“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)
Moses was a shepherd. He lived in the desert and watched the sheep that his father-in-law owned. He had once been a prince of Egypt, but he had left that life, gotten married, and had decided to stay in the desert to raise his family rather than return to Egypt. Moses remembered that he was a Hebrew, and his mother had taught him all about Jehovah God even before he had gone to the palace to be a prince. Moses knew how to worship and serve the Holy God. But Moses preferred to do that in the quiet of the desert rather than back in Egypt.
One day, as Moses was watching the sheep in the desert, he saw a fire. At least, he thought he saw a fire. When he found the source of the fire, he realized a bush was on fire, but it was not burning up! What an amazing sight! Moses had never seen anything like it. Suddenly, he heard a voice calling his name. He realized it was coming from the burning bush. The voice said, Turn aside and take off your shoes. You are standing on Holy Ground. Moses did as the voice commanded. He realized as the voice continued to speak to him that it was the Lord talking to Him. God told Moses that he would be the one to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt. Moses realized it was a tremendous task and that he was unworthy of the job. God assured Moses that He would give him the words to speak. Moses only needed to do what he was commanded.
One of the lessons that Moses learned at the burning bush was that God is a holy God. Do you know what the word holy means? In part, it means that God is worthy to be worshipped. Worship is not simply singing hymns on Sunday at a worship service. According to Romans 12:1, our whole lives are worship to God.
One way that Moses showed his worship to God was obeying what God told him to do at the burning bush. Even though Moses liked his quiet life as a shepherd, Moses did what he did not want to do and became the leader of God’s people. Moses’ life became a life of worship to the Holy God of Israel.
The same God Whom Moses worshipped by his obedience is the God we worship today. Our obedience to God is part of the worship that He deserves as a holy God.
Because God is holy, He is worthy of our worship.
My Response:
» Do I think of worship as something I do only on Sundays, or do I think of worship as my obedience to God during the week, too?
» Are there things that God wants me to do that I haven’t been doing?