Daily Lesson for Sunday 6th of July 2025
After Moses fled to Midian, he had a relatively easy life. He married, had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exodus 18:3-4), and was part of the extended family of Jethro, his father-in-law and a priest in Midian. He spent 40 relaxed years being a shepherd, like David (2 Samuel 7:8), enjoying God’s presence, especially as revealed in nature.
Yet, this time was not simply for Moses to smell the flowers (or perhaps, in this case, the desert cactus?). These years of walking with the Lord changed him and prepared him for a leadership role. God also used Moses in this quiet wilderness to write, under divine inspiration, two of the oldest biblical books: Job and Genesis (see Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 251; Francis D. Nichol, et al., eds., The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 3, p. 1140).
Moses also received from God crucial insights about the great controversy, the Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the patriarchs, and, most important, the plan of salvation. Thus, Moses was instrumental in passing on to all humanity the true knowledge of the living God, our Creator and Sustainer, and knowledge about what God is doing in view of the sin that has wreaked havoc on this planet. Biblical and salvation history make little sense apart from the crucial foundation that, under inspiration, Moses gave us, especially in the book of Genesis.
Read Exodus 3:1-6. What significance can be found in the fact that the Lord introduced Himself to Moses as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”?
Moses saw that the burning bush was not being consumed by the fire, and thus he knew that he was seeing a miracle and that something dramatic and important must be taking place right before him. As he moved closer, the Lord told him to take his shoes off as a sign of deep respect because God’s presence made the place holy.
The Lord presented Himself to Moses as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). The Lord had promised these patriarchs that their descendants would inherit Canaan, a promise Moses surely knew about. Thus, even before saying it, God was already opening the way for Moses to know what was coming and what crucial role he was to play.
Moses needed 80 years before God deemed him ready for his task. What might this truth teach us about patience? |
