A Small Exodus
Exodus 1-4
It’s true that you can’t apply literally everything you read in Scripture. But it’s fascinating to me that the timing of my “exodus” from Venezuela so perfectly combines with my devotional reading.
I certainly wouldn’t say, for example, that I have been a slave here and that God has needed to rescue me from servitude (1:11ff). Nor would I say that I’ll have to kill someone in the process of leaving! (2:11-12). And I’m not into circumcision (4:24ff).
But there are overriding principles that I will take away with me from this passage that directly relate to this major move.
1. God is with me as he was with the midwives, Moses and his family (1:20, 21; 2:1-10) and the Israelites. He will rescue me from whatever I need rescuing from.
2. God is sending me and I confess, not to any reluctance to go (unlike Moses), but to some anxiety as to being able to fulfill the upcoming mission (3:11). But here again I claim the promises that God gave to Moses: “I will be with you…Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (3:12; 4:11, 12).
I don’t want to “plunder” Venezuela as the Israelites plundered Egypt (3:21, 22) but will be content to be able just to get my things and my kitties out safely. Mind you, I will take with me precious memories of good times and good people in whom the Lord has done a work of grace. That’s good “plunder.”
And in all of this I worship him as Moses worshipped because the ground is holy where God is (3:5) — and he is here.
It’s true that you can’t apply literally everything you read in Scripture. But it’s fascinating to me that the timing of my “exodus” from Venezuela so perfectly combines with my devotional reading.
I certainly wouldn’t say, for example, that I have been a slave here and that God has needed to rescue me from servitude (1:11ff). Nor would I say that I’ll have to kill someone in the process of leaving! (2:11-12). And I’m not into circumcision (4:24ff).
But there are overriding principles that I will take away with me from this passage that directly relate to this major move.
1. God is with me as he was with the midwives, Moses and his family (1:20, 21; 2:1-10) and the Israelites. He will rescue me from whatever I need rescuing from.
2. God is sending me and I confess, not to any reluctance to go (unlike Moses), but to some anxiety as to being able to fulfill the upcoming mission (3:11). But here again I claim the promises that God gave to Moses: “I will be with you…Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (3:12; 4:11, 12).
I don’t want to “plunder” Venezuela as the Israelites plundered Egypt (3:21, 22) but will be content to be able just to get my things and my kitties out safely. Mind you, I will take with me precious memories of good times and good people in whom the Lord has done a work of grace. That’s good “plunder.”
And in all of this I worship him as Moses worshipped because the ground is holy where God is (3:5) — and he is here.
You have great memories and now you have many more memories to make in a new place, doing what God has for you to do. Very exciting!
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