Moses and the Burning Bush

Welcome back to God's Storytellers. Moses was out looking after his father-in-law's sheep. He had been doing this now for about 40 years. He had moved into the desert when he'd done something wrong back in Egypt, and now he was living out in the desert, and he was looking after this big herd of sheep, his father-in-law's sheep. And he would follow them every day, and he would walk around, and he would lean on his staff, and he would watch the sheep, and sometimes he would lead them, And sometimes he would follow them, but always he stayed with the sheep. Well, one day as he was walking his sheep, he saw something off in the distance. A bush burst into flames. Poof! Now, this wasn't completely unheard of. Occasionally, and you may have seen this with a glass bottle, this is why you shouldn't drop glass out in nature. A glass bottle can catch the light and cause a hotspot and cause a fire. Well, occasionally in the bushes in the desert, they're very oily, there's not much water in them, and so the oil drops will start to form as they get hot, and a drop of oil will form underneath one of the leaves, and if the light catches it just right, it can create a hotspot on the bush. And occasionally, rarely, but sometimes, a bush could light up from the refraction of the light in that little bush from the sun. Well, this happened, and Moses saw it and he thought, "Ah, one of those burning bushes, that's cool." He looked, watched it, looked away back at the sheep, looked back, It's still burning. He'd never seen one that kept burning. They always just— it's in the desert, it's dry, it burns quick. But not this one. It just kept burning, and it was a good kilometer away. And so he thought, I better start walking. I'm going to go check this out. So he walked and he walked and he walked until he finally got close enough to this bush to see, yes, one, it really was a bush, and yes, it really was burning. This bush just kept burning. And so Moses carefully kind of walked a little closer, and he got his stick, and he was going to poke at the bush. And just as he was about to poke, He heard a voice, "Take off your shoes, Moses. You're standing on holy ground." "Who said that?" "I did." "Who?" "I did." And he looked at the bush. "Are you talking, Mr. Little Bush?" "Ah, yes, but it's not the bush, it's God." "God? You're— oh." And he took his shoes off. He said, "Are you really— you're God?" Yes, and I've come to talk to you, Moses. I want you to go set my people free. Your people? You mean the slaves in Egypt? Yes. But I ran away from Egypt. You see, I don't want to go back there. I actually did something really bad there, and if I go back there, I'll get in trouble. So please, I don't want to go back to Egypt. It's okay, Moses. I have made the way ready for you. Please, I want you to go back to Egypt. And then Moses did something that we often do when we don't want to do something. He started making excuses. And Moses had 5 really good, he thought, really good excuses. And so Moses started with his first excuse, "Who am I? Why me?" And so he said that to God, "God, why me? Who am I? What is so special about me that I should be the one that should go back? There's so many people better qualified than me, so many people that have been doing Your will for years and years. Not me. Why me?" And God's answer was interesting. You know what God said to Moses? Moses, I will be with you. It's not about you, it's about me. It's about God. I will be with you, Moses, and so you don't have to worry about what you'll do or where you'll go or what you'll say. I'll tell you, and you don't have to be afraid because I, the God of the universe, will be with you. You'll be fine. Oh, that's the first excuse down, Moses thinks. So what can I say now? And he says, um, well, okay, so when I go there and all these people are around me, um, I have to convince them that I came from 'From God.' And so, like, if I tell them that I was talking to a bush in the desert, it may not look good. Who should I tell them sent me? Well, you tell them that I sent you. God? Yes, okay, but I mean, in Egypt there's lots and lots of gods. Which god? What should I say? What's your name? Now, this is an interesting thing. Nobody has ever walked up to God before and said, 'Hey, my name's Dave. What's your name?' God's never had to introduce himself before. And God thinks to himself, "Well, I just am. I've always been, I always will be. I am. You tell them that I am sent you. You want me to tell them I am sent me? Yes. Your name is I am. Well, that'll do. It's big enough." "Well, but I mean, who are you? Like, if I say I am, it may not convince them. What else can I say?" Who are you? And God said, "Ah, who am I? You want my credentials? Let me tell you. I am the God who made the earth all around you. I am the God of Adam and Eve." And he started telling him all the stories that Moses could remember from when he was a little boy that his mom had told him. "I am the God of Adam and Eve. I am the God of Noah and the flood. I am the God of Joseph. I am the God of Abraham and Isaac." I am your God and the God of your people. That's who I am. Huh. So Moses thinks, there goes the second excuse. First one, "Who am I?" Doesn't matter. It's not about me, it's about God. Second one, "Who are you?" Well, He's the God they've all been waiting for. He's the God who's helped our people through the past. So he comes out with his third excuse, "Um, what about them? What if they don't believe me?" God says, "What do you mean, what if they don't believe you?" "Well, what if when I go and I say, 'Look, I was talking to God in the desert and He spoke to me through a bush and the God of our ancestors the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That God, He spoke to me, and He wants me to set you free. What if they say, "Ridiculous, we know who you are. You're Moses. You ran away. We don't want to follow you." What if they don't believe me? What about them? And God said the same thing again. You know what? It's not about me. I mean, it's not about you, Moses. It's about me. Let me show you some things. What's that in your hand, Moses? And Moses was leaning on his staff. "Nothing in my hand, God." "The other hand, Moses." "Oh, oh, it's like a part of my body. I almost forgot about it. It's my staff." "Well, Moses, I want you to throw it down." "Well, I don't mean that I don't like it. I mean, it's special. I really like this. I don't want to throw it away." "Just throw it down, Moses." "Oh, okay." And he throws the stick out. "Ahh!" He turns and he starts running away. The stick turned into a snake, and the snake starts crawling the other way because it's scared of him. And as Moses is running this way and the snake is slithering that way, God's voice says, "Moses, pick it up." "Pick up the snake." "Pick up the snake? I don't like snakes." And so he gets up behind it and he says, "Okay, I'll do what you say." And he's thinking to himself, "Okay, you grab it right behind the neck and you grab it just right and then it can't bite you." And just as he's about to get it behind the neck, God says, "By the tail, Moses." "What? You never pick up a snake by the tail unless you're a snake handler and you know what you're doing. You just, you catch it like—" "No, I'm not picking it up by the tail. If I pick it up by the tail and that snake turns around and bites me, I'll die, and if I die, I can't go to Egypt. Okay, I'll pick it up by the tail. And so Moses reaches down and he grabs the tail of the snake, and just as he does, boom, it turns back into his staff again. Wow! You show them that, Moses, and that will convince them. Well, what if they still don't believe me? Well, Moses, what's that inside of your robe? My robe? Um, just me. Put your hand in there. So he reached in. Now pull it back out. Oh, now I have leprosy! I have leprosy! I'm gonna die a slow, miserable death. And if I have leprosy, I can't go back to my family. And if I have leprosy, I can't go to Egypt. I guess I could learn to live with leprosy. Put it back in your shirt, Moses. Okay. He puts it back in and pulls it out. Oh, it's gone. It's clean again. You can show them that. And then God gave him a third one as well. He said, if they don't believe the staff, and the leprosy, take a bowl, ask them for a bowl, say, "What's in the bowl?" Like a magic trick by Brian. "What's in the bowl?" "Nothing's in the bowl." Go down to their river, fill it up with water, come back, show them the water. "What's in the bowl?" They'll say, "Water from the river. We just saw you get it." And then pour it out, and when it hits the ground, it will turn into blood. We're not sure if Moses ever used that one, but we know that God gave it to him just in case. So Moses now has tried his best excuses. "Who am I? Who are you? What about them?" And God says to him, Moses, I want you to go. And he says, but, but, but, but I don't, don't, don't, don't, but, but, but, but I don't, don't, don't, don't, but, but, but, but I don't, don't, don't, don't, but, but, but, but I don't, don't, don't, don't speak, speak so well. And God says, Moses, who made your mouth? I made your mouth. If I made your mouth, don't you think I can make it speak? Yes, okay, I guess you can. And he said, but I just— and his fifth excuse came out— I— can't you send someone else? And God said, "No, Moses, I can't send anyone else. You are my man. And it's not about you, Moses, it's about me. I will be with you, and when people ask who you are, you say, 'You're my man.' And if people ask who I am, you say, 'He's the God of your ancestors. He's your God.' And if people say, 'Well, we're not too sure,' you show them the tricks that I've shown you so that you can convince them. Moses, it's all about me working through you." And do you know what happened with Moses? He went. And God actually helped a little. God sent Moses' brother who was really good at speaking, Aaron. And Aaron came along and he was Moses' spokesman, but God said, "I will speak to you, Moses. You tell Aaron what to say and he can say it." But Moses, for the next 40 years, he led God's people. And Moses always remained humble because he realized, "It's not about me." I couldn't do any of this stuff. I couldn't set God's people from Egypt. You know what? He did. God's people followed him out of Egypt. I couldn't lead them across the Red Sea, but he did. I couldn't lead them into the Promised Land. He led them right to the gates of the Promised Land. And you too, like Moses, if you say, "It's not about me, it's about God," you can do amazing things with God.