Jesus and WomenShembull

Carrying the Wilderness with You

Read Exodus 3:1-10, and look at this passage through the Western lens, asking the question, “How did it happen?” 

Now, look at this Bible passage through the Middle Eastern lens, asking the question, “Why would God do that?” 

This story happened in the desert, in the wilderness. Moses was tending his father in-law’s flock on “the far side of the wilderness” (v. 1, NIV). We often think of a desert or wilderness as something we want to get out of. But the Jewish people view the desert as the place where the Lord often meets His people and speaks to them. 

The Lord met Moses in Exodus 3 in the desert and spoke to him. The Lord gave His Torah to His people at Mount Sinai in the desert (Ex. 20). He met Elijah in the desert and spoke to him in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12, KJV). The Spirit led Jesus into the desert after His baptism. Angels attended to Him after His forty-day fast, His encounter with the devil, and His temptings (Matt. 4:1-11). 

This story of Moses in the desert is about the Living God who “[saw] the misery of [His] people in Egypt” (Ex. 3:7a). He “heard them crying out because of their slave drivers” (v. 7b). He was “concerned about their suffering” (v. 7b). He responded to what He saw and heard by coming down to rescue them. In the Bible, when we read that the Lord “sees” or “hears” something, those words signal to us that He is going to act. (It’s not as if God has missed something—as if He were a man who could turn away and miss a glimpse or whisper of something that has happened. God is omnipresent; He sees and hears everything that happens to us.) He is responsive, alive, awake—ever-ready to come to the rescue, to attend to His children in guidance and love. 

This story isn’t so much about a burning bush but about the Living God who refuses to look away. He chooses to see, to hear, to let it matter—to let it all matter. And it’s about the Living God who isn’t afraid to come down, get in the middle of the ruins of this world, and put His hands all over them to restore us. We run from drama. The Lord runs into it to bring rescue, restoration, and renewal.