Let Us Serve The Egyptians

“As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert (Exodus 14:10-12)!” Recidivism is defined as a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior. You often hear this term used when talking about ex-con’s who relapse into criminal behavior. One of the factors that lead an individual to commit crimes that lead them back to prison is that they are more comfortable with the structure, culture and surroundings of life in prison then they are with a life of freedom. The fear of being in charge of their life is often too much to overcome. In many ways it is like the Jews shortly after God freed them from slavery in Egypt. Despite being an eyewitness to the plagues God inflicted on Egypt, living through the Passover, having God lead them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire to give them light by night, they still wanted to go back into slavery when they saw Pharaoh’s army approaching them. They had just been set free after 430 years of slavery, but would rather be in bondage to the Egyptians then trust their God! Is it all that different then the ex-con committing crimes that land them back in prison? Is it any different than Christians today who choose the bondage of religion and forsake the freedom of being led by the Holy Spirit of God?

 They love the structure that religion provides despite the fact that in most cases it prevents them from being free in Christ and learning to trust and depend on their God. What did Paul ask the church in Galatia? “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh (Galatians 3:3)?” The Jews were foolish to think that the bondage of slavery was better than being led by their God who freed them from it? They obviously forgot that they initially were enslaved by the Egyptians because after Joseph died, “a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt (Exodus 1:8).” The “new king” had forgotten what God did through Joseph that benefited the Egyptians and it led to the enslavement of the Jews. It is easy as a Christian to long for the “structure” of religion because people would rather be told what to do by their religion and its masters then be led by their God. Freedom can be scary for a Christian. Will they live a life of sin now? Will they stop going to church? Will they stop reading their Bibles? The list is endless. It is as if God is so small to them that He cannot provide them with a life to live that is more meaningful and fuller then anything they’ve previously experienced. Moses led the Jews out of bondage, but they still desired it. Paul, through his letters, tried to lead the early church and present day Christians out of the bondage of religion and its legalism, but people still desire it. Jesus Christ set the world free from the bondage of sin and darkness, “but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).”  There is a lesson to be learned from the ex-con, the Jews and the early church who loved bondage more than freedom. That lesson is to embrace the freedom you have been given and never return to bondage.