Passage: Exodus 3:13-22
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Reflect:
Again Moses questions the Lord, this time probing deeper into how he will be accepted as one sent by God and how the people will receive the things he is to say. Perhaps he is wondering if he really has the authority or the qualifications to accomplish such a task. Likewise we too question the Lord and ourselves in this way, clouded by our own perceptions of our past, what we have done that has ‘ruined’ our testimony or ‘disqualified’ us at times. Yet in the midst of our “I messed things up here…” doubting, thankfully God’s answer is not us but “I AM WHO I AM,” Himself revealed. The truth is that it has always been about God, how He loved us first, and how He rescued us when we were at our worst. Our testimony and authority is not about what we have done but about who God is and what He has done in Christ. Living the called life is about expressing this truth and hope through all that we do and say.
Respond:
Our testimony is rooted in the reality of Almighty God meeting with and changing us, ‘All-not-so-sure’ humans, again and again. It is through the overflow of these interactions and revelations we have with God that others will see the love of God made real and available to them. Our lives are not to point to ourselves, but to I AM WHO I AM, God Himself. We can do this by living lives of worship - acknowledging that everything is about God, who He is and what He has done for us through Christ. In response, let’s worship God whose love is so much greater than our sin, shame, and sorrow. Let’s declare, pray, sing these lyrics from the song Believe:
Oh Your love, Your love will never fail
Your love it knows no end Your love will never fail
Oh Your love, stronger than my shame
Greater than my pain Your love will never fail
I will believe.
