Delivered?
The story of Moses is best known for the miraculous deliverance of the Israelite people from the land of Egypt and from the slavery & hardship they experienced at the hands of Pharoah. Through incredible signs and wonders God provided a way through His servant Moses to not only set His people free from the oppression they were experiencing but to provide them with a land of so much abundance they would not be able to exhaust it. Moses had been faithful to do everything he was commanded by God to do, and he dealt with the hardships of desert and nomadic life, while the Lord continually delivered His people from thirst, starvation, and enemy attacks.
Yes, the story of Moses is one of deliverance, however, it is also one of continued bondage in the face of freedom. While the people of Egypt were delivered from their physical bondage to Egypt, they remained enslaved to sin. No matter the amount of times God would heal them, feed them, comfort them, protect them, lead them, and love them, they were held captive to a spirit of sin and death. This is exactly what God is trying to show them through his servant Moses, through pillars of fire and smoke, and the provision of the commandments and the Ark of the Covenant. No matter where they reside physically and who they answer to governmentally, unless they know their creator and worship & obey Him alone, they will always be prisoners.
God is demonstrating for Israel that while they have been set free physically, they are still in bondage, and His desire is to show them how to be free from sin, free from the lies perpetrated on their ancestors, free from the adversary who looks only to steal, kill, and destroy the works of God. Israel was going to be a picture to the world of what was to come only through His Messiah, freedom!
Fast forward to 2024, nearly two thousand years since that very Messiah came to earth, lived the perfect life we could not, and died in our place upon the cross & rose on the third day, we are still struggling to be free from the chains that were placed on us through that original covenant made with the adversary, the devil, through our father Adam.
Do you believe that Jesus is God, that He is redeemer and Lord, and that he has delivered you from slavery to a place of freedom? Then let’s break off all other agreements and covenants made with anything that is not of God. In the Book of Job, chapter 31, it says that Job has made a covenant with his eyes to not look upon a woman lustfully. It is very important that we understand the language being used here. Job is proclaiming that he is canceling any previous covenant made in the past and establishing a new covenant in light of what is honoring to God. We would do well to understand covenantal language in the Old & New Testaments. After all, it is half of Exodus, most of Leviticus and large sections of Numbers and Deuteronomy that are teaching us about covenant and showing man the language of covenant.
It is only when we understand our authority as God’s people, as his children, that we can begin to take authority back over areas of our lives that we have given to the devil. What I want to show you this weekend, is this applies to authority that we give in both our unregenerate and regenerate state. I am praying for you right now and asking that God give you eyes to see and ears to hear. I am looking forward to worshiping and fellowshipping with you.
See you Sunday.
Peace,
Nathan Bentley