Once again my wife and I have finished our annual viewing of the movie, The Ten Commandments. While I don’t watch that movie for doctrinal instruction, I do watch it because it rehearses the mighty miracles that were performed to bring Israel out of “bitter bondage” into freedom to worship the true God. It is interesting that as great as those events were, they have not been passed down from generation to generation as part of our cultural heritage. The reason being, of course, Israel lost this knowledge when they fell into bondage once again; and the history of their great deliverance has been lost to them, except as men like Cecil B. DeMille have striven to preserve it.
I want to draw your attention to Matthew 20 regarding release from bondage. The words I will quote were spoken by another deliverer, not Moses. In verses 27-28 Christ says, “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” A ransom is needed for those who are held captive. The whole world, as we see it today, is held captive; but they don’t know it.
Now, we have been released from that captivity. We are free – free to worship the true God; and so we have been delivered out from under the oppressive hand of the ruler of this world (Though he still strikes at us, he does not have authority over us). We have come out of Egypt, and our focus is to make sure we don’t allow the ways of Egypt to remain in us. We are in a constant battle to shake off any vestiges of those sinful things we learned during our enslavement.
In a recent phone conversation with one of our brethren, the gentleman I spoke with talked about how hard it is to watch the news in these times. The terrible things that are being reported, the sordid, vile crimes people are committing, the constant focus on economic woes, and the fierce storms that are wreaking havoc on this world can be overwhelming just to read about. We are living in a world wherein people are held in a “bitter bondage” that is consuming them.
This Passover season, let’s think about the blessing we have already received that the unfortunates of this world still await. We have been freed from under the oppressive hand of the Pharaoh of this world and have come into the household of the true ruler of the universe. We are greatly blessed brethren. Let’s thank God for our freedom from that bitter bondage, and pray diligently for our brethren who have yet to be led out of Egypt.