Day 3

Initial takeaways from the reading in “Mountain” on Exodus 3: 1-15 “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” and he said, “Here I am.” (Ex. 3:2-4)
In verses 13-15 the conversation between Moses and God is about how Moses is to inform the Jews in Egypt that their God has sent him to deliver them. The first question from Moses is then “If…they ask me ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?” During the time of the Jews’ slavery in Egypt they continued to acknowledge the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they had grown so detached from the presence of God that Moses felt they would need clarification about “who” this God was that would deliver them. Whether because of the Egyptian society and their many gods, or because of their forgetfulness of the God they served, Moses felt this was important. God answered him with the foundation for “everlasting,”: “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
Do I need to be reminded that it is “I AM” whom I serve? Will others question “who is this God that sent you?” when I attempt to bring the message of Christ to them? Are we in a society that mirrors the Egyptian Society of slavery and oppression, where it is so easy to be confused by the different options of who or what to worship – or even simply to forget who God is? I need to grasp the clarity in my own life of serving the great “I AM,” and be able to communicate that message to others.
In the devotion readings, the first thoughts I encounter are: to recognize where I have “slowed down” and become comfortable with the everyday existence that is “enough” or “satisfactory.” Where in my life can I acknowledge that God is calling me into something else – out of the complacency of the current state of “satisfactory” service?