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| May 20 |
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And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? |
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Exodus 3:13 |
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At the ripe old age of eighty, Moses was given a massive, monumental task. He was called by God to lead the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt into the Land of Promise. For the previous forty years, he had been on the backside of the desert, seemingly forsaken and forgotten. No wonder he said, “Lord, who am I? I’m eighty years old. I’ve been out of the loop for forty years. I’ve been out here in the desert for four decades. Lord, who am I?”
“Certainly I will be with thee,” God answered. In other words, the question isn’t who you are, but “Who is with you?”And the answer is “I AM.”
Like Moses, we might say, “Who are we?”
And, as He said to Moses, the Lord would say to us, “The issue isn’t who you are, but ‘Who is with you?’”
Fifteen hundred years later, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go into the world and preach the Gospel. Make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (see Matthew 28:19). Jesus commissioned His disciples to see people set free.
“Who are we to do this massive, monumental task?” they must have wondered.
But Jesus went on to say, “And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). “It’s not who you are, but who’s with you. That’s the key.”
After hearing that the Lord is with him, Moses asks, “What shall I say Your name is?” Moses asks this question not for the sake of identification. He already knows God is talking to him. God had already identified Himself in verse 6. So it wasn’t a matter of identification. Nor was it a matter of conversation. Moses wasn’t trying to make small talk, not with the lives of three million people at stake.
Moses’ question was neither for identification nor for idle conversation. It was for the purpose of communication.
“I know You are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I know You are the Supreme Entity. Those are Your titles. But what’s Your name?” Moses asked God. It’s as if he’s saying, “Lord, if I’m going to lead three million people across the wilderness, I need to be able to reach You.”
“That I may know him,” Paul declared, “and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). You may not have to lead three million people across the wilderness today, but even to navigate whatever is on your schedule, there is not a more joyful or needful goal than that of knowing God. |
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