And they said to them, “Let the LORD look on
you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and
in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Exodus 5:21
“It is possible for
people to become so accustomed to their bondage that they resist efforts to
free them. The Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. Slavery
meant that they were not free to do God’s will or to go where they wanted.
Moses had come to tell the Israelites how they could experience freedom, yet
they were more concerned about the reaction of their taskmasters than they were
about pleasing God. For them to be free would mean that the pharaoh they were
serving would be angry! It would mean that the Egyptians they had served all
their lives might attack them. Freedom from their slavery did not seem to be
worth the hardships they would inevitably endure.
When God sets out to
free us there will often be a price we will have to pay. Grief can be a
terrible form of bondage, yet we can become comfortable with it. We can grow so
comfortable with fear that we don’t know how to live without it. As destructive
as our sinful habits and lifestyle might be, we may prefer living with the
familiar, rather than being freed to experience the unknown. We may recognize
the harmful influence of a friend but choose to reject God’s will rather than
offend our friend.
As incredible as it
seems, the Israelites were angry at Moses for disrupting the life of slavery to
which they had grown accustomed. Have you been lulled into a comfortable
relationship with your bondage? Do you fear change more than you fear God? Are
you willing to allow God to do what is necessary in order to free you?”
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