June 1 - Day 6 - Exodus 3:7

⁷ Then the Lord said [to Moses],

“I have observed the misery

of my people who are in Egypt;

I have heard their cry on

account of their taskmasters.

Indeed, I know their sufferings,

⁸ and I have come down to

deliver them from

the Egyptians …

Exodus 3

 

If our theme is freedom, then the first three chapters of Exodus reveal the first three steps to escaping the things in life that are enslaving us …

 

·         Exodus 1 reveals Step 1: Just as the Israelites began to realize that they were slaves to the Egyptians, we need to realize that we are in bondage to worry, grief, shame, loneliness, doubt pride, and any of eighty other enslaving attitudes and addictions.  

 

·         Exodus 2 reveals Step 2: “After a long time,” says Scripture, “the Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out.” That, then, is our second step to freedom too: If we want see God’s rescue, it’s usually good to ask. In other words, we must cry out to God!

 

·         Exodus 3 – today’s reading – reveals Step 3: When we cry, God will say, “I have heard their cry.” And when God hears, what is his response? He will “come down to deliver [us].” And by the way, God’s most common method of deliverance is to send us a Deliverer!

 

In fact, Scripture often states exactly that. Word-for-word! For example, in Judges 3:9, we hear that “when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the Israelites … Othniel …” And in verse 15, we hear that “when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud …”

 

So what happened when the Israelites cried out to the Lord at the very end of Exodus 2? Well, the very first word of Exodus 3 was “Moses”!

 

Moses was God’s rescue plan. God would use this Deliverer to deliver them.

 

But here’s the coolest part to this …

 

question: When did God start preparing a Deliverer for Israel?

answer: Before they even cried out.

 

The Israelites cried out for help at the very end of Exodus 2. But at the very beginning of Exodus 2 God was already preparing the Deliverer. God rescued Moses from Pharaoh’s order to kill all the Hebrew babies. He gave this Israelite child an up-close view of Egyptian thought, orchestrating him to be raised as a prince in the Egyptian Palace.

 

As this boy grew into a man, God would stir in Moses’ heart the desire to rescue the Israelites from slavery. (Now, Moses would try to do it on his own power – one Hebrew at a time. And because he killed an Egyptian soldier in the process, while trying to save a Jew, he had to flee to the wilderness. For forty years!) Nevertheless, God used these wilderness years to sharpen Moses. He would teach him to depend on heaven instead of on earth, even for daily bread. And heaven would teach him to depend on God rather than upon himself!

 

Therefore, when Exodus 3 rolled around and God called to Moses from a burning bush, Moses was ready. (Mostly! He was still a sinful, equivocating human after all.)

 

But isn’t that remarkable?! God is preparing for your deliverance even before you know to cry.

 

And yet he’s waiting.

 

He’s a gentleman.

 

He gives you free will.

 

And when you finally humble yourself and cry, your Lord is eager to deliver. That’s his heart. You are his desire!

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who needs to quit

fulfilling the wrong scripture:

James 4:2 – “you have not

because you ask not”