Moses had spent forty years in Pharaoh’s court getting a fine education and becoming a great man, but God could not use him until he had learned his own nothingness. Just as he had spent forty years learning to be “somebody,” God had to leave him on the backside of the desert for forty years while he learned to be nothing. This was no doubt a very hard lesson for Moses to learn, as it is for all of us, if we ever do learn it even partially. We might have thought God could have used Moses while he was so influential in Pharaoh’s court, but then the flesh — the natural self in Moses — would have boasted about what it had done. God would never allow that, for “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:55Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)). Now that Moses had learned at least something of this lesson, God was about to use him, but there were still some other necessary lessons for him to learn in the school of God, as we shall see while we go on with our chapter.
God’s Call
Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, when he came to mount Horeb. There he saw a wonderful sight. He saw a bush burning with fire and yet it was not consumed; that is, it was not burned up. He had never seen anything like that before, and he decided to go closer and see what was happening. As soon as he began to come near, God called to him out of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses.” The Lord knows your name, too, and more, He knows all about you. He is calling you just as He called Moses. He has a more wonderful sight for your eyes, if you will see it by faith, than what Moses saw that day. He would have you to look, by faith, to Calvary’s tree and see the Lord Jesus bearing the consuming wrath of God, so that we might never be consumed under His judgment. Instead we can be brought into blessing through His finished work. What a wonderful sight for a trembling sinner! What peace fills his soul when he can say, “Christ died for me.”
Approaching God
The bush burning with fire, yet not consumed, would also remind us of Israel as a nation. God was dealing with them through the harshness of Pharaoh’s taskmasters, but they were not consumed. They were still the people of God, and He was going to deliver them. Nevertheless for them as well as for us, the ground of all blessing is the work of Christ at Calvary. Moses could not draw near, for that work was not yet accomplished. By contrast we can come into the very presence of God with holy boldness, through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:1919Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19)).
Even at the distance from God where Moses stood, he had to take off his shoes. He had no way to stand before God except through sovereign grace. It is the same way today. Before a sinner can get any blessing from the hand of God, he must realize that there is nothing of his own doings, such as good works, prayers, penance or church-going, by which he can stand before God. He must come to God as it says in the hymn,
Just as I am — without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
Further Meditation
1. Why did Moses have to take his shoes off?
2. What are some of the similarities between Daniel and Moses?
3. If you are interested in the subject of humility you will find the pamphlet The Beauty of Humility by G. V. Wigram to be very encouraging and instructive.