Read: Exodus 3:16-22
Go . . . (v. 16)
Christianity fundamentally is a “going” religion. Abraham and his family go, leaving his family and his home to go to Canaan. The prophets go to prophesy to the people. The disciples go, proclaiming salvation in Jesus to the nations. In today’s passage God’s word for Moses is “go.”
God’s plan appeared unlikely: “Go and gather the elders. Then you all go to Pharaoh and tell him to let you go.” Pharaoh considered himself a god and saw Yahweh as a rival deity. But God said, “Go.” And the king was supposed to listen to a shepherd from Midian? Egyptians considered shepherds an abomination (Gen. 46:34). But God said, “Go.” And God followed the plan with a too-good-to-be-true promise: “You shall not go empty . . . [but] shall plunder the Egyptians” (Exod. 3:21-22). This reiterated God’s promise to Abram four centuries earlier: “Your offspring . . . shall come out with great possessions” (Gen. 15:13-14). And God performed wonders that inclined the Egyptians to pay the Israelite slaves to leave.
Moses still hesitated when hearing God say, “Go.” And maybe you do, too. Here is what helps me follow God’s command to go: we go because we are following Jesus. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6-7). The God who is Jesus became a slave to free slaves. Let’s get going!
As you pray, ask God to help you to go in the way of Christ.
Rev. Jon Opgenorth serves as president of Words of Hope. Previously, he served for 18 years as senior pastor at Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa. In preparation for ministry, he received a BA in Religion from Northwestern College, and an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary.
