24 Days to Reflect on God's Heart for RedemptionSample

Moses: Redeemed to redeem

The book of Exodus starts a new chapter in the life of the people of Israel when “a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt” (Exodus 1:8). The people of Israel were turned into slaves rather than valued citizens of Egypt. The King of Egypt ruthlessly ordered that all male Hebrew children be put to death at the hands of midwives. The newborn boys were to be thrown into the Nile River.

When Moses was born, his mother placed him in a basket in the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe and found him. She sent her servant to draw him out, find the boy’s mother to nurse him, and later adopted Moses as her own son (Exodus 2).

Moses grew up an educated Egyptian leader. One day, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Mose became frustrated with the abuse of his people, and in a moment of rage, he killed the Egyptian task master who was beating the Hebrew slave. Moses then tried to hide what he’d done by burying the Egyptian in the sand. When he realized word had spread about the murder, Pharaoh tried to apprehend Moses to kill him. But he fled to the desert of Midian. There he met Jethro and married Zipporah, one of Jethro’s daughters.

While tending to Jethro’s flock one day, an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire within a bush. He heard a voice saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God continued to speak to Moses, saying he was to go back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go free (Exodus 3).

Moses, scared and guilty, responded with a long list of disqualifiers and excuses. God reminded him he would be going in God’s name: “I am who I am” sent him (Exodus 3:14). Moses would eventually lead the people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, across the desert where he’d receive the Ten Commandments, and toward the Promised Land (Exodus 13-40).

When we feel disqualified from anything good in our lives, God qualifies us, not on our merits, but on his. When we think we’re qualified, we probably aren’t. God doesn’t call qualified people into his service; rather, he qualifies those he calls.

Reflection question:

• What does the story of Moses teach us about God’s redemptive work?