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The Beginning of the End
As the years rolled on, he prayed for Israel during the day and
night. Here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote the
book of Genesis. The long years spent in the desert solitude have
richly blessed the world in all ages.
The Time for Freedom Comes!
“In the process of time ... the king of Egypt died. Then the
children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out;
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and their cry came up to God. ... And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God acknowledged them.” The time for deliverance
had come.
God would accomplish His plan in a way to pour contempt on
human pride. The deliverer was to go forward as a humble shepherd,
with only a rod in his hand, but God would make that rod the symbol
of His power.
Leading his flocks one day near Horeb, “the mountain of God,”
Moses saw a bush in flames, but not burning up. When he came
closer, a voice from out of the flame called him by name. With
trembling lips he answered, “‘Here I am.’” He was warned not to
approach irreverently: “‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy ground. ... I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.”
As Moses waited in awe before God, the words continued: “I
have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and
have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their
sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of
the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and
large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. ... Come now,
therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Amazed and terrified, Moses stepped back, saying, “Who am I
that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of
Israel out of Egypt?”
Moses thought of the blindness, ignorance, and unbelief of his
people. Many knew almost nothing about God. “Indeed,” he said,
when I ... say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,