Removing Egypt

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” Gal 5:1.

I never get tired of considering the exodus of the children of God.  Their mistreatment was brutal, and their lives were not their own.  Their misery was unsurpassable, and their futures were bleak.   As God sat enthroned, His children stood enslaved…as God heard their cries, His children sought His deliverance…as God rose to take action, His children were ready to be rescued.  Then on a day like no other the pounding of the irons became silent…the taskmasters became absent…the freedom became apparent.  God’s children vowed if they ever received their freedom they would never forget their slavery.  And yet… it only took a journey into the desert where boredom and the mundane set in.  Their cries for deliverance were replaced with their grumblings of discontentment.  The very freedom for which they prayed was replaced with minds bent on entitlement and hearts bent on selfishness.  They wanted more than freedom…they wanted the desert on their terms.  Suddenly, they begin to glamourize the very slavery from which they were rescued.  And there we have human nature.

‘The Israelites had lived in slavery so long that their inclination was to live like they were still in bondage.  They had become accustomed to enslavement as a lifestyle…God knew that even with freedom as an everyday reality, they would always revert to bondage of some sort.  The reality is – for them and for us – that once slavery has been internalized, the mind remains in bondage even when the body is free…He knew, for them to be truly free, He would need to do more than just take them out of Egypt; He also needed to take the Egypt out of them’ Breathe, Priscilla Shirer, p. 25.

We’ve all been there.  God has set us free in one area and we pick up the chains in another area.  God has given us rest in one set of circumstances, and we make things difficult in another situation.  Why can’t we rest?  Why don’t we give ourselves the Sabbath blessing that God even gave Himself?  I realize this morning that our Sabbath rest, rest at any time from toiling, striving, worrying, etc… is an act of worship.  That’s right!   Resting in God…being still…recognizing our freedom in Him is an act of worship.  Resting from anything that imprisons us communicates to God that we trust Him with our time and future …it demonstrates that we give our bodies to Him as an offering…it shows our confidence that He will replace our mindset with transformation and renewal.  Whatever situation holds you captive this morning will continue to if you don’t make intentional efforts to practice rest, and to learn to walk in your freedom. 

‘So on the seventh day He rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done’ Gen 2:2.  Nothing we create aside from resting in Him will ever be as perfect as what He creates for us.  God made the day of rest holy so that makes our rest a time of worship to Him.