Remember. You were once a slave in Egypt.
We all come from somewhere. We all come with baggage- some type of oppression. My family is currently in the midst of something a bit Egypt-like. Not to the extreme, but more or less. (I think our country is amidst something a bit Egypt-like as well, but we'll get to that in a bit.) My dad has been unemployed for over a year. We have had the blessing of not seeing this as a burden, but as a blessing to refocus. We've gotten to spend time together that we never would have seen if he were still working in an office downtown. Hardship brings hard choices. You can be short of money, then you can be out of money. And when you only have so much money, you have choices to make. Healthy ones. You want to make $4,000 stretch into $20,000, but you can't. Where you spend your money or how you spend your money shows what's important to you.
Our "Egpyt" wasn't that we had new, harder decisions to make. Our "Egypt" wasn't the
fact that my dad was unemployed. That was actually our red sea and God saved us through it. Our "egypt" was the worship of money and material things themselves. We never realized how much we spent on things with wrong motives. Coffee is such an idol some days. Having a job that sounds nice and pays a lot of money every year is an idol. Just being able to actually have enough money to have things can become an idol. You find out what your idols are when you get frustrated because your idols were taken away. God gives in seasons and takes in seasons. Remember you were once a slave in Egypt- where you did not actually own anything- you were the property. You were owned by someone else. When you came out of the Egypt God saved you from, the gifts He gave you were a gift. A blessing. Remember- they did not come from you. I think the key here is that, in Egypt, all you had was God. He was it. You had no dominion, no power, no possessions, nothing that you could call yours. God freed you, and gave you a promise- blessing. Therefore, when God calls you to give some blessings away to bless someone else or to bring more glory to Him, don't hesitate to give. For you were once a slave in Egypt whose whole being relied on the courtesy and kindness of others. Freely you have received from God, now freely give.
Now, know that I am not discounting the hardship while in Egypt. It was hard. But
realize- God had every day of the suffering held in His hands, preparing your hearts for the day He would free you.
Think about Moses. Moses suffered in Egypt. He had seen the oppression of his forefathers, struggling under the mighty hand of an over-powerful oppressor, robbing them of all the dignity they ever had, and he acted out on it. He killed an Egyptian and ran away- fled from the system. He was blessed with a new group of people who would take care of him. He oversaw flocks of sheep- a rather peaceful, humble life compared to the way he grew up (remember- he grew up as a son of Pharaoh). He was free from seeing the suffering of his fellow Jews.
Yet God called him back.
And God freed his people- His prized posession.
Remember- if you feel like you are being oppressed under the hand of a relentless burden, DON'T FORGET THAT OUR GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF FREEDOM.
And he will free you.
Now. Once he frees you- realize- you have to allow yourself to be free. (And now you're probably saying: "What?! Why wouldn't I allow myself to be free?!") People who are used to oppression sometimes don't know how to live any other way and are too stubborn or scared to figure out how to change their circumstances. (Think about it- have you ever tried to let an animal out of a cage, to give it some freedom, then find that it just wants to sit in its cage and won't come out?) YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO LEARN FROM GOD HOW TO CHANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, THEN OBEY HIM WHEN HE TELLS YOU TO GO AHEAD AND DO IT.
God is in the business of freeing us from our Egypts… will we let Him?
You were once a slave in Egypt, do not fearfully or stubbornly or pridefully or comfortably go back to your old ways. The fearful say "I'm scared that God won't bless this new life." The stubborn say "Well, God. Thanks for showing up. It's only been 40 years. Thanks." The prideful say "I've got a better way to live." The comfortable say "Changing my lifestyle is too hard. I've been a slave for years, another couple years won't hurt. Then I'll change."
Well brothers and sisters, if God is clearly freeing you from something, then the time of change is now. Not in a couple years. Not whenever we feel like giving up our stupid prideful crap and submitting to God. Not when we feel like we're ready or brave enough. THE TIME IS NOW. If He's calling us to change today (and we know He is), we can't wait another day because we want to think about it! GOD IS BRAVE ENOUGH! GOD'S PLAN IS GOOD ENOUGH! GOD'S STRENGTH IS STRONG ENOUGH! GOD'S TIMING IS PERFECT! The terms of freedom are determined by the freer, not the helpless who don't have any money for bail. Praise God we have a gracious freer!
Likewise, we are free! And God has in addition told us that he is going to give us OUR VERY OWN LAND! Woah! So we used to be slaves. We used to be under the burden of our old "Egypt" (some type of oppressive, physical/emotional poverty). We used to be owned, but now He is giving us a chance to own something else. To have our own possession. We used to be Egypt's posession, but now God has freed us and we are His possession, and He is giving us our very own land to possess. Wow. What a blessing. We just wanted freedom, but God gave us freedom and land. Praise God. That's amazing.
WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF IT. TO CONSTANTLY BE THANKFUL FOR IT. TO CONSTANTLY SHARE IT WITH FOREIGNERS AND THE POOR AND WIDOWS AMONG US. REMEMBER. YOU WERE ONCE A SLAVE IN EGYPT.
When God has freed you from whatever was oppressing you, realize that He freed you for something, not from something. You have been blessed so that you can bless. Whatever resources and materials he gives you from now on are for a purpose, for His glory. Don't be deceived by thinking that they are yours to keep forever.
This freedom we have in Christ is beautiful and a blessing and we have bright futures. But never forget- you were once a slave in Egypt. God has blessed you.
12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. 13 And you must always obey the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.
14 “Look, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God. 15 Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love. And he chose you, their descendants, above all other nations, as is evident today. 16 Therefore, change your hearts[
c] and stop being stubborn.
17 “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. 18 He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. 19 So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone. 21 He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes. 22 When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky!
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“You must love the Lord your God and obey all his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands. 2 Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the Lord your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm. 3 They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. 4 They didn’t see what the Lord did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea[
a] as they were chasing you. He destroyed them, and they have not recovered to this very day!
5 “Your children didn’t see how the Lord cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here. 6 They didn’t see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened its mouth in the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But you have seen the Lord perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!
The Blessings of Obedience
8 “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. 9 If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! 10 For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!
13 “If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, 14 then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. 15 He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
16 “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. 17 If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.
18 “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
22 “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him. 23 Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land. 24 Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.[
b] 25 No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.
26 “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! 27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. 28 But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.
29 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. 30 (These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley,[
c] near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) 31 For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it, 32 you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today."
Remember, Remember, Remember
There's a captivity
Breathing inside me
a heart beat that I can't keep
Still.
It's this slavery
This "remember me"
This stone-chiseled reminder
On a heart
stamped with both Egypt and the promised land.
When
You
Go...
Remember.
You were once a slave in Egypt.
You were once a slave.
This personal, inner freedom we have is a blessing.
