EVEN ON HOREB?

Put me in his shoes, there was something else that must have puzzled Moses as he stood before the burning bush that day. I can imagine him asking himself, “So God is present even on Horeb?” Hareb, one of the possible Hebrew words from which the word Horeb was derived means dryness, desolation, dry up, lay waste or to be in ruin. So Moses must have been surprised that God is present even in this place of desolation and dryness. He would have thought that due to the dryness of Horeb, God would not be there. How wrong he was.

Over time and with other encounters he had with God on Mount Horeb (Exodus 3, Exodus 17:6), he could not but recognize the place as the Mount of God. What a conflict; God manifesting repeatedly in a place of desolation. If there is anywhere God should have been encountered it should not be on Horeb with all the dryness. After all, our God is a God of abundance. So He should be in places filled with abundance and wherever there is desolation, dryness, lack or poverty should automatically mean that God is absent. His presence should only be experienced in the palace and rich homes where there is abundance of everything. How wrong Moses was. He like many of us today did not realize that our God is not only a God of the hills but He is also the God of the valley. He remains God and good whether in happy moments or tough times. Moses learnt that day that lack of material wealth and abundance does not in any way mean the absence of God.

Moses’ experience is similar to that of Jacob, his forefather. Remember the story in Genesis 28:1-22, when Jacob was fleeing from his brother, Esau that he got to a place and laid down to sleep and because of the dryness in the place, he used a stone for pillow. The place was possibly so dried that he could not find even fresh leaves which he could fold together and use as pillow. That would have been softer and more comfortable. The absence of a better alternative must have been what made Jacob use stone for a pillow.

It was on that dry stony ground while he slept that God appeared to him. Beloved, God is everywhere whether in the desert, mangrove, mountain or valley. What will this mean to us? This will mean that in any situation you find yourself, be sure that God is there. That life is tough today does not mean that God is not around you. It does not in any way mean that God has forsaken you.

God does not see things the way men see them. People saw Horeb as a dry place but God saw it as a place to manifest Himself and He did that severally (Exodus 3, Exodus 17:6, 1 Kings 8:9, 1 Kings 19:8). Where people see as obsolete, dried, worthless and unfruitful might be where God has chosen to glorify Himself. Remember that it was on the lands of dry Gerar that God insisted Isaac should stay and plant and when he did, he got a bountiful harvest that generated jealousy in the heart of other inhabitants of the town.

The people that men see as nothing are those that God often called mighty men of valour. The investment areas that men have often ignored are where God makes His people millionaires. May you begin to see things the way God sees them. This will make it easier for you to truly appreciate situations better. When you see things in the light of God’s divine purpose, it becomes easier for you to wholly key into God’s plan and purpose for your life.