Randy Suits

The Flaming Bush

My Kochana, with whom I share all my thoughts.

It was a strange and peculiar sight, on the backside of the desert. Was it an aberration or a desert mirage? He turned aside to have a look. Moses was tending the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law. Moses had fled Egypt, after he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. He worked as a shepherd for 40 years before returning to Egypt to lead the Hebrews to the “promised land”. What a development! He was known in the courts of Pharaoh. Now he was a shepherd in the backside of the desert. The apostle Paul wrote, “By faith Moses, having come of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:24, 25, 26) That decision by Moses had consequences but it had much greater benefits. He fled Egypt for his life to hide on the remote backside of the desert where he was content to be a shepherd like his ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (a profession abhorred by Egyptians but approved by God) where in keeping the flock of Jethro, he learned to keep the sheep (his people the Israelites) of God Most High. God spent 40 years instructing his servant and student as Moses learned from the ordinary events of daily living in a remote environment devoid of the disturbances and interference of prosperity and the deceit of wealth. Worldly wealth can deter our vital studies in the higher calling to which God, the great teacher, calls all men (male and female created He them). We fall behind in our daily assignment (God gives us work for each day and the fresh bread of knowledge required to complete that task direct from the pure, loving, nurturing, instructing heart and mind of the Father of Lights. On that burning bush day (symbolizing the perpetual presence of God) Moses had a flaming bush moment (symbolizing that moment when the synapses of the physical mind snap to attention to prepare the way for Holy Spirit enlightenment from God). He thought, ‘I shall turn aside and observe this strange thing’. It was then that God gave his student his greatest life work. After 40 years of study on that remote desert, the student was ready! It was graduation day! We are all students in the classroom of life. Few seek the higher learning which requires great sacrifice and suffering but when they choose the servitude which demands their full attention, they find their new life superior to the old life of servitude to worldly wealth, position, and power. Rather than being in revolt to the Father of all, in themselves, they have Life anew, in Jesus Christ, with the One who pleases, sanctifies and completes the image in which He created us.

Let’s watch daily for our flaming bush moments, Kochany