I have written before about the Ten Commandments. The message contained was very well received. It continues to be my most popular blog entry yet. God was taking a group of marginalized slaves and showing them how to live a life of freedom. This was a huge undertaking that I feel only God Himself could achieve. Unfortunately, what happened to this very same group of people over the next several thousand years deeply saddens me.
If you live in a situation long enough, that begins to be accepted as the normal. Take a woman who stays with an abusive boyfriend/husband. They try and get away from it. Should they succeed, they continually, and inexplicably go back to that same situation, or one like it. The Israelites were no different.
The Maker of the universe intervened on their behalf, brought the most powerful man in the world at that time to his knees, and brought them out of a situation that was in no way shape or form anywhere near something normal. The problem with the sons of Jacob was that they didn't know how to be free people. All they knew in their lives was that they had to have someone lording over them. They even asked God for a king. They got Saul. They thought that it was normal for someone to come along and beat them, take their stuff, and kill them should they see fit. They also though that it was normal for them to have to work for other's approval. Anybody finding themselves in this situation?
The simplest way that I can put this is the way that they have been classified for centuries: they were slaves. In the U.S. we have a view of slavery that is horrible, but it still doesn't quite hit the mark of what these people went through. The slavery that they experienced was one where their value was only in what they could produce. If they couldn't make bricks, they got beaten. If they couldn't make bricks long enough, they got killed. At any time, an Egyptian could come and take anything of what they had and use it for their own uses. The huge problem with that (aside from the obvious) was that the Egyptians had gods that required child sacrifices. Did they sacrifice their own children? No, of course they did not. They went and got children of the Hebrew slaves and killed them. Their gods also required them to be intimate with their mothers. Keep in mind that while under their rule, the Jews were subject, not only to the Egyptians, but to their gods as well. That is why God had to tell them not to be intimate with close family members. That's what the Egyptian gods required.
Now on to what all this has to do with us. When I use the term "we", I do mean myself as well. We all in some way or another are a slave to something. Some less than others. How do we know that we are slaves? It's pretty simple. A slave driver is something that takes your dignity away. I know the numbers on pornography addiction. If you engage in such things and every time you turn off your computer or close a magazine, you feel worse about your self, you have a slave driver. If that's you, I understand because I used to be in your shoes. It got to the point with me that I wouldn't even allow myself around a computer. I do not think one dime's less of you. If every time you hang out with your "friends", you feel worse about yourself than when you do not, your slave driver is approval of others. Is it a bad thing to want to be liked? No, but when it comes to your happiness hinging on their approval, that is a very unhealthy place to be in.
The really good news is that Jesus doesn't need for you to earn His love. He knows that we are imperfect and He loves us anyway. He loves us so much that He gave up His place of one deserving mercy to take the justice for us so that we could live slave driver free.
That is my challenge for you today. I challenge you to say no to whatever your slave driver is. If you dont know that it is, ask God. He's been trying to save you from it for a while. No longer do you have to live bound by the need to take that next drink. No longer do you have to look at those pictures in a magazine or on the internet. No longer do you have to do things that compromises your testimony to be accepted by your peers. Jesus came to set the captive free. He came to reaffirm the best way to live because what had been meant for grace (the Law), was taken and turned into a system that further put people into bondage, you know SLAVERY! By the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you have been declared free. Furthermore, with that freedom, you can set others free as well (Isaiah 49:6).
I bless you today to know that you serve God who believes in you more that you believe in yourself.
Grace and Peace be with you Always!
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