What is your raison d’être? The French phrase means ‘reason for being’ and could be said to summarise our purpose in life.
The book of Exodus is pivotal in understanding God’s purposes for His people. It’s the story of His intervention by miraculous means in the lives of His people, leading them out of slavery from Egypt. It’s a ‘type’ or ‘foreshadowing’ of the liberation from the slavery of sin which Jesus obtained for us on the cross, and the notion of freedom through sacrifice – in Exodus, through the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and in the New Testament, through the death of Jesus, our Passover Lamb, on the cross – is one of its main lessons.
Interestingly, however, the book of Exodus goes further than simply being the historical narrative of a nation’s escape from slavery. It points to our very raison d’être, to the whole purpose of life: worship of God. The whole thrust of Moses’s arguments to Pharaoh were based on the command from God, ‘Let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness.’ (Ex 7:16, see also Ex 8:1, 20; Ex 9:1, 13; Ex 10:3) Some have commented that the world may well understand our work for God, but they will never understand our worship. Letting a whole nation go to allow them to worship God seemed preposterous to Pharaoh. But worship of God is at the very core of our purpose and we need to ensure it is at the heart of all we do.
LIsten to ‘Made To Worship’ by Chris Tomlin here.
