I Will Be Your God

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 19, I Will Be Your God.

"I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Exodus 6:7.

Notice when this promise is spoken. Israel is still there — still in Egypt, still under the whip, still making bricks without straw, still hearing the taskmasters shout. Nothing in their circumstances has changed yet. And it's exactly at that moment, in the middle of suffering that is still happening, that God speaks these words through Moses. The promise arrives before the freedom — not after it. God doesn't wait for things to get better before He promises. He promises in the middle of the pain, and it's that very promise that carries the people until the deliverance actually comes.

Now look at the verb God uses: "I will take you to be my people." Not "once you deserve it," not "after you clean yourselves up," not "if you manage to earn it." I will take you. The initiative is entirely His. Israel did nothing to merit this covenant — they were enslaved, broken, with no power of their own. And it's precisely there that God chooses to act. That is the logic of God's love from the beginning of the Bible to the end: He does not wait for you to be ready. He comes first.

And the promise is double. "I will take you to be my people" — that is belonging, being chosen, having a place. But God doesn't stop there. He continues: "and I will be your God." He binds Himself too. This isn't just Israel gaining a God to worship; it's God tying Himself to a people forever. That is the covenant — both sides bound, but the whole thing initiated by Him.

And there's a phrase worth slowing down for: "you shall know." Not "you'll hear about it," not "you'll read about it" — you shall know. That knowledge wasn't going to come from theory. It was going to come from real, lived experience — walking out of Egypt on their own legs, crossing the sea, watching the burdens actually fall off their shoulders. Sometimes that's how we really come to know God — not just hearing about Him, but living the deliverance only He could give.

And let's not rush past the word "burdens." The text describes the labor imposed by the Egyptians as a real, physical, daily weight. God wasn't speaking about abstract suffering. He saw the exhaustion in their backs, the calluses on their hands, the despair in their eyes. And His promise answered that exact, concrete pain. God does not ignore what weighs on you. He responds to it.

So, my friend, today I want you to do something simple but honest. Before breakfast, write down on paper one burden you're carrying right now — it could be exhaustion, it could be a debt, it could be a worry that won't let you sleep properly. And then say aloud: "Lord, you are my God, and I am yours." Hand that weight to Him. Not because the burden will vanish in that same instant — but because the same God who brought Israel out from under Egypt's burdens is still in the business of delivering His own.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.