Yesterday I mentioned the ‘house of slavery’ in my blog and I think I should expound on it some more today. Egypt was related to as the ‘house of slavery’ for the Israelites and the Lord graciously brought them out of it and set them free, but it wasn’t long and the Israelites started to complain about their situation and wanted to go back to their slavery. It seems like they forgot what they had gone through in Egypt and how hard they had it there compared to what it was like now and how they were set free.
The only thing that seemed to consume them and their mind set was food and drink and how it was so plentiful in Egypt, thinking that it would have been better to die there then where they were in the desert. It wasn’t long and they forgot by whom they had been set free, and they wanted Aaron to make them a god they could worship. So Aaron made them a molten calf that they could worship as the god who brought them out of Egypt. They had committed idolatry which was a practice in Egypt.
We could easily read this and think how could they do such a thing after what the Lord had done for them? But before you get to judgmental this goes on every day in America, in and out of the church. I don’t know about you but I know I have been guilty of this sin and I have confessed it and asked the Lord’s forgiveness. I can still remember when I considered myself a total freak in the world; when my motorcycles were an idol and so were my iron weights that I lifted often and spent a lot of my time with, plus there were many other things that consumed most of my time. Remember, when you lose control of what you have, and the thing you own has control of you, and consumes most of your time and energy, you probably have built an idol.
Sometimes even your own kids, or someone else in your family, can become an idol in your life, so be careful how you judge, you may find some skeletons falling out of your own closet if you think about your own life and what you regard as most precious to you. It wasn’t until after I truly committed my life to the Lord that I started getting rid of some of the skeletons in my closet and I am still trying to clear out all of my skeletons with the Lord’s help.
Now getting back to the ‘house of slavery,’ the Israelites were not just enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, no, they were enslaved by their own sin and we all have experienced that also. Jesus said this in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Like I said, we all were, or are, a slave to sin depending on our relationship with the Lord.
Paul had this to say about this subject in Romans 6:1-7, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
You might say before our reconciliation through rebirth in Christ we lived in a body or ‘house of slavery’ to sin. But through our rebirth we have been set free from sin and the ‘house of slavery’ and taken on the righteousness of Christ so our house, or body, has become the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit, praise the Lord! The Bible says when the Son (Jesus) sets you free you are free indeed, glory halleluiah, praise God!
Now that you have been set free, don’t be like the Israelites wanting to go back to the ‘house of slavery’ for any reason, strive to hate sin like the Lord does and never be enslaved by it again. And for those who are still enslaved there is hope and good news for you. The same Jesus that set me and many others free from sin wants to set you free. If you are reading this and experience the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in your life, ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins, to come in and be your Lord and Savior and to set you free of sin’s grip on your life. If you are sincere I believe it will happen and you will be set free. Then find a Bible believing church and a good Bible to start studying and start growing. Be sure you share what has happened to you with others, and don’t forget to praise and thank the Lord!! May the good Lord bless you and yours and have a great day.
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