The Children of Israel found themselves in the depths of despair. After 430 years in Egypt things had gotten out of hand. The Bible says "And I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant." Exodus 6:5 NKJV
The children of Israel were suffering. Not only suffering but groaning from their heavy labor. They were in bondage. Their lives were not their own. They were enslaved to an evil king and the people of Egypt found them loathsome. Many of us find ourselves in similar circumstances today. We might not be in bondage to a person or an evil king, but we have many different kinds of bondage's today that hold us captive. There are all kinds of things that we seek freedom from like, drugs, alcohol, gambling addictions or from financial bondage like credit card debt or overspending. Maybe your stuck in a dead end job and are miserable, with a boss that you are sure hates you. Maybe you are enslaved to your own fears and thoughts and they torment and hold you back from really living life.
Whatever it is that is holding you captive God has a better plan for you, just like he had a greater plan of the children of Israel. Enter Moses. The Lord came to Moses in the desert and said "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows." Exodus 3:7 NKJV
God knew exactly what was going on, He saw everything, He heard their cries and He knew their sorrows. He had a plan and it included Moses. God always has a plan and He patiently explains to Moses what His plan is for the children of Israel. He says, "So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land, to a land flowing with milk and honey." Exodus 3:8a NKJV
This was God's plan, His plan was to deliver the children of Israel. Not just deliver them, but bless them by bringing them into a wonderful new land. Not only did God have a plan, but notice the beginning of the verse, "So I have come down", not only was God going to deliver them, He had personally come down from heaven to see to it.
God gets involved in our lives, He's into the details and cares about us. God is our "Way Maker" when everything looks bad, God has not forgotten us. When all seems a loss, God has a plan for you. God has always had a plan for you and for your life. He created you with purpose and promise just like the children of Israel.
The word of God says "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
The children of Israel were not living the life that God had planned for them, nor were they living in the place that God had promised them. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations in life that are so far from God's plans for us. Sometimes we don't even know how we got so far away. Sometimes we know exactly why we are in the mess we are in but have no idea how to get back to the place we should be.
The good news is that God will make a way for you, even when there seems to be no way. Just like he did the children of Israel. Moses goes back to Egypt and tells the children of Israel all that God asked him to. Then the Bible says "Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.' " And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go." Exodus 5:1-2 NKJV
Problems soon develop in the story. After Moses makes his request of Pharaoh, Pharaoh in turn goes to the taskmasters and tells them to stop giving the people straw to make their bricks. Not only will he not provide straw for them, but demands that their quota of brick making remain the same and beats some of them because they do not keep up with their brick making.
Now wait a minute, you mean to tell me that Moses obeys God and tells Pharaoh just what God told him to and things get worse? Yes that's right. The children of Israel are expected to work even harder than before and Pharaoh even accuses them of been lazy.
Many times on our own road out of bondage, when we start obeying God and doing things His way, things in our lives will get worse. Why? Our enemy will not make it easy for us to leave Egypt. Just like the children of Israel we have a very real enemy who wants our lives to be enslaved to him. He never wants to see you free nor does he want to see God fulfill His purpose and plans in your life. Thus the enemy will come and turn up the heat even more just like Pharaoh did to Israel.
Jesus said "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:10 NASB
Just remember when the enemy comes against you Jesus has another way for you, a better way, a better life, a life full of His grace and abundance. The road to freedom will not be an easy journey. It never is. With the children of Israel Pharaoh continues to refuse to let them go. As a matter of fact God almighty had to pour out plagues upon Egypt to get Pharaoh's attention. God comes against Pharaoh over and over with a total of 9 plagues, from frogs, boils, hail and darkness and the final plague worse than them all, the death of all the firstborn in Egypt. Only then does Pharaoh finally let the people go.
Can you see that God Almighty stops at nothing to free His people. God wants to see us live a free life more than we want it for ourselves. God will shake the heavens and the earth to free us. No enemy can hold us, no bondage is greater than God and His great power and love. Before the final plague that God pours out upon Egypt, the Lord speaks to Moses and tells him to tell the people to kill a lamb at twilight and take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat the passover meal. They are not to come out of the house until morning. If they stayed behind the door where the blood was their lives would be spared.
You see the Lord was busy making a way, He was being Israel's Way Maker. The blood of a spotless lamb placed on the doorposts all those years ago represented our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His shed blood that he poured out on a cross more than 2000 years ago. You see the night of the final plague, the death angel would pass through Egypt taking the Life of all the firstborn in Egypt, but when the death angel saw the blood on the doorposts He would pass over, He wouldn't take the life of the people behind the door of that house. The blood made a way.
The blood of Jesus still makes a way for us today. His shed blood is the answer to every problem that we face today and all these years later Jesus is still making a way for us. What are you in bondage to? What has you enslaved? What is keeping you from your promise land? What is keeping you from the abundant life Jesus promised you?
You see Jesus came and died on a cross to free you. The blood of Jesus is still freeing people from bondage's, addictions, enemies, lies and sin. Once you have asked Christ to forgive you of your sin and surrendered your heart and life to Him, His Spirit lives within you. It's just like the Children of Israel marking the doorposts with the blood of the Lamb, God made a way for them to be saved from the death angel. God also made a way for us and the blood of Jesus marks our hearts with His forgiveness, His power and He frees us from all that binds us.
The Bible says "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." I John 4:4b KJV
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He has made a way for you to be free. Just like the children of Israel couldn't save themselves from the death angel, they had to trust God to save them and to free them, you can't save yourself either. You can't break the addictions and hang ups that hold you bound. You must pray, seek God and believe in the power of Christ to lead you to freedom. We must be willing to surrender to the Lord and obey Him as he leads us to freedom.
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