The Exodus

God’s people had been living as slaves in Egypt for 430 years to the day on the very night Pharoah burst into Moses’ and Aaron’s presence, urging them to leave.

“Get out,” Pharoah said. “Go”

After living as captives in Egypt in a place that was not their true home, the children of Israel grew complacent in their lifestyle of faith. Would they trust God to suddenly, urgently lead them away from a life that was known and comfortable even though it wasn’t where they were designed to live? Would that urgency of fleeing on foot in a great mob under the leadership of Moses, the one who faced the anger of Pharaoh in a house full of death, be enough to send them out into the unknown, away from safety, security, comfort? 

God is a God of rescue. We may wait years for deliverance from areas we are captive: fear, hard relationships, difficult living situations, physical or spiritual poverty. Deliverance testifies to His power. “He saved them for his name’s sake, to make his power known” (Psalm 106:8). 

There will be a moment where we too sense Him saying to us, “Now. Go. Get up.” There will be an opportunity to depart what has been comfortable, to exodus into a place unknown and frightening and exciting all at once.

Will we speak that truth? Help that friend? Reach out to that lonely person? Move to the new neighborhood? Stay in the current neighborhood with a renewed purpose to be the one that reflects the God that longs to be worshiped?

As Christians who have been comfortable in our setting, our surroundings, our language, are we willing to be led out into an emerging new landscape? What does this look like in all that has been familiar—our friendships, our family relationships? How will God’s urgent, insistent call to rise change how we speak in difficult conversations?

God will lead if we will go. He promises as you go, He will lead you to take courage as you walk away from what has been familiar. Out of comfort. Into the wilderness. Only there will you come to know Him and depend on Him like never before. 

You were not meant to stay in captivity. You were meant to rise up and go out, in the middle of the darkness, in the middle of the chaos, into a new place of relationship with Him. Rise. Go!