When God called Moses out of the burning bush, He told him to go back to Egypt, to confront Pharaoh and to demand that he set the Israelites free from slavery. Exodus 3:10, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

But remember: Egypt is the place of guilt and shame for Moses. He’s a wanted man back in Egypt. The last time he was there, he killed a man — and as far as Moses knows, there’s still a warrant out for his arrest.

But God does this because this is a holy confrontation. God will always make you confront your guilt and your shame. Eventually, we all have to face up to our guilt. As it says in Numbers 32:23, Your sin will find you out. And God reminds us in His Word that we’re all guilty here. Romans 3:10, None is righteous, no, not one.

The God of holy confrontation always makes you confront your guilt.

You might ask, “Why would God do that?”

And the answer is pretty simple.

It’s not that He delights in rubbing your nose in it.

Not at all.

His purposes are always redemptive.

God makes me confront my guilt to see if I will let Him deal with it.

He sends Moses to set His people free — but Moses needs to be set free, too. He’s still bound in chains of guilt over his past. And so the Exodus here is a liberation of Moses just as much as it is a liberation for the Israelites. He’s an Exodus God in this way. He’ll set you free, but only if you’re willing to pay the price — or a better way of saying it, if you’ll let Him pay the price.

Maybe you can relate to this. Moses is haunted by something that happened forty years ago — that’s how much time has passed since he killed that Egyptian in a fit of rage. It happened decades ago but I have a feeling it was still a fresh wound for Moses.

I’m basing this on my experience as a minister / pastor. I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to people over the years who are still haunted by the guilt of their actions from decades ago.

I spoke with someone not long ago — I’ll use a fake name — let’s call this person “Jim.” Jim committed a sin over 60 years ago. When it happened, he repented and confessed his sin to the right people. He asked for forgiveness from God and from the people he hurt. And I am confident that God heard Jim’s sincere cry and that He responded by forgiving him, just as it says in 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But decades later, Jim keeps thinking about this sin and he wonders if he’s really been forgiven. Satan has planted some seeds of doubt in his mind and Jim keeps enslaving himself to his guilt — even though God has set him free and cleansed him from ALL unrighteousness through the blood of Jesus. Jim said, “Could you just remind me of the Good News one more time today?” So I told him all about Jesus and grace and mercy. And Jim wept as he put his trust in this old, old story how a Savior came from glory.

And I think this is the only reason God would have us confront our guilt: to see if we will let Him deal with it.