Exodus 3:3-4 “So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”

Observation: These verses are the turning point in Moses’s life, and in the life of the children of Israel. Moses had been living for forty years in a desert place, self-exiled from Egypt because of his violence against harsh taskmasters. Then, in the course of his simple daily life, he had an encounter with God manifested through a bush that, though it burned, was not consumed by fire.

Application: It is good that Moses had curiosity, for it was to lead to his graduation day. He was about to move from being a simple shepherd to the deliverer of a nation. Confronted by a miraculous curiosity in the midst of the desert, Moses turned aside to investigate. In the course, he learned more not merely about the heart of God, but about his own destiny as well.

Imagine Moses’s trepidation as he approached this astonishing sight. He must have felt the same fear that I recall as a child peering into a dark basement in wonder at unfamiliar sounds. The house creaked and groaned in the windy night; terror entered the mind in contemplation of the unknown. Slowly, tentatively, I searched for the string attached to the bare bulb overhead. As light filled the room, trepidation subsided.

That must be what it was like for Moses. Over the next several verses, God had a conversation with Moses; the unfamiliar and terrifying gradually became well enough known that Moses was able to debate the wisdom of God’s plan: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Ex. 3:11).

How often do I just skim life’s surface, too busy or too disinterested to probe more deeply what God is doing in the people around me or even in my own heart? How much of God have I missed by not delving deeper? The wonderful thing is that when I do turn aside to learn more, as Moses did, I find that God is always there, ready for a word with me or a revelation of more of His character.

Prayer: Lord, I am so thankful that You are ready to meet me every time I slow down enough to turn toward You. Forgive me, Lord, for missing so much of You over the years. Cause my heart to quicken to Your voice, and deepen my discipline to obey. I don’t want to miss You again.