A Lenten series on Mountaintop Moments
– Moses on Mount Sinai (or Horeb)
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Exodus 3:1-17
[In this Lenten
series, we will be looking at Mountaintop Moments. These mountains are more
than just geographical features. They symbolize divine encounters and moments
of revelation, faith and transformation. In other words, meeting God on the
mountain top.]
In September 1974, when my wife and I were first
married, we had season tickets for Michigan State football. There’s one game
that still sticks in my memory. Ohio State was the perennial Big Ten champs and
that year was no different. They were undefeated and ranked #1 in the country.
We were average at best.
But that day, Levi Jackson ran for an 88-yard
touchdown and the Spartans defeated the mighty Buckeyes! Later that night, as
we watched the TV replay of Jackson’s winning run over and over again, we
decided that we’d name our first son Levi.
You see, Debbie was born and raised in Lansing. And
when growing up, her parents had season tickets for Spartan football for years.
I also grew up in Michigan and graduated from Michigan State. I bleed green and
white. Fast forward to 1985, we moved to Columbus, Ohio – home of the Buckeyes.
Life is full of ironies.
Consider Moses. The very river that Pharoah had decreed
to kill all Hebrew baby boys, saved Moses’ life. Discovered by Pharoah’s
daughter, his biological mother was paid to nurse him. Raised as a prince in
the household of Pharoah, despite Pharaoh’s decree. Spared by the grace of God,
Moses showed no grace when he killed an Egyptian guard.
As a fugitive of the law, Moses fled to Midian,
married the daughter of a Midianite priest, started a family and tended his
father-in-law’s sheep. Until one day when he took the sheep to the “far side
of the wilderness” at Mount Horeb, “the mountain of God”, also known
as Mount Sinai. It was there that he met the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
a burning bush that didn’t burn.
God told Moses that he had seen the cruel oppression
of his people, heard their desperate cries for help and that he had come to
deliver them! Instead, he sent Moses the murderer, who hadn’t lived with his
people for forty years. How ironic.
Moses gave the Lord excuse after excuse as to why he
couldn’t do it. But, in a verse that’s easily overlooked, the Lord made this
promise to Moses.
12 And God said, “I
will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I
who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will
worship God on this mountain.” NIV
Moses’ life was filled with irony. You begin to get
the feeling that maybe that’s how God works – through irony. After all, he
works in ways you don’t expect. He works through ordinary people who do
extraordinary things. He works through unexpected circumstances that change
your life. He works through people’s weaknesses to show his strength.
Moses went to the far side of the wilderness to tend
sheep, not to meet God. But ironically, God was there. Paul was in the middle
of persecuting Christians when Jesus struck him blind so that he could see.
Peter was in a fishing boat when Jesus invited him to come fish for men. Matthew
was filling his pockets with tax money when Jesus said, “come follow me”.
Where have you met God? How has he surprised you?
What has he done unexpectedly in your life? “I will be with you”, God
told Moses. He makes the same promise to you and me even when we go to the far
side of the wilderness.
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Insightful.
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