Burning Bush: What Moses Teaches Us About God’s Timing

Editor’s note – Most of us know the feeling of watching a plan collapse and wondering if God has moved on without us. Randy DeVaul walks through Moses’ forty years in Midian – years that looked like exile but turned out to be preparation – and asks what we might be missing in our own wilderness seasons. Read it slowly if you’re in a season that feels more like waiting than purpose.

A Shepherd in the Wilderness

There are seasons in life when everything familiar seems to disappear. Plans unravel, our sense of identity becomes uncertain, and we wonder whether God still has a purpose for us. Moses understood that feeling. His journey from Pharaoh’s palace to the wilderness of Midian had taken him from privilege to obscurity, leaving behind the life he once knew.

Forty years earlier, Moses had been raised in Pharaoh’s household and educated in the wisdom of Egypt. But after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, he fled to Midian to escape Pharaoh’s wrath. The prince became a shepherd, and for forty years he tended sheep in a distant land. What may have seemed like wasted years became a season of preparation. God was shaping a man accustomed to palace privileges into a servant who would need patience, humility, and dependence on Him.

An Ordinary Day Interrupted

Then, one ordinary day, something extraordinary happened. While tending his father-in-law Jethro’s flock, Moses led the sheep toward Horeb, the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1). There he saw a bush engulfed in flames that was not being consumed (Exodus 3:2-3). The sight defied explanation, and Moses turned aside to investigate.

This was no ordinary event hidden inside an ordinary day. It was a dramatic divine interruption that broke into the routine of a man who had settled into life in exile. Moses had grown accustomed to Midian, while the Hebrews had grown accustomed to Egypt. Neither represented God’s ultimate purpose for them. Sometimes God must disturb our comfort and challenge our assumptions before we recognize that He is calling us toward something more.

Editor’s note – It’s worth pausing on the order here: Moses didn’t climb the mountain looking for God. He was tending sheep on an ordinary day when the ground beneath him turned holy. Most of our own encounters with God look less like a vision and more like an unexpected interruption.

Holy Ground and a God Who Remembers

When the Lord saw Moses turn aside, He called from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3:4). The man who had spent forty years in obscurity had not been forgotten. His circumstances had changed, but God still knew his name. Our value is not determined by our accomplishments or circumstances; it rests in the God who knows us and draws us to Himself.

God instructed Moses to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground (Exodus 3:5). The desert had not changed, but God’s presence transformed that place into a setting for a holy encounter. Moses stood before a holy God who called him to listen, trust, and respond. The Lord was not merely offering help for Moses’ plans; He was preparing to reveal His own.

God identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6), connecting Moses’ present circumstances with the promises of the past. He had seen the suffering of Israel, heard their cries, and determined to deliver them from Egypt (Exodus 3:7-10). The passing years had not erased His covenant or diminished His commitment to His people.

Prepared Through Every Season

Then came the unexpected announcement: God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to lead Israel out of Egypt. The fugitive who had once fled from Pharaoh was now being called to stand before him. The shepherd who had spent forty years away from Egypt was being commissioned to lead an enslaved nation toward freedom. Moses may have thought his opportunity to make a difference had passed, but God was not finished with him.

When God called Moses to return to Egypt and stand before Pharaoh, fear was a natural response. Yet Moses was not being sent unprepared. The first forty years of his life in Pharaoh’s palace had not been wasted; they were part of God’s preparation for the very assignment Moses now feared. There he learned the language, customs, political structures, court protocols, and leadership dynamics of Egypt. What may have appeared to be a forgotten chapter of Moses’ life was actually part of God’s preparation.

Then came forty years in the wilderness, where Moses learned humility, dependence, endurance, and the daily realities of shepherding. Together, these two very different seasons equipped him for the assignment God was about to give. In God’s economy, no experience is wasted. The lessons learned in the palace and the lessons learned in the desert were both essential to accomplishing God’s purpose at God’s appointed time. What Moses could not see was that God had been preparing him for this moment all along.

The same principle is true for us. There are seasons of life that seem disconnected, confusing, or even disappointing. We may wonder why God allows certain experiences, opportunities, delays, successes, or hardships. Yet God often uses those very seasons to shape our character, develop our skills, deepen our faith, and prepare us for future service. While we rarely understand the full picture in the moment, Scripture repeatedly demonstrates that God is at work behind the scenes, weaving every chapter of our lives into His greater purpose (Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:6). What feels like waiting to us may actually be preparation in the hands of God.

Editor’s note – DeVaul’s point about the two forty-year seasons is worth careful thought: Egypt gave Moses skills, Midian gave him character. Neither alone would have been enough. If a season of your own has felt wasted, this is a good reminder that God rarely discards anything He has given you.

The God Who Goes With Us

Moses questioned whether he was adequate for the task: “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11). God did not answer by reminding him of his education, experience, or abilities. Instead, He promised, “Certainly I will be with thee” (Exodus 3:12). The assignment was far greater than Moses could accomplish alone, but its success would rest on the sufficiency of the God who had called him. When we question whether we have what it takes to fulfill God’s purposes, we must remember that His calling invites us to depend on His presence rather than our own strength.

Moses then asked what he should tell the Israelites when they wanted to know who had sent him. God answered, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Moses’ identity had been shaken by years of disappointment, but God’s identity had never changed. He was the eternal, sovereign God, present with His people and faithful to His promises. Moses could move forward, not because he knew everything that lay ahead, but because he was beginning to understand the One who would go with him.

Editor’s note – Notice God never answers Moses’ doubts with a resume. He answers with His own name and His own presence. That pattern is worth remembering the next time we measure our qualifications instead of asking Who is calling us.

Holy Ground Wherever We Stand

The burning bush reminds us that God’s purposes are not limited by our past or present circumstances. We may feel disqualified by failure or become so comfortable with the familiar that we cannot imagine a different future. Yet God may use our wilderness seasons to prepare us for responsibilities we never anticipated. When He calls, our confidence must rest not in who we think we are, but in who He is.

When God speaks, even a desert becomes holy ground. Sometimes the place we have come to regard as exile becomes the very place where we encounter Him anew and discover that our story is not over. Our circumstances do not have the final word. God does.

A Word from the Editor
Every believer has a Midian – a stretch of ordinary days that feels disconnected from any larger purpose. Scripture doesn’t promise we’ll understand those seasons while we’re in them. It promises that the God who met Moses at the bush still knows our name, and that He can turn whatever ground we’re standing on into holy ground (Exodus 3:5-6).

Editor Comment: Thank you, Randy, for pointing us back to the burning bush and reminding us that the seasons we can't make sense of are often exactly where God is doing His deepest work.

This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.