The Importance of Being Disrupted: The Story of Moses

Blasé Pascal was a 17^th C. French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and writer. He was perhaps the most influential mathematician of his day. That being so, it sometimes surprises people when they hear that on November 23, 1654 Blasé Pascal met God. He never forgot it. He wrote of his experience, and sewed it into the liner of his coat. It wasn't until after his death that people learned of this and realized that everywhere he went, Pascal carried this experience with him. His turning point has become known as "Pascal's Night of Fire.” Here is part of what he wrote: The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November...From about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight:

Fire! God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob… Certainty, certainty, heartfelt joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ...
The world forgotten, and everything except God.
You can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospels.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
This is life eternal, that I may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.'
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
Total submission to Jesus Christ.
Everlasting joy in return for one day’s surrender on earth.
I will not forget your word.

What happened to Pascal that night is what I’ll call today a “burning bush moment”. Over the past two weeks we’ve seen two Old Testament stories telling us about the very different ways God breaks into human lives. God is not bound by any one methodology. He knows us personally and deals with us personally. However, today, I want us to consider two elements about “turning points” that I find in each encounter with God in the Bible.

To teach us, we turn to one of the most famous stories in the Bible. It has supernatural elements that are unique to Moses’ experience. (How often do we see burning bushes with voices speaking out of them?) But there are two characteristics of what happened when Moses met God that I want you to watch for personally.

Characteristic #1: When we meet God, it is almost always a disruptive event – but we must stop to listen long enough to hear what God has to say. I will turn aside and see this strange sight (3:3).

In Exodus 3, Moses doesn’t go out one morning and say, “Oh, I think I’ll search for God today.” Instead, his encounter with God comes in the course of every day life. The Hebrew word for what happens, i.e., “sur”, is very strong and it’s used both in vv. 3 & 4. Sur means to turn aside from – to abandon intentionally -- what is the normal path. Sur has to do with a person who is going along in life doing whatever he usually does and then -- blam!! Something disrupts him. We all know that we get into our normal lives and, in general, we get too busy to look for God – or we’re just disinclined to do so. Instead, it’s God who takes the initiative. One day, Moses is going about his ordinary agricultural business when he sees something distracting just off the beaten path – a burning bush that’s not being consumed. Moses chooses to turn aside from what he normally does. And that was his beginning.

For many people, this sort of "burning bush" is the first step in meeting God. As long as we stay in our normal comfort zones, doing what we often do, we ignore the biggest issues of life. You know how it is: You may get fed up one day and say, “Why am I doing all this? What’s my life amounting to?” But, then someone walks by and says, “Hey, let’s go grab some coffee” – and off you go forgetting the big questions.

CS Lewis writes about this in his Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, the senior devil, mentions to his nephew Wormwood, a junior devil in training, how one of his “patients” started to think about God one day. Screwtape tells Wormwood how he quickly reacted to the situation by turning the man from that kind of serious thinking back to the issues of the material. Screwtape reminded the man that was hungry, and that it was time for lunch. Screwtape suggested to him that after lunch, he could return back to thinking about God with a fresh mind. The technique worked. The man headed off to lunch and thoughts about ultimate things like God, the purpose of life, and life after death were soon out of mind. The point Lewis was making is that we are material creatures and get consumed with the ordinary things we normally do – so much so that we do not take time to “sur” -- to turn aside to meditate seriously on the most important things in life.

We need "turning aside" – burning bush – moments if we will meet God – or even if we will grow deeper in our walks with God. And, we must stop and take time to listen to what God says. Ordinary life normally leads us to want to stay comfortable the way we are -- or to be too busy to change. What is a “burning bush”? A “burning bush” is something that contradicts the ordinary view of the world that we have. We say, “Since this is true, that cannot happen.” But, then “that” does happen! When it does, we have to re-think everything.

Dr. Steve Cunningham is a scientist who was trained to believe that miracles do not happen. Then, he saw some miraculous things happening. Steve couldn’t explain what he saw away – and what he saw led him to know that his worldview was inadequate to explain reality. His whole way of thinking was turned aside – it was a “burning bush moment” for him. A burning bush is anything that pulls us out of the ordinary pursuits and patterns of our lives and calls us to think about the “big questions” of the universe. Again, we human beings rarely get up one day and say, “Hey, I’m 21 years old today. I’d better go search for God!” No, something has to turn us aside.

What kinds of things can turn us aside? What kinds of things make us think more profoundly about life than we otherwise might? Sometimes, we come face to face with a miracle like Moses did or Steve Cunningham did. But, let me suggest a few other ways God might get our attention:

• Paradigm-breaking people -- people come into our lives who show us something of the transforming power of Christ. The comment I’ve heard the most often from people who have come to Christ as students is that they’ve met someone who loved them, forgave them, or gave them a second chance when no one else ever had done that. One student at Princeton told me about how a teacher in high school was like this so she asked her teacher why she was different from others. The public school teacher said, “Well, it’s because I follow Jesus.” The student told her, “I’ve always thought churchgoers were negative and self-righteous.” But the teacher said, “Well, when Jesus knows me, loves me, forgives me and gives me a second chance – and a third, fourth…, then I consider it a privilege to do the same.” This forced the student to re-think her view of people and eventually was used to bring her to Christ.
• Haunting questions -- that lead us to conclude that what we’ve been taught doesn’t address the big issues of life. A while ago, Min Shigamatsu told her testimony about growing up in China in a largely atheist context. But Min was always haunted by the “causation question”, i.e., the matter of how everything started. She would ask her mother, “I know I came from you and you came from Grandma but where did the very first mom come from?” And Min asked this question repeatedly into her university years when she asked it of her fellow students. Finally, a student gave Min a brown bag hiding a book and just said, “Read this. It will answer your question.” She opened the book and it began, “In the beginning, God created…” Min kept reading until she came to faith in Jesus, through whom all things are created.
• Unmanageable trouble -- that makes us ask whether there is any meaning or purpose in what happens in the world. You move to California and up to now everything has gone pretty well in your life. You’ve always managed things and succeeded. But, for the first time, you find that you can’t get the acting job you want. Then you discover there aren’t even any jobs at all! And, you get a “Dear John” letter from your girlfriend who has just married your best friend. You begin to discover that life isn’t manageable on your own. Your view that you’re wise enough to control things and handle life by yourself falls apart. It’s a burning bush. You’ve got to turn aside and listen.
• Unquenchable emptiness – a sense that we’re made for something more than we’ve found. You dream of success and then you get what you were dreaming of. And, you discover it’s not all you thought it would be. This may be the most powerful burning bush of all. Here in the entertainment capital of the world, those few who actually do make it to the top of their professions often face this burning bush. And what we often see if that the most successful people in this material world become the most miserable people. They got what they thought life was all about and found themselves empty. Often they feel they have to seek life in something else. The Oscar award, the best selling CD, the Grammy – have been achieved. Then what? Often, there is a turn to drugs to take them away from the success that they thought would bring them life. It’s a burning bush. It’s a message that there is something more to live for than can be found in this material world.

Has God come to you via any burning bushes like these? If so, you have to turn aside from what you usually do and take time to listen. Is God saying something to you? Is he reaching out to you? You must stop – and listen to hear the voice of God. Let me meddle just a bit. I believe that our smart phones may be a strong force keeping us from “turning aside” and hearing what God wants to say to us. God’s Word goes forth in church and you are pulled away from asking what God is saying by the noise of our cell phones.

And, here I must add a word to long-time churchgoers – to those of us who have already come to God through faith in Jesus. We do not yet know all there is to be known about God. We have more to experience about God than we have yet experienced – but sometimes we get stuck in a rut. Sometimes, we stop growing. I’ve found that for Christians, going deeper in our walk with God involves the kind of disruption Moses experienced. Sometimes, we’ve been to church for many years and maybe even to a Christian school. We can fool ourselves into thinking that we know all there is to be known about God. Then a burning bush comes. Perhaps we lose our jobs. We feel overwhelmed with the troubles we have. It’s a burning bush. God is ready to tell us, “You need to learn to walk with me. I’m with you in times of trouble. Trust me.”

You see, when we meet God, it is almost always an event that is disruptive to our self-directed lives. But we must listen for God’s voice in the bush. And we must learn to trust him and obey him.

Characteristic #2: When we meet God, we come into contact with a power we cannot manage – and we must surrender to him. Take off your sandals… (3:5).

Something happens from v. 4 to 5 that it seems almost contradictory. The LORD speaks from the bush and says, “Moses! Moses!” In Hebrew, when a word is doubled, it intensifies the word. A big mountain is “mountain, mountain” (har-har). If it’s a person, doubling the name deepens the intimacy. It’s saying, “I want to know you – I want a friendship.” This happens often in the Bible, “Samuel, Samuel!” God calls. David mourns for his son, “Absalom, Absalom!” Here, the Angel of the Lord in the bush calls, “Moses, Moses!” “Moses, I want to know you.” Moses replies, “Here I am.”

Then, immediately in v. 5, God says, “Do not come any closer.” Do you see it? Moses, come close – Moses, don’t come any closer. And, the command, “Take off your sandals!” heightens the paradox. In the ancient near east, people took off sandals for one of two reasons: 1) when they were invited into the tent of a friend, and, 2) when they were required to do it by a conquering enemy. Without sandals, the enemy could not run away into the rugged desert and escape. So, what is being said about God here? Is he a God who is ready to enter into a close relationship with people like us? Or is he a holy God who says we are unholy people who must surrender to him? It’s clear God is both. He is loving and he is holy.

This apparent contradiction (in the way we think) is heightened as the conversation goes on. In vv. 5-6, God declares, “This is holy ground. I am the God of your forefathers.” And Moses hides his face out of utter terror! But then, look at the intimacy of vv. 7-10. “I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard my people crying. I have come down to them – come down to rescue and to bring them into a good land.”

We dare never forget that God is holy – God is fire. He announces in v.14, “I am what I am – not what you want me to be.” “I am a fiery God – not a playdough god.” People want a god we can shape as we want – like playdough. But God is the one who does the shaping. The real God – the God who is what he is – will contradict us. He will redirect our lives. He will tell us things we do not want to hear.

I believe this is what keeps many, many Southern Californians from knowing God. We say things like, “I’m interested in spiritual things. I’d like to meet God but I have this girlfriend, you know. I don’t want to believe in a God who will take me away from my girlfriend.”

And God commands, “Take off your shoes!” When we take off our shoes, it means we are ready to lay down our conditions. “I am ready to do things I wouldn’t choose to do if you ask me, God.” Notice that God doesn’t say, “I will meet you and then you can decide if you want to take off your shoes.” He says, “Take off your shoes and then I will meet you.” You and I must say, “God, if you are real, I am willing to go to the places I wouldn’t go whenever you ask.” If we’re not ready to say that, then we’re not really looking for God. We’re looking for a genie in a lamp. But God already is. He says, “I am who I am.”

We know we cannot treat people the way many try to treat God. Single people – can you imagine someone coming up to you and saying something like this: I’d like to go out with you but I have to be able to think of you as a rich and impulsively generous person. That’s who you have to be or it’s off.” What would you say? “What? I have to be what you want? But I’m not that. You don’t really want to get to know me. You want to use me!” That’s what we would say.

But, how many people say, “I don’t want to find a God who won’t let me do this or that.” God says to all that kind of thinking, “I am who I am! Take off your shoes. I am ready to give you life but you must be ready to go down paths you would never have chosen. You don’t manage me. You must give up your conditions if you will know me and find the life you were made for.”

This is how it will always be. God will always be who he is. If we will walk with him, we must start just as Moses had to start, i.e., by saying, “I know I am made by you and for you, God. I will trust you. Here is my past. I know I need to turn from it. Will you forgive me? Here is my future. All I am is yours.”

God will say, “Moses, Moses.” I am ready to come to you. I know what you’ve done in your past. You killed a man out of anger, Moses. I am ready to forgive you. More than that, I am ready to give you a wonderful future. I am fire so I must deal with your sin. But, I have seen you. I have heard your cry. I come down to you. I am ready to give you a new life. But, I must be God for I am who I am.”

This is captured well in Henry Blackaby and Claude King's book, Experiencing God:

When your life is in the middle of God's activity, He will start rearranging a lot of your thinking. God's ways and thoughts are so different from yours and mine they will often sound wrong, crazy, or impossible. Often, you will realize that the task is far beyond your power or resources to accomplish. When you recognize that the task is humanly impossible, you need to be ready to believe God and trust Him completely.

I have a final word for you. How can God be both of these to us: A God who says “stay away” and who says “come near to me. A God who says “I am holy so your sin must be punished and I am loving so your sin can be forgiven.” How can this holy God deal walk with and bless and use unholy people like Moses – and like us?

As always in the Bible, these questions lead us to Jesus. To understand kind of God revealed in Exodus 3, we must fix our eyes on Jesus and what he did intentionally for us on the cross. He was the holy God who came down for us – who came to seek and to save us. But we are unholy. As Tim Keller says, “We are more wicked than we ever dare to imagine.” Only one person lived the life we were meant to live, i.e., Jesus.

At the end of his life, we see this same holy Jesus dying the death we should have to die – and he’s doing it in our place. We who are more sinful than we could ever dare imagine discover on the cross that we are more loved than we could ever dare to hope. Jesus says from the cross, “Moses, Moses! (Put your name here.) Come close – but take off your shoes. I am ready to come to you but you must receive my forgiveness by faith. You must surrender to me. No conditions.” At the cross, we see fully both the love and the justice of God that was shown to us in the way God dealt with Moses from the burning bush.

In Jesus, we see that God comes down to us out of love and says to us, “Yes, you must take off your shoes for I am holy. You must surrender to me. But I love you. I am ready to be your friend.” “I am holy so the wages of your sin is death. At the same time, I love you so I will die in your place.”

I pray God’s Word is speaking to you today. If so, I don’t want you to leave this place without turning aside to listen to his voice. So, I want you to pull down your kneelers now and let me lead us in prayer…