"...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...I will take you as My own people and I will be your God."

Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage."  (Exodus 6:6-9)

Perhaps one of the saddest verses in the book of Exodus..."they did not listen to him (Moses) because of their discouragement and cruel bondage."

Amazing promises of rescue and redemption from God to His people so bitterly enslaved in Egypt!  Yet when Moses carried this message to them, we are told they did not listen because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.  The original language says they could not hear because of their 'shortness of breath'.  The bondage they were experiencing under Pharaoh was so great it felt as if it was crushing them physically.  They could barely breathe; they could not hear.   So God sent Moses into His great redemption story to take them by the hand, to lead them out of bondage, to show them the way to freedom.

Sometimes life is like that.

Look around and you will see people bitterly enslaved to sin, to circumstances, to the painful issues of life in a fallen world.  People experiencing crushing hopelessness; people living under such discouragement, such 'shortness of breath'.  People, perhaps, just waiting for someone to take them by the hand, to lead them out of bondage, to show them the way to freedom.  Someone like Moses.  

Someone like you...someone like me.

Consider the shortest verse in the bible, "Jesus wept."  (John 11:35).  The occasion for His tears is at the tomb of His dear friend Lazarus.  Jesus looked around, saw the weeping and mourning of family and friends gathered there and He wept.  Was it sorrow for those who had lost a loved one? Was it the fact of death itself that moved Jesus?  All we know is what scripture tells us:  when Jesus saw the suffering of the people He was deeply moved and He wept.

Then Jesus told those gathered there to roll away the tombstone.  He prayed to His Father, calling out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  Lazarus came out, alive, but with his hands and feet bound with strips of linen and a burial cloth around his face.  Jesus told those standing by, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Do you understand what just happened?

Jesus called Lazarus from death to life.  It is always God's call to bring life.  But then He told those who were standing by to go to Lazarus, now alive but still wrapped in grave clothes.  He called them to remove the clothes, to set Lazarus free from what bound him.  Jesus called them to enter into His story of redemption.

...Just as God had called Moses to enter into His story of redemption.

...Just as God calls you and me to enter into His story.

Do you know someone like that?  Someone like Lazarus? Someone alive in Christ but still walking around in grave clothes?  Someone so discouraged, they need friends like Lazarus had?  Someone to take them by the hand, lead them out of the bondage they still live in?  Someone to show God's way to freedom, to help remove the grave clothes?

God is still calling people from bondage to freedom, from death to life.  He still redeems with an outstretched arm - only this time stretched out on a Cross at Calvary.  Life is a gift only He can offer. 

But then He calls us to enter into His story of redemption, to lead others out of bondage, to help remove the garb of death and destruction, to minister to those who are so discouraged and oppressed they cannot hear His voice.

As He called Moses...
     ...as He called those at Lazarus' tomb...
          ...He stills calls you and me.

Perhaps someone right next to you cannot hear God's promise of rescue because of their 'shortness of breath', because of their grave clothes.  Enter into God's story of redemption.  Soneone's waiting for you.