Familiar Enslavement

I’ve been considering writing a devotional. This is a bit ironic seeing as I don’t like using a devotional book; however, I know others enjoy them. My father-in-law actually planted the idea and it has been simmering ever since.

I think I’d name it Mornings with Moses. We’d camp out in Exodus. I really like Exodus.

I was reading in Exodus 14 this week. The Israelites have left their prison of Egypt with the Egyptians following after them in pursuit. The newly liberated Israelites, albeit unsettled and likely full of emotion, cry out to the Lord and yell at Moses:

“Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!” (Exodus 14:11-12, emphasis mine)

Wow. Weren’t they just complaining about all the work they were forced to do. They were slaves after all! Now they are on the path to freedom--headed to the Promised Land--and they ask to return to enslavement. But enslavement was familiar. They knew how slavery worked. There was a false sense of security in their enslavement. Harmful, unhealthy, yet familiar. What lay ahead was unknown--even though God was paving the way and making His presence known.

I wondered…

What am I enslaved to that is harmful, hurtful, or unhealthy yet familiar? What are you enslaved to?

Shopping? Facebook? Instagram? Pinterest? Entertainment? Junk food?

Perhaps the enslavement is a bit deeper.

Pride? Self-righteousness? Anger? Indifference? Fear?

Thankfully, the same God, who patiently and lovingly, continued to lead the Israelites from a place of slavery to a place of freedom, loves us and desires to break us out of our prisons of sin through the sacrifice and gift of grace in Jesus. We can walk in freedom. We too can be children of God. We don’t need to return to places of slavery and the illusion of security they provide. Familiar doesn’t equal healthy and free. What do you need to be freed from today?