I Will Be With You

 Exodus 3:7-12

“7 Then the Lord said, “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 and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God had heard the cry of the Israelites, and he revealed to Moses His plan to deliver them from Egypt.   I can imagine Moses listening and nodding his head, saying “Yes Lord!” until God got to the part about how Moses would be the deliverer; Moses would be sent to the Pharaoh to tell the most powerful ruler in the world to “Let my people go.”

And Moses replied to God, “Who am I?”  In other words, Moses was telling God to choose someone else; he was not the right person.  God had made a mistake.

But God knew Moses’ heart.  He knew Moses better than Moses knew himself.  God knew that Moses was the right person for the right job at the right time.

A shepherd in the wilderness would become the deliverer of thousands who were in bondage.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” 

(John 10:11)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Moses Meets the one, true God

Exodus 3: 1-6

“1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Moses, a Jew, was raised by the Pharaoh's daughter as her own son.  Moses had killed an Egyptian man that he had seen beating a Jewish man and fled to a place known as the wilderness.

In this scripture, Moses is tending the flock of his wife’s father who is a Midian priest.  The Midianites are thought to have worshipped a multitude of pagan gods, including Baal and Ashteroth.  We do not know if Moses was participating in the worship of these deities at that time in his life, but there is the probability that he was.

Moses led the flock beyond the wilderness near Mount Horeb, known later as the mountain of God because that is the site where Moses received the ten commandments from God.  

In the wilderness, near Mount Horeb, Moses met the one true God,  the God of his ancestors.

And the life of Moses was never the same.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)