A Defining Moment

If you were to ask most Christians what the key event in history was, they would point to the cross. All of the Old Testament points forward to the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ, and all of the writings after the Gospels acknowledge this is the main message of the Bible. The act that defines who God is, for Christians, would be the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

What about the people of the Old Testament? What would be the moment that defines who God is for the Jewish people before Jesus was born? The key event was deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

Exodus 6:6-7New International Version (NIV)

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

The Hebrew Scriptures are peppered with phrases that describe the Lord as the God who brought us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. There is no image like the cow for Baal or the countless Egyptian or Greek gods; The Lord was known for what he did, not for what he looks like. God delivered a helpless people from slavery.

We can be very thankful that our deliverance was from more than just a group of people; we were slaves to sin, death, and the power of the devil. Jesus' victory is also our victory, and now we are free to worship a God who is known by more than just what he looks like; our God is known for what he did and what he does!