7 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. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians... Exodus3:5-8
Moses has been in the wilderness for forty years (according to Acts 7:30) During this time he has had plenty of opportunity to reflect on the plight of his people: from his own narrow escape from death to the contrast of the opulence of Pharaoh's palace and the enslavement of his people. He has pondered the injustice and his own powerlessness.
Was he searching for God? We don't know. But God was about to find Moses!
Here's how God introduces Himself:
- I am holy: Take off your shoes. My presence makes even the ground holy. I am not mired down by the pettiness of human governments and regimes.
- I am the God of history: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But this genealogy includes the children and future of these patriarchs. Not only the God of history past, but history present and history future. I am the history maker.
- I am the God who cares: I have SEEN their misery. I have HEARD their cries. I am CONCERNED about their suffering. He is the God who sees, hears and cares about our day-to-day "stuff." When we suffer He is concerned.
- I am the God who rescues: "I have come down to rescue them." Israel's salvation did not begin when Moses went to Pharoah. It began when God lit the bush and called Moses. He "came down."
This is how God introduces Himself to Moses and over a thousand years later, these same truths would be true when Jesus came as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, dividing history into BC and AD because He had seen our pain, heard our cries and was so concerned about us that Jesus "came down".
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
