I Would Rather Serve My Slave Master
5/19/17
The title of this article seems absurd to many but in truth that is exactly what we want to do as humans. It has been said that we do not understand who controls us but in many cases, we do know who or what controls us but we choose to stay in captivity rather than living in freedom. We cry to God for help but quit seeking Him when times seem better thus proving that we want our captivity instead of the freedom He only can bring. All of us fall into this category but for those of us who rely on God completely and trust His Ways, are the ones who overcome the eternal slave master and live in pure freedom from the world.
Most of us are familiar with the Normandy invasion and how it turned the tide in the war known as World War II. The goal of the allied advance was to get off the shores of Normand as quickly as possible for they understood that if they did not advance inland at a steady pace they would be repelled back into the sea. The German occupation leadership also understood this concept and their defenses were projected as such of a definition. While the defenses proved to be a tough obstacle they were not complete and therefore gave an opening to the advancing the German High Command was depending on the fact that the sea would provide the ultimate restriction and death trap for the advancement into Europe. A formidable defense plan, but one that did not materialize and ended up providing the foundation for the overthrow of the empire that served only itself.
How many times have we lived in a world of hopeful defensive mechanisms that we have planted in order to rely upon invading systems? Once those humanly defensive measures have proven ineffective who do we turn to afterward? These questions have popped into my mind and heart many times over the years and for a long time served as the basis of my advancement in life. At the same time through this earthly ignorance of mine, I have found out that there is only one source of true protection and that it comes only from God. And while I cried for His help many times and He has given me direction, I did not respond accordingly because my heart continued its disbelief in Him and relied on my defenses all along. I was a slave to those defenses and thus a slave to the world and the conditions that I had allowed to be developed, a condition that we see over and over in many people today; and have excellent examples of this in the Bible as well.
One would think that after one is freed from prison that they would be like a bird out of a cage and on many levels this is true and it shows. But in often cases we have a different example of how humans operate and respond to such freedom for we often read that people who have been freed commit certain crimes that serve proof that our hearts would rather return to our captors. I have to admit that I have read stories of this content many times in my life, that up until a few years ago I failed to see the truth in such activity. It grieves my heart to think that people actually want to live in slavery and in pain than to have complete freedom flowing out of them. This type of lifestyle does not just include the prison time in jail but also serves as any other form of personal prison that we wish to confine us in and when one brings these options into play they can mount quickly as a mountain would look like before us.
I am not excluding myself from these mountains either, none of us are exempt but on the other hand, all of us have the option to choose freedom and stay within that freedom that God gives. There have been countless times that I made the choice to ignore God’s freedom and choose the ways of the world. At the time it was the popular thing to do and to accept but after all, things were said and done I realized that each choice of the world I chose hurt me deeply and placed a mark on my heart that God had to repair. Needless to say, He is still repairing those scars and holes for even my life has been brutally marked up due to my sinful ways. It is not an easy process because the world grabs a hold of our lives through these holes and scars and sinks its claws into us by this manner, but there is a better plan and option, I took this better plan and I can feel the effects of this choice every day. In no way does this make perfect in any way, but when God looks on my open heart to His Ways He loves repairing those hurts so that I can be a complete and total witness of His Love and Truth. There are two stories in Scriptures that are very familiar to those who have read or studied them. The stories come from Genesis and Exodus and deal with seemingly two different settings but when looked at closer share a common thread, holding on to slavery.
The story in Genesis 19:1-26 mainly deals with homosexuality and the outcome of both the ones who participate in such activity and those who believe in God’s Ways and leave that setting. Lot’s wife is the prime example of who chose to keep her faith in the world and her city instead of listening to the commands of God and completely leave the situation and not look back. The example of Lot’s wife is a perfect example of what not to do when God gives a command because this lady’s actions demonstrates to God that while we say we are repentant we actually have no intentions of doing such an act. Lot’s wife knew God and all of the blessings and protections that He gave them, in other words, she was raised knowing God and His Ways and provisions. Yet, her grounding was not in God’s Ways but had been planted in the ways of the world and more specifically in those cities. As God shared with us a few paragraphs above, she had laid plans of her defense on her sea instead of God and it cost her, her life. We either choose to obey God’s commands or we ignore them, there cannot be any middle of the road or “common ground” on each side.
Lot’s wife had her reasons of justification for what her heart refused to let go and what it did not. Those choices are still in focus today and if we take a serious look at how today’s societies are living we can see that we are playing the same game as Lot’s wife did as she walked away from her cities. Her decision was not an immediate one, startled by the devastating noise of God’s wrath but one of the calculated choices that her heart was making for her heart was still present with the people who continued their wickedness before God. The moment that she turned her head back to the city she made the choice to return to her slavery and to forget God’s command. Her memories of a safe and nice life were reinforced in this decision she was comfortable and would have rather lived in those chains rather than understanding and living in God’s freedom, another trait that we are relishing in today. It is this trait that if continued will not understand why devastation has occurred and want to correct what is in our hearts before our entire downfall.
The second example we see concerning a desire to return to our slave master occurs in Exodus 14:10-12 and this story is so famous and familiar that Hollywood even made a blockbuster film about back in the 1950s called “The Ten Commandments”. I have watched this movie many times and have been fascinated with every part of the film and even though some of the acting and portrayals are not accurate they deliver a concise presentation of what occurred. We cannot deny that this episode of Israel’s history is not one of grandeur, hope, and provision but we also must remember that we are dealing with humans and when humanity is involved some problems shall always arise. It is also common knowledge that not everyone that left Egypt on that trip was happy about it and this is where we pick up the next example, the Israelites have been told to make camp at the edge of the Red Sea. God has told Moses where to encamp and he has moved the people to the very location.
Exodus 14:10-12 states the following: “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.”
Well, there it is the connection that God wants us to understand between Lot’s wife and the children of Israel in the desert. God had promised in both examples to free the people from what they had been captive in and God delivered on both of His promises. All throughout the first portions of Exodus, this current passage and through the remaining portions of Exodus we see nothing but God delivering on His Word and as a result the people that He loves and gave so much to do nothing but complain about what conditions they were in. We now see that the children of Israel are camped at the Red Sea and taking a rest before the next portion of their journey begins, not realizing that God has them camped there for a specific reason. They had a few moments to stop and reflect on where they had been delivered from and how God was trying to make them understand that they needed to get their hearts away from Egypt completely; in other words, allow God to heal those holes and scars.
At some point in their stay at the banks of the Red Sea, the scouts saw the Egyptian army coming towards them. Quick realization of their position became very short-sighted and fear entered into their hearts again, fueling their smoldering ambitious disregards of God’s commands of departure. Their memories of the days in Egypt soon reappeared and were vocalized which draws a clear picture that they really never left Egypt and really did not let their captivity go, a perfect example as to why God had them in the wilderness for forty years. Their lots were cast on earthly conditions and even though had witnessed miracle after miracle so far, their attention was fixated on the physical and not the eternal. This is the place where the two examples meet together because in both settings the people involved made it known their intentions that their lives in captivity were better served in those conditions instead of leaving their ways behind and following God and completely relying on His Ways and provisions.
The Red Sea served as their forwarding advancement which to the human and unbelieving heart seemed like a dead end and one that meant certain death. While certain death would soon follow, it was not their death that they would know but of their captors and the pursuits that they wished to conquer. The demonstrations of Pharaoh’s army gives us a clear and detailed commitment of how the ruler of the world can sink his claws into our hearts for the realization of slavery that is not taken away will one day return with friends to reclaim its property; Matthew 12:43-45 declares this truth. God had allowed the children of Israel’s hearts to be cleaned but they refused to allow God to restore what they had been enslaved with, see the world cannot give you freedom but only desires of slavery for it shall take them away when it deems time and take them back with the same authority given. Moses knew exactly what God had told him to do and he did such but the people did not want to allow their slavery to end and declared this fact through their words in verses 11-12 when they were proud of the fact that they did not suffer as they were then while in Egypt. I find it intriguing that in the beginning of Exodus, God’s Word states that He could not help but hear the continuous cries of His people while they were in Egypt which served as the foundation for God to act on their behalf and that in Exodus 14:10 the people cried to God as well.
Israel failed to recognize that the land that they had been given in Egypt had become a place of slavery and their “better” living and working conditions were all provided by a slave master instead of the freedom that they originated from. Their efforts in religious practices continued but at the same time lost all life and relationship status with God. Their lack of faith became the battle cry for their fight for slavery and not one that was against it. In the eyes of the Israelites, this lifestyle of slavery was far better for them instead of believing that they were going to die in the wilderness. Ironically, it would eventually their beliefs in slavery and disobedience that would lead them to their deaths before they reached the promised land for many of them pushed God too far until He had to make the choices to show them that He was God and not them.
We must look at what would have occurred if God allowed pharaoh to intercept the children of Israel and return them to captivity and it is also this point that ties the final knot into both examples used in this message from God. It was not God’s choice for Lot’s wife to turn her head back towards the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but He did allow her to make that choice and it was through this choice of her heart that turned her into a pillar of salt. God told Lot and his family to leave the city and when they had left not to look back, the process of destruction was not for them to witness but to flee from the consequences of sin. When the children of Israel literally had their backs up against a wall, and if God had allowed them to return to Egypt again the same devastation and result as Lot’s wife would have be felled on them. But just as God had provided an escape for Lot and his family, God did so once again for the children of Israel and when we continue to study the settings of both examples after these momentous days we see almost identical patterns emerging today and still a lack of knowledge and faith appear.
Even though Lot’s wife did not have a physical person or army pursuing her, her personal enemy had infiltrated her life enough to make sure she suffered the consequences of her disobedience. The Egyptian pursuers encountered their fate as well when they obeyed their leader, who had understood the powers of God personally and had already felt the effects of His power. Yet in both accounts, we see that people took matters into their own hands while trying to overrule God and even though none of the Israelites were destroyed in the Red Sea it was their lack of trust and faith in God that cost them their physical promises that God gave them. It would have been so much easier for mankind to prosper if we had just stuck with God and obeyed His Ways.
Today, our societies are following the exact same patterns that Lot’s wife and the pursuing Egyptians did. Plus, the people also have incorporated the same feelings and desires as the children of Israel had about returning to Egypt. God never allowed them to return to Egypt but kept them wandering aimlessly in a desert for forty years while they got rid of their selfish and slave-like sheltering beliefs. How much turmoil did both of these situations have to endure afterward and one cannot dismiss the fact of how many blessings did each participant miss out on because of their stubbornness. God does not wish for anyone to go through such hardships as Lot’s family did or what the children of Israel endured for forty years. But God is a complete God and one that wants purity at all times from His beloved. Why don’t we take off the rose colored glasses and see for ourselves exactly what we have, or in truth what we don’t have and that is God. When we beg to return into slavery from a freedom state there is something desperately wrong with our hearts.
Church, we are a living example of both Lot’s wife and the children of Israel wrapped up into one participant. We are ignoring the exact life that God wants every child of His to have and while “proclaiming the worldly truth” completely destroy the Absolute Truth that God provides. We do not even realize that both examples that God has given us in this article describe our daily activities to a “T”. We are about to face a dire set of circumstances and if we do not figure out our lives in God now, we shall have the exact proclamations that Lot’s wife had and the revelations of hearts that the children of Israel had when looking at the tide of enemies approaching.
These biblical events may be specific moments in time but we cannot forget that today, right now is also a moment in time and as of this moment we still can continue to flee the cities of destruction and NOT turn back, and we can have faith that when we approach the sea barriers that God shall open a way to be delivered instead of cowering and wanting to give up and return to our previous slave master. The Israelites demonstrated that they knew about God but even after all of the miracles and teachings He had given them in the wilderness up until that moment, they still did not hold Him in their hearts and their words exemplified this truth, we cannot afford to repeat this gross mistake. Let us fight for our true and eternal freedom in Christ and not for our worldly slavery, for if we do not then we shall soon find ourselves in the underground.
DLB
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