"God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.'" – Exodus 3:4
In 1906, the Azusa Street Revival began in Los Angeles, sparked by an ordinary, one-eyed, African-American man, William J. Seymour, responding to God’s call and empowerment. This 9-year revival quickly attracted the attention of popular culture, as people of all skin color, nationality, and gender came together to worship, teach, learn, sing, confess, and pray–something unheard of under the shadow of Jim Crow laws. Azusa became a place where heaven touched earth, and many of those who visited the meetings would never be the same. In fact, the meetings ignited a global movement of ministries and outreach from which, among others, the Assemblies of God was born.
Moses, the Jewish, adopted son of an Egyptian Pharaoh, living in exile as a Midianite shepherd, happens to see a seneh (or sinai, סְנֶה) bush burning without being consumed, and then hears the voice of the God of Israel calling to him from “the middle of the bush.” He, like his true ancestors that God will name, happens to stumble across a “thin” place where heaven and earth come together. It’s a place where God’s burning presence resides in the middle, from a tree aflame with Life. It happens to be the very place where Abraham offered up his son Isaac, “the place” where God “saw to it,” (Gen. 22:14). And now God was providing salvation for his oppressed people. But Moses protests five times. As divinely appointed as all of this seems, maybe YHWH chose the wrong person. YHWH couldn’t disagree more: Abraham, Isaac, and (especially) Jacob were all strange choices, and it’s not our weaknesses, setbacks, fears, or traumas that dictate our destiny–it’s His Presence. He promises Moses, “I will be with you,” (3:12) After all, “who gave man his mouth? Who made him deaf, mute, seeing,” white, black, or blind in one eye? “Is it not [YHWH]” (4:11-12)? May we go, refusing to “lean on our own understanding, and in all our ways” (Prov. 3:5-6) trusting wholeheartedly in Immanuel (Matt. 1:23).
Reflection:
- How might God be calling you in your current season?
- What fears or doubts do you need to surrender to Him?
- How can Moses’ story inspire your obedience?
- Photo: View from the summit of Mt. Sinai, By Mohammed Moussa – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28339508
- Songs:
- “Available” – Elevation Worship
- “Holy Ground” – Passion