“Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:9-10
In his book, Love Does, author Bob Goff tells a story of a dream God put in his heart: to go to law school and help people. After receiving a poor score on his law-school entrance exam, the only problem was that no law school would accept him as a student. While this situation would have deterred many to end their pursuit of law school, Bob continued. He made a new plan. Bob went to his first-choice school right to the dean’s office on the first day of class. He sat on a bench outside of his office, and every time the dean passed by, he said to him, “All you have to do is tell me to go buy my books.” He knew the dean had the power to let him into law school. For weeks, Bob practiced this, sitting on the bench right outside the dean’s office, asking him for a chance at law school. Ultimately, this plan worked. After weeks, the dean walked up to Bob and said the words he had been begging to hear, “Go buy your books.” Bob became a lawyer and was able to help many, many people. Bob knew his dream and passion were from God and Bob took steps to carry out those passions and dreams. God has used him to make a difference in the lives of others.
Moses knew what it was like to be given a dream and a burden from God. He was born during a time that was devastating for the Israelite people. The king of Egypt at the time had become jealous of how quickly the population of Israelites was growing. He felt threatened by their growth. As a result, he ordered that all of the baby boys in Egypt be killed. Moses's mother saved his life, putting him in a basket along the Nile River so that no one would find him at her home. She must have hoped someone would find Moses. Indeed, someone found Moses. The king’s daughter found Moses, and she raised him as an Egyptian in the king’s palace. As Moses became older, he started to learn where he came from. God built in him a burden for his fellow Israelites, who were slaves to Egypt. This burden ultimately led him out of Egypt, away from the king’s palace in Egypt to the desert. Exodus 3 tells us that while he was there, God gave him a “dream” or a calling that coincided with his burden for the enslaved Israelites in Egypt. While Moses was out, God spoke to him through a bush that was on fire yet wouldn’t burn up. God said to him, Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt” (verses 9-10). God made it clear he was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. This was the great calling in his life.
Like Moses, we have callings from God, too. Now, they will look very different than Moses’ calling because they are the callings unique to us. One of the ways we lean into these callings is by looking at what burdens us. What makes you angry? What makes you excited? What saddens you? The answers to these questions can help us understand the callings God has given us as we lean into the burdens we all have. Acknowledging these burdens and callings is where we must start if we want to run with that calling that God has given us.
Is there a God-given dream that God has placed on your heart? Is there a burden God has given you that you know is from Him? Lean into this burden or dream. Take time to acknowledge it. Acknowledge it to God in prayer and to one person in your life. As you speak this burden and dream out loud, you are taking your first step in the direction toward that dream God has placed in your life.
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”
But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”
God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.
This is my eternal name,
my name to remember for all generations.
“Now go and call together all the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me. He told me, “I have been watching closely, and I see how the Egyptians are treating you. I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.” ’
“The elders of Israel will accept your message. Then you and the elders must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God.’
“But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand forces him. So I will raise my hand and strike the Egyptians, performing all kinds of miracles among them. Then at last he will let you go. And I will cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.”
