Readings for today: Exodus 19-21
I have spent countless hours talking to individuals about identity. Some are young people just trying to figure out who they are and who God created them to be. Some are older people who feel like they lost their God-given identity along the way. Some feel like they never found it in the first place. Some define themselves by what they do. Some define themselves by what they own. Some define themselves by who they are connected to either personally or professionally. Some choose markers like ethnicity or sexuality or gender to identify themselves. All of these fall short of the identity God gives us when we place our faith in Him.
Israel was all kind of confused when it came to her identity. Four hundred years of slavery will do that to a people. They had no national identity. No land to call their own. No real history. No real origin story. Nothing to set them apart from the other tribes on the face of the earth. But all that changed when God chose them. All that changed when God delivered them. All that changed when God brought them to His mountain to meet with them face to face. Listen to how He describes them, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6 CSB)
Can you imagine how they must have felt hearing those words for the first time? Formerly they were a group of slaves. They had no names. No material possessions. No freedoms. Nothing. Now they are God’s chosen possession out of all the people groups on the face of the earth. They are God’s kingdom of priests, interceding for the entire world. They are God’s holy nation, set apart to reveal His glory. This changes everything for them. Before they were not a people…now they are God’s people. Before they weren’t sure if they were beloved…now they know they are loved. Before they were helpless and hopeless…now they have a hope and a future all because God adopted them into His own family.
Do you know your God-given identity? Do you know you are beloved by your Father in heaven? Do you know He called you and set you apart before the foundations of the world? Do you know He predestined you in love to be adopted as His son or daughter? Do you know you are set apart? Do you know you are part of a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen possession? Do you know you are loved with an everlasting love? Do you know you are a product of God’s amazing grace? Knowing who we are begins when we know “whose” we are. We are God’s people. We are God’s children. We bear God’s image. We are instruments in God’s hands to bring the message of the gospel to the world.
Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 22-24