I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.
—Exodus 20.2
From a lectionary reading for Lent 3: Exodus 20.1-17
Reflection for Monday, March 5 (Day 11 of Lent)
Repeatedly in the story of the Exodus, God reminds the people who God is by describing what God has done for them. God’s saving action becomes a kind of name for the Holy One; what God does is intimately intertwined with who God is, and is how the people come to know God.
I am the Lord, and I will free you…and deliver you from slavery, God tells Moses to say to the people of Israel (Exodus 6.6).
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, God says in today’s reading.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God (Numbers 15.41).
Throughout the Exodus and beyond, God continues to use this kind of naming as God continues to work among the people and reveal more and more of who God is:
I am the Lord who heals you (Exodus 15.26).
I am the Lord; I sanctify you (Leviticus 22.32).
I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth (Isaiah 44.24).
I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar (Isaiah 51.15).
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go (Isaiah 48.17).
In the sacred story that is your own life, how does the name of God appear? How do you describe God based on what God has done for you, how God has become known to you, where God has brought you out of?
This reflection is part of the series Teach Me Your Paths: A Pilgrimage into Lent.
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