Three Promises for Living on Mission
In Exodus 3:7-22, the Lord called Moses to participate in his plan to rescue the Hebrew people. The Lord commissions Moses saying, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (3:10). From Mount Horeb back to Egypt the Lord sent Moses to join him in his saving purposes. This sending foreshadowed a greater one.
In John 20, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, explains to his disciples that he was sent by the Father to bring men and women out of slavery to sin and into life with God. “The Father sent the Son to us and for our salvation,” as the Nicene Creed summarizes. Further, as Jesus was sent by the Father, now he sends his disciples to make the gospel known to neighbor and nation in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ sends us to live on mission in our daily lives, to make the gospel known in word and work.
However, Moses has objections rooted in self doubt. “Who am I that I should go, and what am I supposed to say,” he asks? We also hesitate to live on mission because we sense our own inadequacy for the task. We point to an embarrassing blemish or we appeal to our lack of ability as evidence that God must be mistaken to include us in his mission. To doubters like Moses and us the Lord offers three promises for living on mission.
I will be with you (3:12). Moses didn’t go to Egypt alone. God was with him, and Jesus makes the same promise to us. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned the disciples to make him known, to teach and to baptize in the One name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. He concludes, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus is with us.
I will give you the words to say (3:13-22). In verse 14 the Lord gives Moses his message: “Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” The words “say this” are repeated in verses 15, 16, and 18. In short, God gave Moses this message: “The Living God, the God of history who works and intervenes in the lives of real and imperfect people, sees you and sees what is happening to you, and will bring you out of slavery in Egypt.”
In the years since Moses, the message has kept the same shape, but has gained added clarity. The Living God, who’s One name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sees our captivity to sin and sees death’s stronghold over us, and has come down in the person of Jesus Christ to bring us into life with Him. An easy way we can deliver God’s message is by inviting our neighbors to join us for worship where we gather around the Scriptures to hear from God in word and prayer.
I will do it (3:16-22). At the end of verse 16 the Lord promises, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt…” The phrase “I will” reoccurs in verses 20 and 21 and emphasize that, at the bottom of it all, it is not Moses who delivers, but God. By God’s grace, Moses gets to play a meaningful part in God’s plan; but, at the same time, it is God alone who saves.
Sometimes Christians talk about living on mission as if its to be, it’s up to me. However, it’s not up to us. As Jesus told his disciples on that Galilean hillside: “All authority in heaven and on earth is mine.” The success of God’s saving purposes do not ride on us, and on the final day our old taskmaster will surely be swallowed up forever. It will be so, and in the end we’ll all say together: He has done it (Ps. 22:31).
These three promises are rooted in God himself: his presence, his message, his power. These promises, when applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, will give us the courage and wisdom to live on mission wherever God sends us.
