Have you ever been in a car where you know you were clearly going in the wrong direction, but you could do nothing about it?

I’m looking straight at you, dad.

Growing up, my dad had an interesting sense of direction. He’s the guy who didn’t use maps unless absolutely necessary. The guy is crazy smart. He could tell you exactly where the roads connect up, who lives on the roads, and how the power lines supply the homes on the way (he was an electrical lineman – chances are, he had either put the line up or performed maintenance on the lines at some point in his career). However, to get this keen sense of direction, he had the reputation of getting us lost. We always knew that if dad says he has a “shortcut” planned, we were to kick our feet up and plan on double the time to get where we needed to go. We knew that, for some reason, our car would always end up on Cedar Ave in the twin cities when traveling through, because of the invisible magnet that would pull us there every time we were lost in the cities. In order to get this good sense of direction, my dad spent a lot of time lost.

Now, Moses isn’t necessarily directionally challenged in the beginning of Exodus. However, when looking at the latter portion of Exodus 2, I cannot help but notice that there are very confused perceptions of who Moses is. In 2:11, the text identifies Moses with the Hebrews, stating that they are “his own people”, and he ended up defending the Hebrew by striking the Egyptian. However, in verse 19, Moses is identified as an “Egyptian” by the daughters of the Priest of Midian. In verse 21-22, Moses names his son “Gresham”, stating “I have been a resident alien in a foreign land”. Moses states here that he is feeling like an alien in a foreign land – he doesn’t necessarily have that feeling of belonging with any people group, with any family, with anyone really. Acts 7:17-36 gives us a little bit more insight into Moses’ story, indicating that the Hebrews didn’t understand who Moses was and what he would do for them – Moses was not recognized by his own people group as belonging to them, yet Moses was also exiled from Egypt by Pharaoh, as Pharaoh tried to kill Moses when he heard what had happened between Moses and the Egyptian man.

Looking back to the days before I knew Christ, I do know that I struggled a lot to figure out who I really am. Do I define myself by what I do? I was an athlete and I had some success with that – was my athletic performance what defined me as a person? Or do I define myself by where I come from? I was from a small town, a small school district, and I could root my identity in that. Do I define myself by my job? Or my friends? How about my grades or my career path – do those define who I am? How about by my personality? I was very independent, with a strong personality (still rocking the strong personality at times, by the way). I was kind and compassionate, yet with a little bit of sassy and let’s be honest, straight up crabby with some flaws too. Is that how I define myself?

I can say, without a doubt, that Jesus said no to me when I tried to put my identity into other things, and God said no to Moses when he was going through a period of time where he didn’t really know where he belonged or how to define himself. While Moses was having questions about where he came from, nursed by his Hebrew mother, growing up in the Egyptian royal family, and now grown up and confused about where he belongs, God responds.

Exodus 3:6: Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

God makes it clear to Moses that, regardless of whether he has a sense of belonging to the Egyptians or the Hebrews, it doesn’t matter. Moses belongs to God.

I immediately thought of the gospel and the ability the gospel has to transform someone when it is heard and received. I think of my pre-Christian self and I remember crisis after crisis because the things of this would would fail me and I was putting my identity into them.

*Are you a good student, and are you defining yourself by your ability to get the grades and succeed academically? What happens when you underperform on that test?

*Are you a good athlete and are you defining yourself by your successes on the field or the court? What about when you get hurt and you lose the ability to play? Who are you now?

*Are you successful at work? What about when you lose your job? Who are you now?

*Do you have a lot of material things and are you defining yourself by what you have? Guess what? Those don’t last forever.

I could go on and on, but you are likely starting to see where I am coming from. With a gospel transformation, we no longer put our identities into things which cannot provide true satisfaction, but instead we put our identity into the one thing that will always be true, never fade or fall apart, and the only thing that can provide true satisfaction for the soul. We put our faith and hope into Christ, and our identity transitions away from who the world says we are, instead placing our identity into who He is.

I pray that we are able to deepen our roots in the gospel today. I pray that we are able to continue to let the gospel “find” us in our lives and that the roots of the gospel make their way into every aspect of our lives. I pray that we no longer drive around without a sense of where we are going, that we no longer try to find satisfaction in anything of this world, but instead find our identity in Christ alone.

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