Exodus 9:1 (ESV)
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”
The purpose of redemption is worship. This is what our passage today reveals. God had appeared to Moses and sent him to Pharoh, king of Egypt with an instruction, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” That word ‘serve’ in the has been translated as worship in other translations (NIV, NLT, CSB, etc). This therefore means that God’s people, while is slavery in Egypt, were unable to worship the God of their fathers – they couldn’t serve Him. In serving the Egyptians through forced labour, they were denied the opportunity to serve the one true God. Their hard labour only led to toilful dread and they were deprived the freedom and life that comes with worshipping God.
When we come to the New Testament, we realise that there is another kind of slavery – slavery to sin. Thus, Moses prophesied that another prophet like Himself would be raised (Deuteronomy 18:15). Unlike Moses, He will not temporarily and physically free people but He will eternally and spiritually free God’s people. Slavery to sin leads to death but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Or, as Peter puts it in 1 Peter 3:18, _“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”_ We have passed from death to life, slavery to freedom, so that we can worship God. When we fail to do so, we begin to wither away. Let us then choose this day, and the many that God will grant us to dedicate our lives to worshipping God. In the words of Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” That’s worship.
Reflections
1. What is your understanding of worship?
2. Have you considered before the necessity of worship? That it sustains us?
3. In what ways does today’s devotion challenge and possibly change your work ethics, attitude and habits?
