Stress Test Devotional April 20
April 20, 2024
EXODUS 3:18 | 18 They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
EXODUS 19:7-8 | 7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
We must remember that the original community was formed by gracious decision of God to act with and for a downtrodden group of slaves. This helps us to recover the humility we need as we shape our own community of faith. Only God can free us from what enslaves us, only God can supply our needs in the wilderness, only God can lead us to the Land of Promise. We are not the architects of our own destiny.
Yet the original community is also founded on a mutual covenant. All the people must choose to be part of a new story of suffering, hope, and redemption. At Sinai they must opt in, without reservation, and respond to the divine initiative and invitation. There is no compulsion or manipulation. Their freedom, and ours, is founded on a radical spiritual equality, in which we decide as individuals, to live life under God’s authority, together.
How do you connect freedom, dignity, and equality?
