Slavery and Freedom, A Beautiful Dance

Exodus 6:2-9:35, Va’era, “And I Appeared”

As we move into this week’s reading, I am a bit overwhelmed with the imagery of a few interconnected concepts:

• True freedom and being set free from slavery and bondage,
• God’s willingness to use others to impose hardships that lead us deeper into the bondages of this world,
• God’s divine interaction and miracles that ultimately set us free,
• Our struggles with feeling unworthy, incapable, and inadequate,
• Our deep need of approval as demonstrated through intimacy,
• The concept of “idolizing” self or others as it relates to these things,
• Our total dependency on Him,
• The concept of a cord of three strands, and ultimately,
• The Gospel message.

All of this is coming into mind because this is the very place that God has me right now in my personal journey with Him.  When looking at the concepts of “freedom”, “slavery”, and “bondage”, it is interesting to see that we can become a “slave” or fall into “bondage” in a few different ways.  Some of those include becoming a slave to what has been imposed upon us, becoming a slave to the things we self-impose upon ourselves, and even becoming a slave to our own emotions as we respond to the circumstances that are really not “enslaving” us.  There is a dance between these three that is very difficult to understand and comprehend when we are emotionally involved and in the midst of the trials and tribulations of life.

In the first situation, there are times when things are completely out of our control, and we really have not done anything to put ourselves into the position of being enslaved.  Some people are simply born into situations that they have no control over.  Someone might be born into a third world country where there is terrible persecution, born into and brought up in an immoral environment, or abused in their innocents before they have any idea that what is happening is even wrong.  These are just a few examples.

Sometimes we put ourselves into the slave position as the result of deep wounds associated with the situations noted above.  It is somewhat “normal” for a child who is brought up in an abusive home to put themselves into abusive relationships.  Although there are reasons for this kind of behavior, at the end of the day, the bondage is, to a certain extent, self-imposed.  Most co-dependent relationships would fall into this category as would the “bondage” of bad health linked to poor diet and/or a lack of exercise, debt associated with poor financial decisions, excessive work hours connected to an unhealthy pursuit of materialism, and the list goes on and on.

Finally, there is the concept of being enslaved to our own emotions when the circumstances of what we are emotional about are really not putting us into any bondage at all.  This final category would be summarized by the concept of “stinkin thinkin” and is summarized by those times when we become too self-focused to see where God is inviting us into a place of growth, dying to self, and/or sacrificial service.

The dance between these is what results in co-dependency and/or a self-destructive lifestyle.  This usually happens when someone was brought up in a situation where the bondage was imposed, they then move into a situation where they are put into bondage voluntarily, and then they stay in that bondage as they make excuses rationalizing that what they are doing is selfless and for the benefit of the other person or somehow justifiable.  This is the destructive side of the dance.  As we go through this week’s reading, and the subsequent discussion, we are going to discover the growth side of the dance. 

We pick up in Exodus 6:6-8.  Here we find God making four promises to the sons of Israel and connecting all four of these promises to “His being LORD, and that He, by this name, will bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and He will deliver them from their bondage.  He continues in noting that He will do this with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” 

Earlier, in Exodus 6:3, we came to see that God was going to reveal Himself, as defined by the name “Lord”, in a new way to this generation, a way that He had not made Himself know to the previous generations.  As God makes these promises, in Exodus 6:6-8, we specifically see Him referencing Himself as “Lord” in connection to what He will do and as the one who will fulfill all the promises.  It is interesting to consider what aspects of His nature He did not reveal to the prior generations who knew Him as “God almighty” that this and the future generations would come to know as “I AM” and “Lord”.

As I ponder these things, I go back to the other thoughts that came to me as I considered where the Holy Spirit was leading me with this week’s summary.  What is it to know Him as LORD, to know Him as I AM, to know Him as the one who will deliver us from bondage, and redeem us?  What is it to know Him as the one who executes judgements, and who honors promises?  And how can we apply these concepts to our own lives as we attempt to move beyond the bondages of life and truly become free?

As we move through chapter seven, we find “Lord” telling us that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart, multiply His signs and wonders, and lay His hand on Egypt by great judgements.  He then tells Moses that, in and through this, the people of Egypt shall know Him as “LORD”. 

In Exodus 7:14 we are told that Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn.  According to a true Hebraic understanding of the word used for God “hardening” Pharaoh’s heart we see that the word “hardening” is actually meant as “increasing or strengthening the attitude that already existed there”.  In other words, God simply added strength to Pharaoh’s existing stubbornness.  In so doing, God insured that Pharaoh would not relent the battle against Him out of fear or a sense of defeat.  In so doing, the only thing that would end the battle between God and Pharaoh would be true repentance or victory.  As it was, God pushed through to victory as Pharoah never came to repentance.  Ultimately, Pharaoh was the victim of his own self-imposed bondage as his stubbornness led him into an ultimate showdown with God.

Coming to verse 8:22 we see something very interesting being revealed. Up to this point in the story, God has imposed 3 previous plagues.  First the water of the Nile turning to blood, then frogs, and then gnats.  In verse 8:22 we see that with this plague, God is going to send swarms of insects, but this time, He will not send them into the land of Goshen (where the sons of Israel lived). It is difficult to tell which of the plagues God protected the Children of Israel from, but it definitely appears as though they had to suffer through some of the same plagues that the Egyptians had to suffer through.  Here God makes the point that how He shows a distinction between Egypt and Israel, with this plague, will stand as a testimony as to His “Lordship”.

As we continue reading, we come to verse 9:20 where we see that some of the servants of Pharoah began to see God as “LORD” and as such headed the warnings of God (through Moses) and did what they needed to do to protect their livestock.  As such, their livestock was protected.  I would bet that when the sons of Israel ultimately leave Egypt, these are the Egyptians that go with them.  These people would then represent the first community of people “grafted into” the nation of “God’s people”.

Just like last week, I am going to go two extra verses for context and read through verses 10:1-2.  Here God makes a really interesting point to Moses that takes us full circle back to what God said about His names, and how this generation and all future generations would come to know Him in a way that the previous generations had not.  These verses read (NASB)

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you (Moses’ future generations) may know that I am the LORD.”

Moving backwards from the concept of the Gospel message I will develop my point.  A major aspect of walking this journey out with Yeshua is understanding that we are weak, and He is strong.  It is in our humility and acceptance of the fact that we are helplessly weak, utterly underqualified, exceedingly inadequate, and far too prideful to protect ourselves from falling into bondage or subjecting others to some form of bondage that we impose upon them, that keeps us in a right standing with Him.  It is only in the power of Yeshua that we are able to:

• Have prosperous relationships,
• Have successful careers,
• Remain alive and healthy within the dynamic of the dangers of this world, and
• Enjoy peace and a general sense of well-being.

We must acknowledge that we are only successful in these things because it is Him who is operating in and through us.  This supernatural power to defeat the temptations of sin, to walk in wisdom, to have discernment, to walk in obedience, to exemplify love, to put the needs of others before our own, and even to know what precautions to take, are all aspects of God’s grace acting in and through us.

Focusing in on relationships, this is why a cord of three strands is so strong. The reality is, we must allow Yeshua to come into the middle of our relationships for them to have any chance of success.  The question is, what does it look like for Yeshua to be at the center of our relationships?

In essence, it is allowing Him to hold up a mirror and reveal to us where we are still living in the bondages of this world and our own “stinkin thinkin” so that we can be honest with ourselves and look to Him for the power to change.  As we walk this out, He sanctifies us into His own likeness, and in so doing we become capable of interacting with others in a way that is representative of the Fruit of the Spirit.  At the same time, there will be times that He allows us to act in our own strength, our own knowledge, or to fall back on that “stinkin thinkin” that is rooted in pride, old wounds, or old patterns.  In these cases, He acts through the other person as He uses them to extend His grace into the midst of the relationship as His presence overwhelms their “stinkin thinkin” rooted in the same garbage ours is.  When we are truly putting Him at the center, we are capable of seeing and expressing our own needs while at the same time being free from selfish ambitions and leaning on others to provide the emotional stability that only He can provide.  At the same time, we are free to hear and respond to the needs of others while not allowing them to lean on us for the emotional stability that only God can provide to them.

If we allow ourselves to move into a place of believing that we should be, or are capable of having successful relationships without Him, we have just made idols of ourselves.  This is the pressure we tend to put upon ourselves when we are in a place of low self-esteem.  Low self-esteem is different than humility.  Humility accepts one’s own imperfections and utter dependency upon God.  Low self-esteem sees the flaws of our own humanity and moves the mind into a place of condemnation based on the belief that one “should” be able to be strong enough, qualified enough, adequate enough, humble enough, disciplined enough, and thorough enough to ensure that every aspect of life will remain in perfect harmony without any dependency on God.  This leads us into believing that we are capable of providing for the emotional needs of others as we become their "savior".  The bottom line is, there is only one "savior" and I'm not Him!!

Low self-esteem, like pride, ultimately leads us into a place of seeking false intimacies, self-soothing, burdening things and others with the demands of what we need from them to make us feel whole, or taking on the burdens of others as we attempt to make them feel whole.  Low self-esteem and pride are like two sides of a bad coin that ultimately lead a person into a God complex mind set.  Pride simply elevates one above God right there in the open.  Low self-esteem is more subtle as it takes a back door approach by simply implying that we “should” be just like God living free from the need to have to rely on Him or that we can somehow give to others what only He is capable of providing.

Ultimately both lead us into the same progression toward sin and death as we burry ourselves and those we love in the pursuit of perfection.  In closing this out, this is why I believe it is so important for God to reveal Himself as Lord through the supernatural manifestation of miracles and to demonstrate that He is “I AM” and “Lord”. 

I believe that if He interacted in and through us in such a powerful way that we actually became strong enough, qualified enough, adequate enough, humble enough, disciplined enough, and thorough enough to ensure that life would be nothing but 100% successful, it would be really easy to fall back into an “I AM God” mindset.  It is in and through the delicate balance of how much He protects us in these ways, and how much He lets slide that sets up the progression of our remaining in relationship with Him.  This allows Him the opportunity to reveal to the world that He is “Lord” when He steps in and makes the impossible possible.

If all He ever did was save us through supernatural miracles, we simply wouldn’t learn anything, and we wouldn’t grow.  At the same time, if He just changed us and made us perfect, we would be led astray into believing that we too could be just like “Lord”. 

I believe this is what it is to see Him and accept Him as “Lord” and the great “I AM”.  As we walk out this journey of life, we learn to lean on His strength to become stronger, more qualified, adequate, disciplined, thorough, and humbler.  At the same time, He never brings these manifestations into 100% fullness. This limitation forces us to depend upon Him to, through His sovereignty, turn the messes we make in our imperfections into blessings that bring Him glory.  

As we lean on His grace and trust Him as "Lord" we let His love set us free from the pitfall of low self-esteem.  In and through this process, He forces us to remain dependent upon His interactions in the lives of others as they extend us His grace as He brings transformation into their lives.  These interactions remind us that it is okay to express our own needs while not expecting things or others to provide for our emotional well-being or allowing others to lean on us for theirs.  Ultimately, in the end, He steps in and makes the impossible possible so that we, our future generations, and the world around us will come to know Him as “Lord our God”.  It is only in and through this process and this delicate balance that He keeps us in a place of true freedom, saved from bondage, reveals us to the world as a people set apart, uses us to lead others to Himself, and ultimately, through the fires of life, delivers into the promises of all that He offers.

I pray that each of us continue to allow Him to be “Lord” of our lives, that we seek to let Him reveal to us our pride as well as our low self-esteem issues.  I pray that as we allow Him to show us these things about ourselves that we allow His love to surround us, hold us, nurture us, and ultimately provide the only form of intimacy that is truly 100% pure.  I pray that as we lean into the intimacy of His great love that we allow Him to set us free from the false intimacies that destroy our lives and the lives of those around us.  I pray that as this continues that we stop burdening others with the demands that they are somehow capable of making us feel complete and adequate.  Following this progression, that in and through this, we stop competing with Him for the control and the outcomes of our lives shedding the belief that somehow, we can perform well enough to make ourselves feel complete and adequate.  I pray that we let Him reveal to us that with Him we are fully capable because even when we are not, His divine presence will bring things into the perfect harmony that will be best.  I pray that in and through these understandings, and the faith to believe, our minds are set free to remain in a perfect peace that surpasses all understandings as we stay fully rooted in the faith that He truly is “Lord”.  Amen Amen.