Calling You by Name

A series on God’s calling: Moses
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Exodus 3:1-22 

[Traditionally we think of someone who has received “God’s call on their life” as being a missionary or pastor or some other paid ministry position. But God has called all of us into ministry. And there’s not just one way that He does it. In this series, we will look at how God called people in the Bible to ministry, and what that means to us.]

 

Do you ever wonder how your life would’ve been different if…? Fill in the blank.

 

For instance, if I had stayed in college at Michigan Tech, I would never have met my wife, been the father of my daughter and grandfather to my grandkids. But, in order for all of those things to happen, a whole lot of circumstances had to change. Not the least of which was dropping out of school at Tech and moving to Lansing.

 

This mostly hinged around a summer discipleship program in Lansing where I decided that working with urban youth, not rocks, was what I wanted to do. From there, the circumstances fell like dominoes which led to the past fifty plus years.

 

The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. During most of that time, the Egyptians enslaved them and made their life bitter with hard labor. However, centuries before that, God had told Abraham this would happen and promised to rescue his people. The time had come to fulfill his promise. But he needed a leader.

 

Moses was the man for the job! He was well educated having been trained in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” As a prince of Egypt, he was confident and had a position of power. Also, having been raised as a child of privilege, he believed that he was capable of doing anything, and getting what he wanted.

 

But he wasn’t ready to lead Israel! Moses needed to make significant changes. Although he was a man who “was powerful in speech and action”, he was also impulsive, acting out of his own will and pride. He wasn’t ready to follow God’s leading, or to submit to God’s will.

 

Forty years after fleeing Egypt as a fugitive wanted for murder, he was a humbled man. He had gone from being the prince of Egypt to a common, lowly shepherd; he had fallen from a position of power and prestige to a hardscrabble life. He had learned his lesson, but it had cost him his home, his family and his people in Egypt.

 

That is, until one day when he was tending his father-in-law’s sheep on the far side of the wilderness – on Horeb, the mountain of God. It was just another day at work for Moses when he saw a burning bush, but it wasn’t consumed by it. When he went to investigate, the Lord called out to him by name, “Moses! Moses!”

 

The Lord proceeded to tell Moses that he had seen the misery of his people; that he had heard them crying out; that he was concerned about their suffering. And as a result, that he had come to rescue them from the Egyptians to take them to the Promised Land.

 

About this time, Moses may have been wondering why God had appeared to him to tell him these things. He was about to find out. The Lord said:

 

¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”          NIV

 

Circumstances were beginning to fall like dominoes. Moses’ life could have been totally different. But God had been at work through all those circumstances; all those changes. He had been pursuing Moses for decades, preparing him to lead his people. It was time now, and Moses was ready.

 

¹ But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.
    O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.    NLT   Isaiah 43

 

Isaiah could have written these words to Moses. He also could have written them to you and me. God is calling us by name. Just say, “Here I am Lord. Send me.”

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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