the Thorn Bush

THE FARM where I grew up used to have an expansive house-yard full of hundreds of rose bushes. It must have been so beautiful, so fragrant – and so full of thorns! 

My dad often called me Thorn Bush.
Even before my first memories formed, I knew my names were Rosemary, and Thorn Bush... but as I grew, I connected the meaning of my nickname to my birthname -

Roses and thorns grow on the same bush!

There was another thorn bush, and a man named Moses: 

        He was born during an overwhelming time, when newborn baby boys had to be thrown away, abandoned to die. Not ALL baby boys, just those born to the slaves - the people called Hebrews. This was Pharaoh’s Final Solution – after he realised that the growing numbers of Hebrew slaves could mount a huge army, outnumbering and overthrowing his Egyptian kingdom.

        Moses’ mother was an extraordinary Hebrew woman, preserving her baby’s life by hiding him in a floating basket. Another extraordinary woman intervened - Pharaoh’s daughter rescued the Hebrew baby, and after he was weaned she raised the boy as her son! Right under her Pharaoh's nose!

 

        It’s interesting that although the lad grew up enjoying the luxuries of privileged Egyptian life, while he was learning palace policies and procedures, he was also mindful of his Hebrew kinsmen. Visiting them one day, he witnessed their struggles under forced labour - so he killed an Egyptian task-master, hiding the body in the sand.
        Did Moses think he could solve their problems by secretly despatching every Egyptian?
        Did Moses assume that his elite position gave him authority to intervene using his own measure of justice? 

        Royal protocol couldn’t spare Moses from Pharaoh’s wrath, so he fled from Egypt, from palace life, and from his Hebrew heritage. He ran away.

Sometimes life is just SO overwhelming! Have you ever wanted to run away? When a comfortably privileged lifestyle suddenly became thorny, did running away seem better than death? I hope you found yourself in a place and time I call the wilderness. 

        Moses found a well in the wilderness after fleeing from Pharaoh, where shepherdesses also arrived to water their flocks. They presumed he was Egyptian, but his real identity was hidden behind the reason he turned up here at the well in the desert. Moses now had to learn how to survive in the wilderness - and the further he was removed from his palace profile, the closer he grew to his Hebrew inheritance.

The wilderness is a barren place.
Palace practices are of no relevance there … it’s a strange place where there is no religion of privilege or pride.
Although it seems like desert at first - bare, barren and severely harsh - even in the wilderness seeds lie dormant, waiting for rain.
Streams run briefly, pools form, grasses grow.
And so do thorn bushes.

One day Moses led a flock to the far side of the wilderness, in search of fresh pastures for the sheep.
(When the Bible specifically states: the FAR side of the wilderness, you know that this is a sign - Moses has gone as far as he possibly could, searching for answers...)





He came to Horev, to the mountain of God - Mt Sinai.
(Have you seen Mt Sinai? A more barren, deserted place would be hard to find.)

        The angel of The Lord appeared to Moses in FIRE blazing from the middle of the thorn bush!
Moses looked, stared, gaped... and saw that although the bush was flaming with fire, the bush was NOT being burned up!” This was an amazing sight, so Moses came closer, trying to understand why the bush wasn’t being consumed in the raging fire.

        God's voice called to him, by name! "MOSES, MOSES! Do not come closer. Take off your sandals, this is Holy Ground. I AM the GOD of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."
        Moses covered his face. This thorn bush was on Holy fire! God knew Moses intimately! And so Moses was afraid to look at God. God knew all the familes of Moses, the generations... and God told Moses to go back there, and SPEAK TO PHARAOH, and deliver the whole Hebrew nation from their slavery in Egypt!
        But Moses wanted to forget all about the past because he was content with the present without going back to the future!


I am totally awed by God’s promise to Moses: 

“I will surely be with you. Your ‘sign’ that I have sent you, will be that when you have led the people out of Egypt, you will worship God ON THIS MOUNTAIN.”

        As stubborn as Moses tried to be, God still SENT him. Not with a written sign on stone tablets – not yet…. but with a verbal promise of a ‘SIGN’. After Moses had completed all God was telling him he had to do - organised the great evacuation of thousands of Hebrews enslaved in Egypt, Moses had to lead them outwards, to THIS VERY PLACE, this SAME mountain, to worship. And THAT was the ‘sign’ that God was sending him/had sent him, to be confirmed AFTERWARDS.

        That, dear believers, takes obedience and brute boldness – but above all the Fyre of God that keeps burning in your heart, soul and spirit - because on His commission, your purpose will never be burned up to destruction.
        Your own wilderness will be a place and a time exclusive to when and where God has determined to meet you AFTERWARDS. After you've forsaken all those 'palace' things. After you've shed your image of importance. After you've been reborn into the original heritage and destiny you were created for.
        You will have learned to survive in the wilderness for maybe 40 years or 4 years - but when you get to the FAR SIDE, searching for the best of a bad situation, I hope you have a thorn bush experience.


Exodus chapters 2; 3; 19:1-6