Stranger in a Strange Land

Exodus 2:22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

I’ve been thinking about this verse for a couple days now. I think because it’s kind of the way I’ve been feeling lately. Moses names his son Gershom. Ger is an Egyptian word meaning sojourner. Shom is a Coptic word meaning foreign or strange land. The definition of sojourner is a person who resides temporarily in a place.

Moses was simply saying that he was temporarily living in a foreign land. But it seems to me there’s a deeper truth here. Moses was born in Egypt, he should have been dead by all intents and purposes since the Egyptians were busy murdering all the Hebrew children. God spared Moses from death and then caused him to be raised among the rulers of Egypt in Pharaoh’s own household. But Moses wasn’t content to be raised with the silver spoon. He saw the plight of his people and wanted to help them but didn’t know how. His passion got him into trouble when he killed an Egyptian man who was beating a Hebrew. So Moses was called out of the Hebrew people, he was called out of Egypt where he lived as a sojourner and then God used him to call the Hebrew people out of Egypt. The Hebrews lives as sojourners in the wilderness before the reached the promised land.

This theme of calling out is repeated throughout the bible. Abraham is called to move from his home and move to the place where God told him, he was also called a sojourner.

David was called out from his brothers and ultimately ended up living in caves to escape Saul’s wrath before he became king.

Noah was called to build the ark and became a laughing stock among the peoples of the time.

Nehemiah was exiled to Persia and ended up being sent to Israel to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall.

Esther’s father had been carried into exile and she was ultimately used to save her people.

Jonah was called out to go to a strange sinful land and after his disobedience and punishment ultimately led the Ninevites to repentance.

All of the prophets were called out and most were rejected because of the message God gave them to deliver.

Jesus himself lived as a sojourner as he traveled.

So I guess the point is it should really be no surprise that first, God calls his children out of the world. Second, God’s calling fundamentally changes the trajectory of a person’s life and makes them sojourners in an increasingly strange land. It should be no surprise to us that the world doesn’t understand why or how we go about His work. It should be no surprise that they mock. It should be no surprise if at some point they may stop tolerating us.

Oh, but there’s one more calling out. If he’s called you out here on Earth and you have lived as a stranger in the land, someday He’s going to call you again. In a flash of light he’s going to call us out for good and meet us in the air. Then the sojourners will finally be at home. I can’t wait!