Gods heart for us
I read the Bible for the first time in 2018. And as I read the last page, and closed my Bible, I had this thought: THE EXODUS WAS A BIG DEAL! God talks about it all the time! Sometimes I think we treat it as a ‘Bible story’, but it was a real event. 600,000 men who were able to fight! Two million people in all! And God says He took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Today I am in Leviticus, and the end of that book is fascinating: We get glimpses into the heart of God. He tells us why He did it.
We already know that He chose Israel: ‘For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ (Lev 25:55). Now we need to remember that they were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. That’s a long time. Slavery was all these people knew. Abusive treatment. Heads bowed. Beatings. No relationships, just a minimum of food and sleep. And a foreign nation totally controls them. Maybe it was like the treatment of the Jews in WWII. That was abuse.
So, here’s what God says: ‘I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.’ (Leviticus 26:12,13).
-God didn’t want them to be slaves to the Egyptians. God is anti-slavery! He wants people to live in what is truly freedom. Maybe you think this is not relevant to your life, but what if you are trapped in something else, some other form of slavery. Maybe it’s a substance, a sinful relationship, power, self-sufficiency, or even greed that keeps us from contentment. These are things that defile us, but they also enslave us! So, because they had the mind-set of a slave, God spent much time teaching the people how a good society would work. They had no idea! And abused people tend to be abusive. That’s all they know. And that is why God had to teach them a better way! It wasn’t God wanting to give them ‘rules’ for the sake of ‘rules’, it was teaching them how-to live-in love! And that is a glimpse into the heart of God. He doesn’t want us to be slaves either. You might say: ‘I’m not a slave, I’m just doing whatever I want! I’m not hurting anyone.’ But you are. The person who is hurt the most when you live without regard for God is you. The things God told the Israelites in the wilderness (i.e. the 10 commandments) were good. And they still are good. Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the law (which we can’t keep perfectly) but to fulfill it.
-God didn’t want them to be slaves to anyone else, either. God walked them out of Egypt, but they needed a new mind-set. They would fall for the next thing that came their way without God’s instruction. It was all a gift of the goodness of God, and it shows His heart for us too. And a man is a slave to anything that has control over him. God doesn’t want us to allow anything to control us. That is freedom and that is God’s heart for us!
-He wants them to walk with their heads held high. This is one of my favorite insights into the heart of God. God wants us to have dignity. To be people worthy of respect and honor. To have nothing to be ashamed of. How amazing is that! But you might think: ‘I have a lot of things I’m ashamed of!’ If you’ve lived any length of time at all that will probably be true. It was true for me, maybe more than most people. My sin was big! But I don’t think about it anymore: it’s just something I did once, and it was ‘the thing’ that showed me my desperate need for God, and so I am thankful! When you take those things to Jesus, and turn from them, agreeing with Him that it’s sin and needs to go, what does God do next? He gives you dignity. He removes your sin from you ‘as far as the east is from the west’. It no longer defines you! What a gift! How kind is God!
‘I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame.’ (Psalms 34:4,5).
That is why God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, and He is the same God today. He wants to rescue you from the thing that is controlling you too, so you can have a relationship with Him and walk with your head held high. That’s his heart for you, and it’s good.
