Content to be Slaves
Today, I made it back to Loveland for my cousin’s softball game. Unfortunately they came up short this time around and were eliminated from the tournament. The rest of the day, I attended a strategic planning session with the Larimer County Republicans. My meeting ended just in time for me to get home and head off to our Saturday evening church service.
I am coming to the end of my antibiotic regimen, so I trust that I will continue to feel better and stronger.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… They said to Moses, “What have you done to us? Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? There were plenty of graves for us in Egypt. We told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone; we will stay and serve the Egyptians.’ Now we will die in the desert.” Exodus 14:11,12
The Hebrews have been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. Jacob, Joseph and the rest of the sons of Jacob are long gone. When you consider the life expectancy of a slave, you realize the multiple generations that had come and gone and how their identity and history is wrapped around their life as Egyptians and slaves. Outside of circumcision, there is no record of any consistent practices of worship to God. So, outside of learning the traditions and family history passed down from generation to generation, there was little for them to have a unique identity.
We see that as the Lord brought the plagues on Egypt, He was revealing Himself as much to the Hebrews as He was Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Even though the Lord separated the land of Goshen from the rest of the land and even though God was carrying the people out of the land with “all the riches” of the Egyptians as soon as they came to the banks of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s armies in pursuit, they quickly were ready to “thrown in the towel.” I wonder how often they told Moses, “let us alone, we will stay and serve the Egyptians.”
For these slaves, they were content to remain in their present state and experience less than the best God had for them. I am reminded how when the angel messengers went to Sodom, that they had to lead Lot and his family out by their hands. In order for us to experience the best the Lord has for our lives, we must be willing to accept a new identity and to place our trust and confidence in the Lord as we follow Him outside of our own comfort zones and familiar territory. Paul, put it well in these words,
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:23,24
Finally, I find it ironic how quick the Hebrews were willing to return to Egypt and submit to the Pharaoh, and how easy it was for them to resist God’s direction and trust Him for what they needed. In our life we must have renewed minds and hearts and submit to God’s best for our life and resist returning to “old ways” and lifestyles.