God Was Not Absent

This morning Teana, Moses and I met God at the burning bush in Exodus 3. It was quite the experience. After 40 years shepherding sheep, God called Moses to shepherd his flock out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. If you saw it on the silver screen, the burning bush moment wouldn’t be as spectacular as the Ten Plague’s or crossing the Red Sea but it’s the humble beginning of it all. And it sets the stage for everything else that happened.

In the Bible God often refers to his people in living terms; a vine, a tree, etc. and often portrays suffering as a refining fire. “Where is God?” you ask, in Israel’s Egyptian suffering. That’s a good question. But if you look closely you will see and hear him…in the middle of the burning bush. There his is, suffering along with his people.

Israel didn’t know it but God was not absent. He was keenly aware of their plight. So millennia before the cross, Jesus stepped into the crucible of Israeli’s suffering, pictured in a burning bush, to suffer with them. It is a foreshadowing of the cross yet to come.

That’s an important word for displaced, disabled orphans. It’s a meaningful thought for you and me. God cannot be successfully accused of indifference. Quite the opposite. When he did not have to do so, Jesus willingly left Heaven to become displaced, orphaned, a refugee. But more than all of that. Worse than all if that. He “became sin” so that we might “become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). He is in the midst of your burning bush and his cross is the source of every other blessing the Father bestows.

Thinking about Jesus in the fire with us births this song, one of Teana’s new favorites, and one we are singing as we visit orphanages for displaced and special needs children again today. We are there not only to perform well checks but also to remind the children of God’s redeeming love. May it be your song as Jesus endures your burning bush with you.



“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

And what He did for me on Calvary is more than enough

Perfect submission, all is at rest

I know the author of tomorrow has ordered my steps

So this is my story and this is my song

Praising my risen King and Savior all the day long.

I trust in God, my Savior

The one who will never fail

He will never fail

I trust in God, my Savior

The one who will never fail

He will never fail.”