Dirk Taljaard

Reading from Scripture

Exodus 20:2

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.

‘I am’ (Ex 3:14) is the name God used to introduce Himself when he called Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. The One who is the actual ‘Lawmaker’, holding their actual past, present and future in his hands.

He starts off by reiterating everything He has done for his people in choosing them to become his own; who took the initiative to do just that; who called them to represent Him and proclaim Him wherever they went. This is why He refers to Himself as ‘your God’. It’s not because they possess Him, but because they belong to Him.

God refreshes their memories. They do remember where they come from, as well as the precarious situation in which they were trapped: they were slaves subjected to the cruelty of the pharaoh and his Egyptian soldiers. Day and night they had to endure the inhumane treatment (or maltreatment), to the extent that God heard their cries (Ex 3:7).

‘I am’ elected to send the stammering and stuttering Moses to the pharaoh. Only after the tenth disaster had hit the kingdom, the people were allowed to move. ‘I am’ took them through the red Sea unharmed, while the Egyptian pursuers met their fate by all drowning. The Israelites became a nation of note, bound together by the grace of God. Bondage changed into freedom. A freedom which implied responsibility…

None of us had to go through the actual Egyptian episode. But we are all familiar with another form of bondage: sin keeping one captive. More than that: we know deliverance and liberation. The ‘I am’ from Exodus again spoke and this Word became flesh – a human being – and came to live among us (John 1:14). He was the One who said: I am the good shepherd.. (John 10:11). He was the One who lead us from bondage by sin to real freedom!

This is the gospel!

Heavenly Father, thank You for having been there yesterday, and that You will be here today and for ever more. Amen.