The Backside of the Desert

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” Exodus 3:1

Moses was going to work just as he had for the last forty years. After four decades of performing the same tasks for the same boss in the same places, one does not generally anticipate encountering anything new or exciting. At eighty years old, this son of a princess was still laboring for his father-in-law. Any dreams of becoming a leader and a deliverer of his people had long since dissipated. Now Moses was simply putting time in until his retirement. The dreams of his youth now seemed like nothing more than a fairy tale.

Mount Horeb was merely a workplace. For Moses, it was like going to the office. He had worked there for years. Nothing unusual had ever happened there before. Mount Horeb is better known to us as Mount Sinai. But at this time, the mount did not carry with it connotations of thunder, lightning, smoke billowing up into the heavens, and the awesome presence of almighty God. It was merely a workplace where Moses’ sheep foraged for food.

The reality was that God had always been on that mountain, just as He has always been present in your workplace. God waited forty years for Moses to come to a place in his life where he could be entrusted with a divine assignment. Moses had no idea that those forty tedious years of leading sheep through a wilderness were not a waste of his time or life, but preparation for one of the greatest undertakings in history. His workplace would become a highway over which Moses would lead God’s people to the Promised Land. Having proven himself faithful in leading sheep, God would entrust an entire nation to his care.

Don’t assume that nothing of spiritual significance is happening at your workplace. God is present and He is constantly moving to carry out His purposes. What appears to you to be an ordinary Mount Horeb can be transformed by God at any time to become an awe-inspiring Mount Sinai. Many of the greatest movements of God in history have not commenced from the temple or cathedral but from the workplace. Could it be that God is preparing to launch a movement from the place where you work that will impact the world?