Mondays with Matt: The Great Rescue
This has gotta be the original hero-rescuing-the-heroine story!
The Book of Exodus finds us reading about the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt and the emergence of the protagonist Moses, or so we think...until his plans fail and he escapes to Midian and becomes a shepherd. This is when God comes to Moses in the story of the Burning Bush in Exodus 3.
While we have often focused on God appearing to Moses and his response, we sometimes forget what God 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. 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 (Exodus 3:7-8).”
Say what?
You came down to rescue your people?
They are not even worshipping you!
In fact...they are worshipping other gods!
Why would you do that?
Because of a promise you made to their forefathers?
God heard their cries and came down…you will find Him responding to cries on many occasions later…
The villain in this story is unrelenting, but the hero finally gets the rescue operation going. God goes like a pillar of cloud during the day (Exodus 13:17-22) and as a pillar of fire at night (Exodus 14:19-31). They cross the Red Sea and the villain, and his cronies are vanquished in the waters.
The hero then takes the heroine to the top of the mountain and makes a personal confession in Chapter 19 v 5:
“You are my treasured possession.”
Treasured possession was a reference to a special relationship.
I am his treasured possession, today.
Really?
I recall 3 near-death experiences in my life before I became a Christian. Although, they made me pause for the moment, as a Christian, I have chalked them up as rescue attempts, and God’s way of putting a bow on our relationship.
Wow! I tear up thinking I am His treasured possession.
"I hear the whisper underneath your breath
I hear you whisper; you have nothing left
I will send out an army to find you
In the middle of the darkest night
It's true, I will rescue you
I will never stop marching to reach you
In the middle of the hardest fight
It's true, I will rescue you"