If you could pick one thing that you wanted people to remember about you, what would it be? I am willing to bet that its not something trivial, like how hipster your fashion sense was or how charming you were with the ladies (or men). As much as we strive after such things in life, we are creatures who long to matter. As human beings, we were created to do more than just eat, breathe and sleep.
Therefore, I assume you would want people to remember something that symbolizes or reveals the very core of who you were as a person. Maybe you would want them to remember how passionate you were about fighting sex trafficking, or how frequently you gave up your time to be a good friend. Whatever it is, I am convinced it is something that captures the depth of who you are.
I found out the other day, while reading my Bible, that God is the same way. Or, I guess its more theologically correct to say we are the same way as God. He, too, wants us to remember Him by something that really captures who He is as our God.
I’ve been reading through the Old Testament, and I’d noticed an interesting repetition: God continually refers to Himself as “the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Whenever God reminds Israel of who He is, He continually points back to the event of the Exodus.
Now, I always knew this was a big deal, but it was honestly starting to feel redundant. Why would God, who has innumerable qualities to praise and so many incredible moments of intervention to remind us of, be so adamant about always pointing His people back to this particular moment? Why doesn’t He ever say, “I am the LORD your God who punished your disobedience with 40 years of wandering in the desert,” or “I am the LORD your God who brought fertility to a barren old woman”? These are also big events that reveal aspects of God’s character. Why is He so fixated on the Exodus?
What I discovered blew me away! Bear with me as I share what God showed me.
You see, its not that God wants Israel to forget the other aspects of Himself that He has revealed. These are very important. But whenever God uses this identifying phrase, He is reminding Israel that He is the God who saves; He is the God who gives true freedom. The Exodus is a huge event for Israel because it is the moment where they are transferred from bondage as slaves to freedom as God’s chosen people!
This is no small thing. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. Each new day, they trudged about their work, treated as subhuman, lacking hope. But, God sends His servant Moses to rescue His people from their lifeless existence. God, and God alone, breaks the shackles of their slavery, and brings them on a journey to the Promised Land. He chooses the Hebrew people to be”a people for his own possession, our of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery … Know therefore that the Lord your God is Good, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:6-9).
This is why God always wants the Israelites to remember how He saved them from Egypt!
1. It reminds His people of how He showed up, to reassure them that He IS alive, the only true God.
2. It reminds His people that He is a God of freedom, not shackles. He is the reason they are free. Egypt and the Exodus from it are the moment of Israel’s salvation, the moment their entire lives changed.
3. It reminds His people that He keeps His promises. The above passage points this out. He is faithful and full of steadfast love.
4. It reminds His people that He CHOSE them. They did absolutely nothing to earn it, and they can never discourage Him from His decision either.
This is why God always identifies Himself as the one who rescued Israel from their slavery in Egypt. It not only gets at the core of who He is, but His desire for relationship with His people.
Let me, therefore, remind you today of the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with a strong arm. You once lived in Egypt too. Shackled by sin, dead spiritually, only a shell of who you were created to be. God sent someone to you, too: His Son, Jesus. He rescued you from your slavery, choosing you, not based on any merit of your own. He transfers you from the status of slave to the status of son. He showed up. He is the God of freedom, and He is real. He is alive. And He chooses YOU.
