Burning Sheltering Presence

Day 1

Yesterday I was reading my devotions and I was struck by the passage in Exodus 23:23-25. This passage says, “ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

Egypt often times in the Bible was symbolic of worldliness and bondage. Maybe as a single person you have been in a place of slavery of worldliness or bondage. For example when one refuses to accept their single state, it sets a Christian in a state of bondage, which WILL have an effect upon your life as a Christian. When a person refuses to accept their single life, they tend to focus on a spousal search. A spousal search may be all consuming because everything we do or every event we attend will always be under the umbrella of searching for a mate. This limits our vision, creativity, and our ability to be useful to others. If we will focus on Christ as our source of life instead of a spouse, God WILL fill any void we have.

The Israelites in Egypt groaned and suffered for a long time and God said nothing to them. Maybe some of you feel like you pray endlessly for a man and God is silent and not answering. But, right after the people groan it says God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and was concerned about them. God knows our hearts and he is concerned with us too. Isaiah 65:24 reads, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Here is where the passage gets real good. Just following the peoples groaning God appears to Moses in the burning bush. I am almost positive this is not the way the Israelites or Moses thought God would answer or speak to him. Go read Exodus 3 and she the conversation between Moses and God. Hear what God is saying. Listen to the love and compassion that God has for his people as he speaks to Moses. He has that same love and compassion for us. I once read that the burning bush to the Jews was a symbol of God's sheltering presence during times when the Jews will go through "burning difficulties." The bush keeps burning because God is its exsistence, so too will God will also support our existence in our time of need. So as single people maybe we are not in slavery in Egypt but just the same God is our sheltering presence in our burning difficulties.

The author of my devotional Erin Marshall added this to the story.

“But when we enclose our expectations of God in a box with a set timer, we’re saying to Him, ‘ I trust you, God, if you answer in this way and by that time.’ This strategy invites doubt and suffocates faith. God is more interested in our growth than our comfort, and he doesn’t often do things our way…Silence often promotes deeper thought and richer faith. He knows when the time and quiet are needed to fit us and our circumstance for his finished answer.”

So the next time you are waiting for God to answer. Look around and see how he has already provided and answered. Maybe it is not exactly a burning bush to show his sheltering presence, but I can guarantee he is there and waiting to answer and at the perfect time.

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable by whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” – Malcolm Muggeridge

Blessings! Until tomorrow…

-KB