“So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
—Exodus 3:8-10
New starts are exciting. They come with so much anticipation and potential, but whether or not that potential is realized often depends on how well the start goes. If a runner starts a race poorly, it makes it that much harder to finish well.
That’s why I want to make sure that I start this year well, and the best way I know to do that is to start the year by seeking God’s presence. There are many ways to seek God’s presence, but if you’re like me, “seeking God’s presence” can sometimes turn into more of a religious phrase we hear on Sundays than a practice pursued with confidence and expectation.
So I decided to look at one of the clearest instances when someone experienced God’s presence—when Moses approached the burning bush in Exodus 3. True, Moses wasn’t out in the wilderness looking for God, but when he found Him, he had the choice to stay and submit or to run away. He chose to stay, and some pretty cool things happened.
- Moses discovered that he was known by God. In fact, the first thing God does when He sees Moses turn aside to come toward Him is to call him by name. Moses had given up his life of wealth and renown. Now he was a shepherd in someone else’s household in a land far away, but God still saw him, still knew him by name. This is significant. All of the ties that would have made Moses worth knowing according to his culture—his father, his clan, his homeland, his wealth, his power—had all been cut off. But God still knew his name and called to him.
- Moses experienced significant change and growth. He was separated from the things that would have given him status at that time. He wasn’t able to build his own wealth. He was just doing the smelly, difficult, and sometimes dangerous job of watching someone else’s sheep. At this point, however, things change. He becomes a leader meant to lead millions, and he and his wife return to his people to follow God’s direction.
- Moses is given a purpose. Again, he was watching sheep that didn’t even belong to him. That’s like the smelly and sweaty equivalent of investing someone else’s money and watching it grow without ever being able to build your own wealth. I don’t think he did this out of a great desire to tend sheep. He tended sheep as training for his greater purpose of leading God’s people, but here that purpose is activated in the presence of God.
- Moses experiences the fulfillment of one of God’s promises. By stepping into God’s presence, Moses not only gets to experience God fulfilling His promise to Israel, but he also gets to be part of the fulfillment of that promise. In addition, he receives promises of his own that will serve as encouragement for him later in his journey to follow God’s leading.
- Moses also gets to know God’s passion for His people. In verse 7, God uses the word “to see” twice in a row to emphasize how He intimately knows the trouble Israel is in. God did not notice their trouble through a passing glance. He was watching the whole time and knows every single injustice. In verse 8, God says, “ So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians.” Not only does this foreshadow God’s plan for Jesus to come and save us from our sins, but it also shows how personal God is. He was not going to entrust this job to anyone else. He was coming to save His people Himself.
There is no end to what the Lord may do, teach us, or reveal when we are faithful to seek His presence, but what Moses experienced gives us a good idea of how wonderful God’s presence is. I pray that your 2024 will be full of God’s presence—full of seeking and full of finding out new facets of God’s glory and goodness.
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