Focus: God's Up To Something

Text: Ex.3:1

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the BACKSIDE of the desert, and came to the MOUNTAIN OF GOD, even to Horeb."

Moses lived in the wilderness for forty years, and as the employee of Jethro, his father in-law in the shepherding business, he took the flocks from place to place for grazing. While working as a shepherd and moving all over the desert in search of grazing spots, little did he know that God was up to something.

By divine orchestration Moses led his sheep to a faraway place. Eugene H. Peterson, in the Message Bible calls the place, "The west end of the wilderness." The New International Version calls it the "far side of the wilderness." But the King James Version uses the word the "backside of the wilderness." The word 'backside' is achar in Hebrew, and it means 'the hind part, behind, a hinder part.' By that word he is referring to a distant place, a remote area, or a far-off spot. Moses travelled far away with the sheep and arrived at a spot where he encountered the Lord. It was a sight to behold, for the Lord set up supernatural fireworks in that spot.

The Biblical account says that he came to the Mountain of God, and on that mountain he saw the invisible. God has a way of bringing us to such sacred spaces to meet with Him. God arranges the hindmost of places to make Himself manifest to us.

Imagine how far people can go in business and in worldly pursuits! Moses travelled far, taking care of business and ensuring that all was well with the sheep in his care. He was a good steward of another's resources. But God had other plans for him.

Moses bumped into God. He strayed away into God's sacred space. His business brought him to where God had another business waiting for him. God involved him in a heavenly enterprise of saving a people from slavery.

As Moses was leading the flock, so God was leading him until he came to the holy spot where his whole life and perspective was forever altered. For the last forty years of his life he was mightily used of God. He became the shepherd of Israel under Yahweh.

While on that journey with the sheep, little did he know that God was dragging and drawing him out of himself and getting him ready for a larger-than-life destiny.

The lady in the Song of Solomon prayed, "Draw me, we will run after thee…" (Song of Sol.1:4). That is my prayer that the Lord would draw us and make us do His will. There is something more to life than just living in the desert and leading animals. We are created for something more. We need a heavenly encounter with God that will reset our lives for a bigger purpose. I pray God to orchestrate a plan to catch our attention. Let God charm and change us by the revelation of His glory.

O Lord, woo us to your side and make us see the invisible and touch the intangible. Hosea declares, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her" (Hos.2:14). God lures and pulls. He is up to something. The way things are going in your life, I make bold to say that God is up to something. Things are falling out of place for other things to fall into place. The time is ripe and the stage is set. God is about to show up and show out in your life. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter