Where Next?

Exodus 3:1-2

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

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Another year has passed me by
Still I look a myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?
All of the years I've spent in search of myself
And I'm still in the dark
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone

"Man in the Wilderness" by Styx

Before Moses was a man of God, his life was quite different. He was born under Pharaoh's edict of death. He survived because Pharaoh's daughter found him in the bulrushes. He survived because his sister Miriam persuaded Pharaoh's daughter to let her find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. It was no accident that it was the baby's own mother who nursed Moses.

Raised as a son of Pharaoh's daughter, he knew the best of life. He knew justice. It was "justice" and impetuousness that caused Moses to murder an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. It was fear that this same justice could befall him that he left Egypt the next day. It was justice that made him defend the daughters of Jethro against the men at the well. It was justice that pushed Moses.

Moses married Jethro's daughter and settled in Jethro's tent. Moses knew his people, Moses knew his heritage. Moses knew his place in the world. He knew this until the Lord God called him from Mount Horeb. Then everything Moses knew was changed.

Moses was once a very important young man who came to live a life of quiet desperation. Nothing says Moses was unhappy with his lot. He had a family-wife and children. He was a good son-in-law. He was a good man. Perhaps he wondered what kind of man he had become. Son of Pharaoh's daughter becomes a shepherd. To any man, it would seem like a long fall.

Moses was in the dark, but the light showed itself. The light came to life. The light of the bush that blazed but was not burned called Moses to new life. The light that he could not find alone presented itself to Moses when it was time. It seemed a long time coming, but it did come. The son of Pharaoh's daughter becomes the messenger of God, the bringer of the Law.

The light burns and it burns bright. Maybe the lesson is that when we quit looking all over for the light we see that it shines in our own backyard.