GREAT COMMISSIONS
Opening Prayer
Eternal One, You are my guide and keeper, my stronghold and my deliverer. You are my rock and my salvation. All thanks and praise to You.
Read EXODUS 3:1–12
Moses and the Burning Bush
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 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—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So 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 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.”
Footnotes
- Exodus 3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers
- Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Make a list of your strengths, skills, abilities, and resources. How, and how well, have you been using these for the growth and glory of God’s kingdom?
Think Further
Moved with compassion by His people’s plight (v 7), God resolves to act: ‘I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians’ (v 8). At Horeb, the mountain of God (v 1), the Lord calls and commissions Moses – the deliverer He has so carefully safeguarded and prepared for this moment – to participate in this rescue mission (v 10). Exiled from Egypt, and now an old man of 80,1 it is hardly surprising that Moses wonders, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ (v 11). Its’ been said that ‘God does not call the qualified but qualifies the called.’ The call of Moses is sandwiched between a proclamation of who God is – an utterly holy God, who covenanted with the patriarchs (vs 5,6) – and the promise of His abiding presence (v 12). It is on the strength of this proclamation and promise that Moses is qualified and empowered for this great commission.
‘God so loved the world’ that, centuries later, He sent His Son on the greatest of all rescue missions, to save a lost humanity.2 On another occasion, on another mountain, this new Moses – whose name is Jesus – entrusts His disciples with the task of carrying on His rescue mission.3 Here is another great commission that is sandwiched between a proclamation of authority and a promise of presence.
In every generation, our world stands in need of rescue. In every generation, hopeless people cry out in desperate need of God’s help. And in every generation, God calls and commissions His people to proclaim His good news and to ‘go and make disciples’.4 In what ways have you heard this call in your life? How are you responding? What makes you hesitant? What keeps you hopeful?
Apply
Heavenly Father, every day, show me ways in which I can be a more eager and effective instrument in bringing your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, I long for listening ears. I need to pay attention and hear Your voice, the voice of the Spirit. I pray for discernment.
1 Exod 7:7 2 John 3:16,17 3 Matt 28:16–20 4 Matt 28:19
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