Burning bush at wilderness
There is a lesson for us in Moses’s encounter with God at the bush in the wilderness.
Why did the Almighty God use a scrubby bush to reveal His presence and glory? It would seem that the bush was just a common acacia plant. It had no intrinsic worth. It was in itself completely helpless. And it could not back out. It was caught there, indwelt by the presence of God and fire.
Like the bush, we will never know God until we are helpless in His hands. We will never be of worth to Him until there is no escape. As long as we can run, as long as we know we can depend upon our avenues of escape, we are not really in God’s hands.
Much of our trust in God depends on the fact that things have never gone wrong for us. The crisis time has never come. We figure that God is out there somewhere in case we come to that place of “last resort”.
Let me tell you with assurance that the happy Christian is the one who has been caught – captured by the Lord. He or she no longer wants to escape or go back. The happy Christian has met the Lord personally and found Him an all-sufficient Saviour and Lord. He or she has burned all the bridges in every direction.
Some of God’s children are dabbling with surrender and victory. They have never reached that place of spiritual commitment which is final and complete and satisfying. They still retain their escape routes.
I have come to as sad conclusion about some of the professing Christians around us today. They are poor examples of what Christ is trying to do in our world because they have never willingly given up their doors of retreat. They can get out any time they want to. They can appear to be walking with the Lord as long as things are normal. But when the tight spot comes, the time of crisis, they opt out. They want the human solution.
I thank God for the little bush! It was caught, it was helpless. But it was radiant and useful and enduring in the presence and hands of the living God.
Excerpt taken from the book “Men who met God” written by A.W. Tozer, published by GLS Publishing.
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