Bondage

The exodus was one of the most awesome events in history. Never before or after has an entire nation been called out of the world to be a set apart people for the glory of God, to be in covenant with their maker. God broke the back of Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth at that time, to free his people from bondage.

Israel’s experience was a type of the bondage that holds all mankind captive. Pharaoh was a type of Satan, Egypt a type of sin. As Pharaoh kept the children of Israel in slavery to him, so Satan’s goal is to keep God’s children under his power and control. He has successfully influenced the majority of mankind to believe that keeping God’s Torah is bondage, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is Satan’s ways that are bondage, destroying lives, stealing dreams, leaving people empty, destined to pursue that which can never result in happiness.

What keeps you in bondage? Is it alcohol, drugs, nicotine, food, gambling, pornography, prostitution, illicit sex? Are you a slave to anxiety or depression, have you been abused, ridiculed, bullied, the victim of rape, incest? Are you controlled by unhealthy emotions, such as anger, lust, greed? Are you a murderer, thief, rapist, child abuser?

We’re all in bondage to something, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. No matter what your particular situation or how far down you have fallen, there is good news. God loves you. Nothing you have done is so horrendous, so cruel, so beyond comprehension, that God’s love can’t reach you. Nothing that you have endured at the hands of another can keep you from experiencing freedom. You just have to accept it. He offers his love freely through his son, Yeshua, and it is available to all.

When Yeshua walked this earth, he met people where they were….steeped in sin, those that the religious leaders of his day spurned; publicans, tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes. He had mercy on the sick and diseased, the poor and needy, the less fortunate, the illiterate. His love healed all who reached out to him, whatever their need may have been. His loved changed lives and gave people hope. He broke the bonds of Satan and offered newness of life to all who believed upon him.

He does the same today. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter where you are at this very moment. You can pray to him right now and ask him to heal you, clean you up and set your feet on solid ground. You can pray as King David did in Psalms 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.“ You can ask Yeshua to come into your life and give you the strength and courage to overcome the past and walk with him into a future of hope and freedom. You can turn to his word and learn his ways, ways that lead to joy and happiness, and above all love. He will give you the ability to love yourself and others, and to accept his love for you.

It is never too late to turn your life around. The apostle Paul persecuted the church of God and had believers imprisoned or murdered before God converted him and called him into his service. If anyone knew the power of forgiveness, it was Paul. What does he reveal to us about God’s love? Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”