Bibledoorajar: Moses, You, and the Glory of God

     When I was in Graduate School, my class was given an assignment of dissecting an autobiography of an individual in order to try and understand the life dynamics that led that particular person to impact society in the way that he did. It was a fruitful lesson, but fell short in explaining the man's totality of being in his latter days. Here we are today, trying to ferret out some of the things that impacted Moses, but we soon see that the forty years of Moses' life experiences in Midian are not enumerated very much. We know he worked as a shepherd, an occupation not well respected by many. We know that he married and lived among his wife's people. We know that life was pretty ordinary compared to that of the Egyptian palace from whence he came.
     So "average" was his existence that the reader wonders just how God would empower him to do what he must in the courts of Egypt. But there on the desert floor, we are made to understand. Moses would find himself in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God. He looked afar and saw a thorny bush burning. The interesting thing was that it was not being consumed. The fire did not go out.
He was compelled to go nearer; he was compelled to know more.
     It seems that for any of us, Moses, me, you, who want to serve our Lord, we must first find ourselves in the presence of the Shekinah--the glory of God. From this perspective--all of Him and none of us--do we find the empowerment to do what we are called to do. Just as the thorny bush did not go out, the crown of thorns does not diminish in our lives. We have been redeemed and empowered by Everlasting Grace. And so we sing...

            "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
           Anywhere He leads me in this world below...."
                                                             Jessie Pounds

Later, a chocolate heiress, Helen Cadbury, would forsake her fortune and become a humble servant of God. She wrote this verse to the hymn:

            "Anywhere with Jesus,
             Over land and sea,
            Telling souls in darkness of salvation free;
            Ready as He summons me to go or stay,
            Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way,"

And so it is, for those who have confronted the Shekinah---the thrice Holy God.