Exodus 3:10 is God’s commission to Moses: go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. God is not asking Moses to watch from a distance or to work it out alone. He is sending him, and the mission belongs to God. The verse is spoken by the LORD to Moses at the burning bush, during the first real conversation between them.
Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:10 (WEB)
What Exodus 3:10 Means
The verse opens with “Come now therefore,” which is a call to move. Moses has spent the previous passage hearing about suffering he could not fix, and now God turns the account toward action. The word “therefore” links the sending to what God has just said about seeing and hearing the suffering of his people, so the commission flows from God’s compassion rather than from Moses’s readiness.
“I will send you to Pharaoh” names the task and the person who must hear it. Pharaoh is the one holding the people, and Moses is to stand before him with a message from God. The phrase “that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” states the purpose. The people are called “my people,” which shows God’s ownership and his claim on them, even while they remain enslaved.
The verse does not promise that Moses will find the task easy, nor does it describe how Pharaoh will respond. It states God’s plan and Moses’s role within it. Later verses in the chapter make clear that God will go with Moses, so the assurance rests on God’s presence, not on Moses’s confidence.
The Context of Exodus 3:10
Exodus is traditionally attributed to Moses, and it tells how Israel, descended from Jacob, grew into a large people in Egypt, fell under harsh forced labor, and was delivered by God. The first audience was the people of Israel, who needed to know that their suffering had not gone unseen and that God had a way out for them. Exodus 3 comes at the turning point of the book, where God first speaks to Moses from the burning bush.
Just before verse 10, God says he has seen the affliction of his people, heard their cry, and known their sorrows. Just after it, Moses asks, “Who am I?” and God answers with the promise, “Certainly I will be with you.” Read in that setting, the verse is not a bare order. It is the final step in a sequence where God declares his concern, announces his action, and then sends a human agent into the work.
Key Phrases in Exodus 3:10
Exodus 3:12
He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
(WEB)
In the verse right after the commission, God answers Moses’s doubt with the promise of his presence. This pairing shows that the call in verse 10 comes with God’s companionship, so Moses is never sent alone. It is the assurance that makes the mission possible.
Exodus 14:13
Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again.
(WEB)
This verse comes later, when Israel stands at the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army behind them. It shows how the deliverance begun in chapter 3 continues to unfold, and it reminds readers that God’s rescue is his own work, carried out in his timing.
A Short Prayer From Exodus 3:10
Lord, you see the burdens your people carry and you hear their cries. Thank you for not leaving us in our hardship and for calling people into the work of your rescue. When you ask us to step into something we feel unready for, help us to trust that you have already gone ahead of us. Give us the courage to say yes and the faith to believe that you will be with us in it. Amen.
