Focus: Be Still

Text: Ex.3:3-4

"And Moses said, I will now TURN ASIDE and SEE this GREAT SIGHT why the bush is not burnt.

And when the LORD SAW that he TURNED ASIDE to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses..."

Moses saw a great sight. Hebrews 11:27 reports that he saw the invisible. How did it happen? What was Moses' secret?

Here's the secret: Moses "turned aside." God waited for him to do that. We can only see closely and clearly if or when we turn aside.

Moses sighted the Burning Bush and felt the strangeness of it. Inside of him holy curiosity was aroused. He needed to catch a clear view of the divine fire and understand the import of it. He senses that the fire isn't ordinary. He could feel it. So he turns aside.

The Hebrew word used here means to switch off, to put off, to remove, or to turn off. For Moses to have a clear vision he had to switch off himself from the world around him. He makes a shift. He steps out of his own world and into God's own world. He silences all the noise in his head and in his life. He pauses to ponder. Something big is in front of him, hence the need for him to shut down his system and shut out all distractions. He sees the need for consecration and concentration. Habakkuk 2:20 says, "But the LORD is in his temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Moses is now telling himself to be silent, to concentrate, and to be attentive.

Moses halts everything. He finds himself within a sacred moment, a moment pregnant of a supernatural momentum - a sabbath of some sort.

For Moses, business can wait. The sheep of his father in-law can wait. Everything around Moses comes to a standstill. He senses in that holy instant a new dawn beckoning for him. Something infinite and undefinable is unfolding before his eyes. He is standing in front of a lifetime opportunity.

God is giving him the opportunity to see the invisible, hear the inaudible, touch the intangible, and encounter a new dawn and a fresh life.

When God saw Moses was ready for the transcendent He called out to him. God waits for you now. It's time to step out of the traffic. Time to be still for God to speak. Time to stop the noise. Time to open up to God. Be still NOW.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter