Setting captives free (1)

Fri, 21 Apr 2023

‘I have heard them crying out … and I am concerned about their suffering.’ Exodus 3:7 NIV

For four hundred years, Israel was enslaved by Egyptian taskmasters who oppressed them. You can understand their feelings of helplessness when you consider the areas in your life where you struggle for freedom from old habits. Whether it’s anger, food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, or abusive relationships, we experience a sense of powerlessness in our struggle. And repeated bids for freedom can produce increased feelings of hopelessness that lead us to give up trying altogether. The Israelites cried out to God, and He responded: ‘The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.’ (Exodus 3:7 NIV) God sees you, hears you, and is concerned about you. He said, ‘So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Exodus 3:8 NIV). How did He do it? Their deliverance called for the death of the spotless Passover lamb. After applying its sacrificial blood to their doorposts, they cooked and ate the lamb while dressed in their travelling clothes, staff in hand, ready to leave captivity behind. Today, God wants you to prayerfully prepare for your journey to freedom; not by your own futile human efforts, but by faith in the shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. ‘Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.’ (1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV). Aren’t you glad?