After forty years in the wilderness, Moses was 80 and unlikely to believe that God was preparing him to play a pivotal role in the salvation of the Jews from slavery, especially since he was spending the majority of his time tending sheep in the wilderness of Midian.
But God wasn't finished with Moses.
I love the way that God introduces the next step of Moses' journey to him. Moses has a direct experience with God, a revelation of God's holiness seen in the impossible -- a bush on fire that was not being consumed. Moses trembled, and then he hears of God's compassion for God's people, who are suffering.
God continues to share that same compassion for people who are suffering today. Throughout Scripture, we see a God who has a heart for those who suffer. People suffer in countless different ways -- relationally, economically, politically. To each and every one, God reaches out. That should motivate us to reach out to the suffering, to be God's hands and feet in a world with far, far too much suffering. It should also comfort us when we suffer -- God comes to us, hearing our groaning, and sends comfort, sometimes in the form of other people, to communicate the depth of God's love and the assurance of hope, even in the depths of despair.
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