Mt. Horeb – The Mountain of Purpose

Mount Horeb is a very significant mountain in the Bible. Mount Horeb is described by Moses as the mountain of God in Exodus 3. Multiple events – especially during Moses’ time – occur on Mount Horeb. And, most scholars believe that Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai which means even more happens on the mountain. If the Horeb and Sinai are the same mountain that means:

🏔️ Moses received his calling there.

🏔️ Moses received the 10 commandments and law there.

🏔️ The Israelites encountered God there.

🏔️ Moses struck the rock and water flowed from there.

🏔️ Elijah encountered God in the cave there.

In other words, lots and lots happened on Mount Horeb. So, for today we are going to explore the first time we as readers of the Bible are introduced to the mountain of God.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

Who is Moses? What is going on here? You can read the full introduction to Moses in Exodus 1 & 2. The cliff notes version goes something like this:

The Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians for hundreds of years. In the time of Moses, the Pharoah grew paranoid about their increasing numbers and ordered all the male children born to Hebrew women killed. Moses’ mother,- Moses’ mother Jochebed – saved her son by placing the baby boy in a reed basket and hoping it would be found along the river banks. He in fact was found by Pharoah’s daughter who raised him as her own. Now, because of the actions of Moses’ elder sister, Miriam, Moses was able to be nursed by his own mother for several years before he was sent back to the palace. In those years, Moses’ family must have done all they could to teach them about God and their people. So, forty years later when Moses was a prince in Egypt he decided to side with his people over the Egyptians and murdered an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. Because of his actions, he was forced to flee Egypt and into the desert he fled. He eventually wound up in Midian with Jehtro and his daughters. There Moses started a new life for himself and put his life in Egypt behind him…or at least he thought.

While tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses saw something strange on the mountain – it was a bush that was on fire but did not burn. Curious, Moses cautiously approached the peculiar bush. Once close, God called out to Moses from the bush and Moses immediately answered, “Here I am.” After that God told Moses he was standing on holy ground and that Moses was in the presence of the God of his fathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After announcing Himself to Moses, God finally told Moses why He had called him:

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

God had called Moses to be the Israelites’ deliverer from Egypt. Now, initially, Moses wasn’t too keen on his calling. He gave God a variety of excuses for why this just wasn’t the job for him but eventually, He pushed God’s patience enough and God told Moses that he was going to go but didn’t have to go alone. God would send Aaron to help Moses.

Moses’ first encounter with God on Mount Horeb was vital to who Moses eventually became. Moses had always wanted to be a leader – after all, that’s what got him in trouble in the first place. After murdering the Egyptian, the way Moses envisioned his life in Egypt just simply didn’t work out the way he probably thought it would so he had to flee. Then, Moses started a new life for himself as a shepherd. He married and had a child. He seemed content. It was then that God called him to his true purpose – the great deliverer and lawgiver of the Israelites.

Moses’s life before Mount Horeb was one of thinking he had it all figured out – whether in Egypt or Midian. Moses thought he knew the path his life was taking but it wasn’t until God called him up on that mountain that Moses found his true purpose. While Moses was reluctant to initially accept the plans God had for his life, Moses quickly realized God’s plans were the only plans that mattered. So, he went down the mountain and told Jethro he had to return to Egypt. Jethro simply responded “Go, and I wish you well.”

Perhaps you find yourself like Moses before the burning bush. Your life hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would. The decisions you thought you were right backfired spectacularly. Or, perhaps you think your life is lacking true calling. You are going through the motions of living but lacking a true purpose. Then, I would tell you to look to Mount Horeb – the mountain of God – for your purpose. God won’t appear to you in a burning bush and He won’t lay out your life’s purpose precisely how He did with Moses but He will give your life purpose.

🏔️ Look to God for your purpose. And while it may appear strange to you at first and you may not initially like what you hear, don’t let that stop you from listening to God. Yield your life to God’s plans. They are better than anything you could come up with anyway – just ask Moses.

🏔️ Let God give your life purpose and in so doing you will have your own (metaphorical) burning bush experience atop Mount Horeb just like Moses. #TheMoutaninsofGod #MountaineeringforGod