As Moses drew near to look at the burning bush that the fire did not consume, the Lord called out to Him. Notice how God called him. He addressed him personally by name, and he called his personal name two times. More than catching the attention of Moses in calling his name twice, this tells us that God knew Moses personally. We cannot remember a time someone told God who Moses was. God just knew him. The reality is this, not only does God know Moses, He knows every one of us by name. He is a personal God. But it’s one thing to hear God’s call, but quite another to respond. We must be attentive to God and more importantly, we must respond when He calls to us.
Once Moses’ attention was arrested, God then gave him a word of caution. He was told not to come any closer but to take off his sandals, for where he was standing was holy ground. This is the first time the word holy is used. The word “holy” simply means to ‘set apart’. We serve a holy God, one who is set apart from all that He had created. There is a distinct difference between the Holy God and sinful man. To draw near to Him, we sinful man must set ourselves apart from the world and yield to Him. So, like Moses, we must also set ourselves apart for God, if we are to draw near to Him.
In telling Moses to take off his sandals, God was calling for submission. God still requires vessels to be yielded to Him for the work He wants to do in the world. Like Moses, if we are to be His instrument, we must yield to Him. Taking off the sandals is also a call to respect God. As the Holy One, whom we worship and serve, He certainly deserves the highest honour and respect. And we must yield to Him wholeheartedly as Moses did.
In verse 6, God then told Moses, saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” First of all, He identified Himself to Moses as the God of his father. He was telling Moses that He was the One whom his biological father, Amram taught him to worship and serve before he was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter. Remember Moses’ childhood, after he was recused from the Nile, was raised in Amram’s home. God was referring to Himself as the One whom Moses’ father, as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped and served. On hearing this Moses immediately hid his face from God, for he was afraid to look at Him.
These verses instruct us on how we should approach our holy God. There must be a total surrender of ourselves to Him. Then there must be the attitude of reverence and holy fear for this awesome God. No matter how sincere and familiar we may be with God, we must never forget that He is still the holy God, and where we meet Him is holy ground. We must not take Him and His anointed presence for granted. We come to Him with sincerity and honesty. We cannot come into His holy presence carelessly. Meet God by all means, but remember that He is still the Holy God and we must not take Him for granted.
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