Jesus in the OT - Part 4

Intro:
Have you ever had your dreams crushed? I have. So many missed opportunities and failed experiments. Usually this is centered in careers and relationships.

A mom with a lost son. Didn't we raise him in the Lord?

A man with a dead end job. He thought his college degree would bring more than this.

A person that loses his spouse to cancer or sickness.

A car accident that makes walking painful.

There are many things in life that are dream crushers. BUT there is a God of dreamers! There is a God of broken legged people! There is a God of prodigal kids! There is a God for the lonely.

Read:
Exodus 3:1-6

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."

5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Think:
Moses had the dream job. He was the adopted son of the president of the largest country in the world. He had it all .... until God showed up. When God showed up he opened Moses' eyes to the misery of the people of Israel. He put Moses on a crash course with his adopted, powerful daddy.

But moses had a waiting problem ... he started a mini-rebellion and got banished.

A double dream crusher. Not only did he give up his cushy life in the palace he also lost touch with God's calling on his life. He lost the best of the world and the best of God all in flash. From the palace to the desert. From soothing baths to swirling sandstorms.

Moses was in the desert. Literally. Longally too ... 40 years in the desert tending sheep and wondering what happened.

Until ...............

God showed up! Jesus in the OT appears to Moses. 40 years, right on time!

The angel of the LORD appears in a burning bush. A bush that burns but never burns up. A fire that requires no source to burn. Totally self-contained power. A God with no need for anything. A God with no need for anything but Moses. A God that chooses to use people as part of his redemption plan. A God that uses not just people but a special class of people ... the broken, the murdering Moses, the prostitute, the least in the clan (Gideon), the weak, the despised, the crushed.

The angel of the LORD speaks to Moses. This God in the bush wants to make sure Moses knows their working relationship. God is holy. Moses ... not so much. God is powerful. Moses ... tends sheep in a desert.

Yet God sees him. God knows his name. God knows his address. God wants to use him again.

This is what Jesus in the OT looks like. This is God with skin on meeting a broken man with crushed dreams and giving him something to live for.

Do:
The bush burning but not consumed tells me that God can live in weak things and not destroy them. God makes blind people see. God makes the lame walk.

Martin Luther said, "I believe in a God that can whittle rotten wood and ride a lame horse." How encouraging is that today?

Moses should have been done. Put a fork in him. But that is not how God works. He is amazingly patient and willing to work with us for His glory.

So ... feeling crushed by life? Stuck in a desert? Wondering what God has for you next?

God is more willing to speak than we are willing to listen. Keep tending the sheep in your life. Be faithful to what God has called you to now. Seek His face and look for burning bushes.

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