With a Subtitle: What Acts 7:30 reveals about God's sovereign choice and our unworthiness
A brief Excerpt: After eighty years of nothing remarkable, Moses met God in a burning bush. Acts 7:30 reminds us God's call has nothing to do with our merit. Worship Him for who He is, not what He does.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Acts 7:30, “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.”
Background
I don’t know if this fact is cause for frustration or for encouragement for you. But you’ll notice that after Moses had spent forty years in Egypt and another forty years in Midian, something rather grand happens to him. And based on the record of scripture, which is extremely limited for the first two-thirds of the life of the deliverer of God’s chosen people, Moses had not exactly been preparing for this moment. Not in any way. We have no record that he was devoted in his worship and pursuit of God Almighty. There is no reference made by God to his faith or his faithfulness when God speaks to him through the burning bush. When Moses bucks at the idea of returning to the scene of his earlier crime, God does not remind him of all the prayers that he had offered for God to use him to bring glory to His Name. No, all we really know is that forty years had passed, enough time for all the people back in Egypt who wanted to punish Moses for committing murder to have died. And so, the point of frustration or encouragement is this, that Moses had done exactly nothing, or worse than nothing if you factor in the killing, to warrant God coming down and speaking to him through a burning bush. Nothing in the past eighty years would have led anyone to expect this man without a country to be chosen as the one to lead millions to their new, promised home.
Application
If that’s frustrating, then you are wondering what’s the point of your time and devotion to God if He’s just going to pick someone regardless of their qualities or history. But if that’s encouraging, then you are wondering how God could choose anyone based on how holy and perfect He is and how messed up and unrighteous we all are. If you can be encouraged by God’s selection of Moses, then you can understand how unworthy we all are and that no amount of Bible study or devotion time makes us any more worthy. You can understand that we worship God not because of what He does or what He does for us or how much we comprehend the reason of His ways. Rather, we worship Him because of who He is. He is God, and that means He is beyond explanation, so be encouraged.
Charge
As we seek Him today, let your heart find peace in who God is. Try to view Him other than for what He might do for you.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
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