(Exodus 19; 33; I Kings 19:8-14; Luke 9: 28-33)
Moses, as Israel’s leader to the Promised Land, was a remarkable man. No one that has ever lived, has ever experienced God the way he did. He was not only a leader for the nation Israel, but a prophet, who spoke with God face to face, although he did not see His face. From the signs and wonders seen in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, water coming from the rocks, mana coming from heaven as food for the people while in their journey of forty years through the wilderness, and much more, Moses’ life shines over all others.
As a baby, Moses was taken from the water when his mother tried to hide him in the time of the king’s command to kill all the Jews’ babies to control their population. He was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, who later adopted him. She named him Moses because she said, “I drew him out of the water.” For forty years he lived in the royal palace, however, he preferred to suffer with his brothers, as Hebrews 11:24-25 confirms: By faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter because he preferred to share the oppression and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.
One day, while checking out the slavery condition of his people, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his brothers. He then killed the Egyptian and buried him (Ex. 2). His zeal for the wellbeing of his people was a sign of what he was to become in the future. From that time on, he become a refugee in the land of Median, where he married and worked as a shepherd for his father- in-law. Moses had his first encounter with God at Mount Horeb, or Sinai, the mount of God, forty years after his ordeal that caused him to flee for his life. The Lord God appeared to him in a fire out of the midst of a bush. Curious about what was happening, he turned aside to see why the bush would not burn, when he heard the Lord’s voice saying, do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground (Ex. 3:2-5). In that encounter, God revealed Himself to Moses as the God of his fathers- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses then hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Ex. 3:6). God spoke to him from the fire saying, come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth My people…out of Egypt. Moses’ conscious burned with guilt and fear of his past in the presence of that fire that symbolized the unapproachable holiness of God. Mount Sinai, the pivot point of Moses’ life, stood before him with a divine call to redeem his people from bondage.
Light from the Word 