A Willing God

Read: Exodus 3:1–4:17

[God said,] “I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus 3:17

IN WORD

The first time Moses left Egypt, he fled into a wilderness and settled there for forty years. Midian wasn’t a terrible place to live, but it wasn’t flowing with milk and honey either. The second time he left Egypt, he and his people wandered through that wilderness for forty more years. At the end of the wandering lay a land of promise, the fulfillment of God’s will. The end of misery was in sight.

The interesting thing about Moses’ journey is that he began in a palace, then lived for years on the far side of a wilderness, raided the center of his people’s captivity, and led them to the Promised Land. That sounds a lot like a Savior we know, who left the throne room of heaven to identify with His people in a world of wilderness and captivity. But this Savior doesn’t just lead us to the edge of the Promised Land; He brings us into it. The first prophet-deliverer took his people as far as the law could take them; the last prophet-deliverer takes them by grace into their destiny. The picture of Moses is a picture that prepares the way for the Messiah and tells us what Messiah is going to do.

Moses illustrates God’s desire for us: to bring us into our destiny. God has a land prepared for us, and we can begin walking in it even now. The land is full of goodness and fruitfulness, prosperity and blessing. It will one day be more visible than we ever thought it could be, but we can certainly see signs of it until then. The prophet who delivers shows us the God who is a Deliverer—and the God whom we can experience now.

IN DEED

In what areas of your life do you need deliverance? According to the prophetic pictures of the Word, the history that speaks to us from ages past, God is able to deliver you. Not only is He able, He is more than willing. He demonstrated that by sending Moses to a hostile Pharaoh and Jesus to a hostile Satan. Ask Him for your promised land.

ADDITIONAL READING: Psalm 81:10

Thou art coming to a king; large petitions with thee bring. For his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.

JOHN NEWTON