Their Great Redemption Story
Read Exodus Chapters 1-4

As I am reading through the book of Exodus in the Bible, I am reminded that for the Jewish people, this was their great 'salvation story.'  Trapped in Egypt, oppressed by slavery, they cried out to God and "God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them" (Exodus 2:24,25). 

God then presents Himself to Moses with His mission: "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey..." (3:8).  From the start, this is God's mission.  He asks Moses to be his spokesperson - this fearful, stuttering shepherd a rather unlikely candidate.  But then, perhaps this is precisely the point.  God wants to make it clear that this rescue mission will not succeed because of the charisma of a powerful leader, or the strength of an army.  It will succeed because God is about to do something in the world beyond all human proportions.  In doing so, He will draw near to them in profound ways to meet them in their misery and to bring them to freedom. 


Let's keep reading...