Sometimes I read a chapter of scripture and nothing really catches my eye. Other times I find something that jumps off the page and into my heart. But this chapter filled my heart with beautiful things to ponder.
Then He said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Exodus 3:5
This was not the first time God encountered Moses’ life, but it was the first time that Moses encountered God. We know that from the beginning God had been actively setting Moses up for what is about to come. And then one day God drew Moses to His presence through a burning bush. What had been an ordinary bush was now holy ground because it was occupied by a holy God.
God is holy, so what He inhabits with His presence becomes holy. If you want to know if God inhabits a place (or a life), look for holiness in that place.
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…“
Exodus 3:7
He saw. He heard. He knew. And He came. This can go one of two ways in our lives. In our suffering, we can know that He sees it, hears our cries, and knows our pain, and it can provide us with comfort, and compel us to seek His nearness. Or, it can make us blame Him for our suffering, be bitter toward Him, and compel us to push away from Him.
God is intimately aware of our suffering. What we do with that knowledge is a testing ground for our heart.
But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt…
Exodus 3:19-20
A mighty hand was needed, and a mighty hand is what Pharoah received. In the same way, Satan was never going to let go of his hold on this world unless a mighty hand compelled him.
Yesterday, we observed the Friday when God stretched forth His hand(s) and struck the kingdom of darkness.
And tomorrow we will celebrate the resurrection that brought us out of our death and into His life.
Because He saw. He heard. He knew. And He came.
Karla Jo Wasion 