesn’t exist, we do have enough biblical and historical evidence to give us
insight into what this heroic ancestor’s windows of the soul absorbed.
When his eyes first took in the
light of this complex world, Moses looked upon the face of his mother,
Jochebed, his father, Amram, his sister, Miriam, and his brother Aaron. The family was living in Egypt, a generation
or so following the time when their faithful kin, Joseph, along with his
amazing multicolored coat, settled there.
Newborn Moses also first looked upon
the faces of two courageous, compassionate, God fearing Hebrew midwives,
Shiphrah and Puah. They were under the
authority of the Pharaoah’s dreadful dark decree to drown all brand spankin’
new Hebrew boys. This autocrat had no
affinity for the privileges provided to Joseph by his predecessors. The Hebrews had become too vigorous in
number, too resilient, and were perceived as too much of a threat – especially
given that the Pharaoh’s plan to slow them down by making them a human brick
factory had not quite worked out. Shiprah
and Puah, however, revered their God more than the mighty but nonetheless
mortal Pharaoh. So they disobeyed. In a bold cohort with the whole family, Moses
was soon after looking at the inside of a bulrush basket as it bobbed along the
Nile.
After grievingly watching this
precious infant sail off downstream, I don’t believe the they could ever have
imagined that when the lid popped open and little Moses had full light once
again fill his eyes, he would be looking upon the regal-lined face of the
Pharaoh’s daughter. Or that
circumstances would covertly unfold such that he could look upon the face of
his own mother again for his nursing.
Or that he would be raised gazing upon all of the glorious treasures and
the powerfully privileged lifestyle of an Egyptian prince.
We know, however, that after he’d
grown up, his life once again curiously twisted on the day Moses looked upon an
Egyptian severely beating up a Hebrew.
Some innate chord of injustice struck crisply, clearly and ragefully in
his heart. According to Exodus 2:12,
Moses had glanced “this way and that” and saw no one, then killed the brute and
buried him in the sand. His act of
defense was not welcomed by his blood-kin Hebrews, however. The very next day he looked upon two of them
fighting and when he verbally questioned this unjust behavior, Moses quickly
learned word was out about his murderous deed.
It was immediately clear to him that
it was time to look beyond his adopted life as a Prince of Egypt. He fled the Pharaoah and soon after came
face to face with the nomadic, shepherding Midian people. It’s worth noting that these people were the
very same human tribe that had once upon a time purchased Joseph. This is
the event that had eventually led the Hebrews people to Egypt in the first
place. So Moses escaped Egypt only to
live in exile with the peoples who had historically led his people to live in
Egypt! While in this long exile, Moses
spent his days looking upon his wife Zipporah, their son Gershom, his
father-in-law, Jethro, and lots of sheep (whatever their names were!).
The windows of Moses’ soul, however,
were destined to see way more than exiled Midian life. He had
been delivered from death time and again so he could be called by God to look
Pharoah straight in the eyes and demand holy justice.
This summons happened while Moses
was keeping the safety of a flock as was the task of shepherds. It
happened as he looked upon the most magnificent, mysterious thing he’d ever
viewed in his wondrously storied life.
He had led the flock to the far side of the desert and settled them at
Mt. Horeb (later more famously identified as Mt. Sinai.) This is where he suddenly looked upon licks
of fire lingering within a bush.
Right at this point, at Exodus 3
verse 2 and 3, I feel compelled to pause our perspective on all the things
Moses looked upon. It’s such a famous
and frequently interpreted biblical scene that we may not see one little and I
believe poignant detail. Had another
biblical interpreter, a neighbor in ministry in nearby Basking Ridge, not
called my attention to it I would have overlooked it as well.[i] It’s a
detail that I believe will help us in our looking about for God in our lives
and in our seeing more clearly one way God calls us to the cause of justice.
After observing the oddly unconsumed
burning bush, we read that Moses reacted by thinking, “I will go over and see this strange
sight.” The divinely luminous shrub
was not, it seems, located directly at Moses’ feet. He had to look upon it and then decide to go
over to it. To quote my insightful
colleague, “God didn’t choose the bush that Moses was about to stumble
upon. It was within sight, but at enough
distance that Moses would have had to go out of his way to explore it.”[ii]
I have no doubt Moses was at first
quite curious about this strange site just a ways off from the path he’d been
traveling on an ordinary day in exile. Being
curious about something is one way we all gain new knowledge. Now, he could have been curious and then
dismissed any concern about the burning bush.
He could have thought it would
put itself out eventually. He could
have blamed the whole vision on the heat, on his exhaustion, on having eaten
some wrong kind of desert berries.
Yes, Moses could have never turned aside for a closer look, could have shirked
his care, could have sidestepped his holy calling. Praise God, he didn’t. Praise God, he looked upon the sign and went
over to it for that closer look, that summons to liberation.
I believe, as it was for Moses, God
meets us where we are. And I believe
God continuously calls our attention in many mysterious ways, ways that we can
either ignore or faithfully decide to examine. Maybe
you haven’t seen a burning bush, but I trust you have had your holy curiosity piqued
in other ways. For example, a couple
weeks ago I mentioned the famine in Somalia and how my looking at vivid photos
really moved me. It moved not just my
sorrow and compassion, it even more so moved me to wonder where God was in the
midst of it and what God might be calling me to do in order help remedy the
injustice of it. My holy curiosity was
captured and I had to decide whether or not to turn away and ignore it or look
upon it with more of my faithful time and energy and above all love.
In a sermon about this passage from
Exodus 3, Rev. Barbara Lundblad, a preaching professor at Union Seminary in
NYC, offered up this bold comment – “It is one of God’s great inefficiencies,
this waiting for human beings to turn aside.” She says this because despite our being
compelled by our curiosities, we human beings also have an “almost endless
capacity to keep walking.” The professor points out that this walking on,
this not turning aside and moving closer to examine, happens because of our
schedules, our terrible busyness, our professions that we’ll come back to
something later.
Moses is heroic to our faith for
many reasons. May we not miss that one
of these reasons is his teaching us – by example -- to honor God’s efficiency
in summoning us to the biblical cause of social justice. One seemingly small decision to turn aside
and examine that curious event engulfed his heart and soul with his life’s true
purpose. Upon understanding what God
wanted him to do he was frightened, he was hesitant … and yet also deeply
reassured that he was not going to answer his calling alone. His abiding by God’s call for holy justice
was accompanied by God’s abiding in him.
Throughout your life, what sorts of
sites and scenarios have led you to feel God calling you to a particular purpose? Did you sense this calling because it was
right at your feet as if something you were searching for? Or because something – a happening, a
conversation – just a little ways off of your daily routine caught your
attention, compelled you to look closer, and burned a holy calling into your
heart and soul? I ask as one called
time and again to look closer and to keep glorifying the name and liberating
mission of Christ Jesus. Amen.
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