October 22, 2008

Turning Aside

          Have you ever been going about your life, minding your own business, and had something unusual catch your attention? In the Third chapter of Exodus, we have an account of an incident just like that, and it raises a “what if” question, and also a challenge to our lives.

           Exodus 3 details an innocent day in the life of Moses. He was tending the flocks of his father-in-law on the backside of the wilderness. Nothing special happening… he was just going about his daily business, minding his own business. All of a sudden, he sees a bush on fire. He watches it for a while, and he notices that there is this blazing fire in the middle of the bush, but the bush does not burn up, and the fire does not go out or spread, it just stays in that bush, burning like crazy. It catches his attention, and Moses makes a decision to leave the smelly, noisy flock for a while, (we don’t know if the flock was goats or sheep, but either way, they can both be smelly and noisy), to study the phenomena further. Exodus 3:3 says,

And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

Notice that Moses had to turn aside to study the situation further. He had to leave what he was doing, turn aside, and check out the unusual and extraordinary sight he was witnessing.

           Once Moses turned aside, verse 4 states, “when the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush” It is important for us to note the progression here: Moses is doing his daily activities, but something unusual and extraordinary catches his attention. He turns from what he is doing and gives his time and attention to the “great sight”. God sees that Moses made the commitment to turn aside, and now that God knows that He has garnered Moses’ attention, God calls to him out of the bush. God calls, Moses responds, God speaks, and the rest is history.

           I wonder what would have happened had Moses not turned aside? Would God have kept trying to get Moses’ attention? Would God have had to find another person to deliver the children of Israel? Bringing it a little closer to home, I wonder if this ever happens today? I wonder how many times this has happened in my own life, and I have just spaced the entire thing out?

           You see, I believe that God deals with us the same way He dealt with Moses and all the other people mentioned at various times in the Bible. The story of Balaam and his donkey immediately jumps to mind. (Numbers 22) I am convinced that God intervenes in our day-to-day lives, with His Word, His thoughts, or circumstances designed to capture our curiosity and make us turn aside from our busy lives, or our mundane lives, or just our everyday lives, and check it out—check Him out. God is watching us, just like He was watching Moses, to see if we are going to pause and pay attention, or just go on with what we have planned and scheduled. Do we turn aside, giving the Lord our attention, or do we take an attitude of “Oh, isn’t that something,” and keep on going?

           Only after Moses turned aside, did God call to him. Moses still had to answer the call after he turned aside, and then God spoke to him out of the situation that caused Moses to turn aside to begin with. God brings situations into our lives to capture our attention. He is looking for us to turn aside. He calls to us from the midst of our unusual situations and asks us to respond. Are we willing to hear from Him in the middle of our situations and circumstances, or not? If we are, God has a word for us. A personal word for us… from Him. But it all starts with our turning aside in our lives to face Him.

           Sometimes the unusual circumstance may not be a “great sight”, like a burning bush that does not burn up. It may be an illness or a tragedy. It may be a spiritual vision, like Balaam (Numbers 22:22-41). It may be a traffic jam that disrupts our schedule, or a phone call, or a thought that jumps into our head from nowhere. It may be an unpleasant situation that we may be questioning, or a difficult circumstance that is demanding our total attention, or so we think. (We don’t know the number of animals in Moses’ flock, but too many goats or sheep left to their own devises can be utter disaster). But it didn’t matter to Moses, and it doesn’t matter to God. God is trying to get our attention, to get us to turn aside to Him, so He can call to us and have our attention to speak to us.

           Moses was with God (and not with the flock) all the way through chapter 3 and half of chapter 4 of Exodus. God explained the whole deal, Moses argued, God gave Moses a display of His power, Moses whined some more, and God finally got angry and said- Just do it! We do not know exactly how long that all took, but God must have taken care of Moses’ flock, because if we fast forward to chapter 4:18, we read that Moses departed and returned to his father-in-law, with the flock, I presume, and asked to be released from his herding duties. When we turn aside, from whatever we have to when God seeks us, He takes care of things. We may think we are indispensable, or our important lives and activities must go on and be tended to; however, when God seeks us, and we turn aside, He takes care of the rest.

           Whatever causes our interest to be piqued, we make, or do not make the decision to stop what we are doing and turn aside. Could the Lord be trying to get my attention? I’ll check it out. When God sees that we indeed “turn aside to see,” He calls to us in the midst of the bush. He is watching us, to see if we turn aside and are interested in Him and His ways. He is looking, searching, hoping that we are more interested in Him than in us. The challenge is before us. Let’s be on the alert for the unusual, extraordinary, or simply the different (maybe even the difficult) in our lives, ready to turn aside and respond to the Lord.

 Seen any burning bushes lately? I’ll be looking for some along the way.