a burning bush

the story of moses begins in egypt,

pharoah’s kingdom was expanding and becoming great. it was being built on the backs of hebrew slaves. pharoah noticed that the slaves were increasing in number. in order to prevent the hebrews from over-populating egypt and taking over, he ordered all the first born sons of the hebrew slaves to be taken and thrown in the nile. (which i can’t really fathom).

a hebrew momma, who must have been warned in advance, placed her baby boy in a basket and released the basket in the nile river… to prevent the egyptian guards from ripping him from her arms. hoping that God would make a way out for her son.

that mommas’s hope did not disappoint because the current carried the basket near pharoah’s palace where the basket was noticed by pharoah’s wife. she noticed the baby, and drew him out of the water. her heart melted and she took him as her own and named him moses.

 and so moses became a prince.

  as he grew up, he noticed the mistreatment of the slaves in egypt. it affected him so deeply that he killed an egyptian guard who was beating one of the hebrews during the days work.

it was then that moses fled egypt in shame and fear and journeyed to midian in the desert. moses begins a new life. he becomes a shepherd, gets married, and starts a family. moses grows quite comfortable.

and one day, while shepherding his flock, he sees a burning bush. not just an ordinary bush that may have caught fire due to the desert heat, but a steady fire that was not consuming the bush. moses draws near in curiosity and God begins to speak to him.

 what is important to note,is that these old testaments stories serve as pictures for us. this is how our creator God seems to speak to us. through pictures and parables. these pictures are lenses for us to see our lives through. the way moses’ life unfolds is deeply profound. not simply because he soon will forge his way into egypt and overtake all of their deities…which is insane and unbelievable…

but that God took an insecure human being and spoke identity into him. and used him to overthrow an entire kingdom.

exodus 3:1

now moses was tending the flock of jethro his father-in-law, the priest of midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to horeb, the mountain of God.

the angel of God appeared to him in flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. he looked. the bush was blazing away but it didn’t burn up.

God called to him, “moses, moses”

moses replied. “i’m here”

God continued, “don’t come any closer. remove your sandals from your feet. you’re standing on holy ground…

i am the God of your fathers; the God of abraham, the god of isaac, the god of jacob”

you see God is telling moses something. he’s telling moses who he is.

as if he’s calling you by name saying,

i know you. 

i know where you came from.

and i know your story.

God had a serious mission for moses to partake in, but he wasn’t going to commission moses until he spoke moses’ identity into him.

you see, God wants our lives. but before we have the capacity to give him anything, we must know who we are.

and i think its worth resting upon. and praying over. and asking God to tell us who we are. and what he thinks of us.

our american culture lies to us and tells us we are what we produce.

so we give our whole lives away to work so that we can be something one day.

we give up everything for whatever we think will define us. our careers, money, exercise, being physically healthy, being a good mom or dad, being creative, being competent, being intelligent, being relational, being funny, being successful,  striving to produce something great so that we can, one day, have significance or value.

but God is telling us something else, and it would behoove us and change our lives if we listen,

we are not defined by what we do. 

and we will never be able to carry out the doing of wonderful things successfully until we know this.

if we don’t know who we are, we will not figure it out by giving our lives away, striving to become something by what we do.

because we already are. we have significance because we bear the imprint of God on us. and we have accepted this covenant relationship with him.

everything he is, for everything we are.

there is a covenant, written in blood.

it is our marriage, our union, our covenant with GOD that gives us our identity. nothing else.

nothing else.

it might be good to land on that point before i continue the story for next post. don’t know about you, but that’s a lot for me to digest in one sitting!

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moses

i love the story of moses.

his journey fascinates me. i’ve been reading through it this summer and it has sent me into major meditation.

i’m going to begin telling the story of moses on my blog.

first off: there are two major themes in the bible that weave their way in out of scripture.

1. our covenant relationship with God. (our covenant relationship gives us our sense of identity.)

2. our responsibility. our response to what the Lord is doing in our lives. (this is how we live out the Kingdom of God here)

and what i love about the story of moses is that it reminds me of what God is doing in my life, and the lives of those around me right now. he’s awakening us to the battle that is around us. i believe that we are all wired for battle. for adventure. for a story. that in our identity with the father, we have what it takes to be warriors for a movement that could change the world.

as i said before in a previous post, i’ve been journeying with jesus for a while now. learning who he is and who i am IN HIM. but now i’m dreaming about what it looks like to engage in this battle we are in.

thus enters the ideas of covenant and kingdom.

 we find ordinary people that God engaged with. every one of them wrestled with their identity. and then God began giving them missions to carry out. and their success in responding with obedience hinged on their sense of identity.

abraham.

joseph.

moses.

esther.

ruth.

gideon.

just to name a few. here is what keeps happening. God calls us. and it doesn’t take long to realize this. some of us recognize our calling and see that we are gifted to some degree (which is true) but sometimes we develop a sense of arrogance. maybe child-like narcisicism that suggests to ourselves that we are  more gifted than someone else. that others need us. (gag) but how true is this sometimes? i do believe people are gifted. i believe we all have gifts. i just do not believe that anyone is better or more qualified to carry out what God has called us to do than anyone else. we all have different callings on our lives. and we are all equally capable of doing what God has created us to do. whatever that looks like.  but what causes people to fail, is when we think we have what it takes in and of ourselves. and we move forward in obedience with this perspective. we think we “got” it. but it will never work like that. every situation fails in biblical history when someone moves forward with this perspective. its as if God isn’t letting us. like he’s trying to teach us something.

arrogance was the problem with joseph. he journeyed for a long time in slavery until he had the perspective that he couldn’t accomplish anything of himself. but that God could do something big through him.

some of us stall in insecurity, thinking we don’t have what it takes. and that God could never use us. this insecurity and frailty is just as toxic as the first. such was the case with moses.

and so into this story, i begin. i will continue to tell the story of moses throughout the next several posts.

 but first, i must post this little video of my daughter telling her version of the story.

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