Exodus 3
Exodus 3, 2 Corinthians 1:5-7
A timeless truth to carry as a follower of Jesus is that our circumstances don’t define God’s character, nor do our circumstances prove or disprove God’s presence in your life. Recently, I’ve struggled with familial difficulties. Ones that I wish God would just flip upside down and redeem right now. Don’t we all have circumstances like that? So when he doesn’t answer (like we want him to), does that make him any less good? The difficulties or struggles in our lives do not point to a broken god but to a broken world.
Wouldn’t it be nice if God’s presence was SO apparent he was in the burning bush? That’s definitely a tempting belief to carry as you read about the burning bush. What about when there is no burning bush? Do we believe that God is with us then? In the life of Moses, after being placed in a basket and sent down the river, only to be picked up by the Pharaoh's daughter, grow under the rule of Pharaoh who wanted to kill him, and escape Pharaoh's judgment, we may ask ourselves again - ‘God where are you?’
God clearly answers that very question. He answers in a way that should lead us to deeper belief in the character of God. In verse 7 and 8
“Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
God is aware of our sufferings, and that is a GLORIOUS thing. A God who created the world and all things in it, turns his ear towards us and offers us another way. Not only is he aware of our sufferings but shares our sufferings through his son Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:5-7). Just like the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), “Jesus endured the fires of judgment but was not consumed by them” (Guzik, Blue Letter Bible).
What does it mean to endure but not be consumed? What does that tell you about God’s character? What does that reveal about yourself?
