In John 8, Jesus proclaims His deity multiple times, and in the midst of His declaring that He is the I AM, he calls on his audience to accept the truth that will make them free. In response, those around respond that they have never been in bondage as sons of Abraham. This is a confounding answer, for their forefathers had indeed been in captivity under the Egyptians, under Assyrians, and under the Babylonians. In this lesson, we’re going to look at these times of bondage for Israel and what we can learn from these periods of history.
God’s People in Bondage
In Exodus 6, God tells Moses to go to Egypt and redeem the Israelites. God says they will become His people, and He will be their God. Deuteronomy 7:17, some forty years after the Exodus commences, Moses calls upon the people to remember their deliverance from Egypt by God’s outstretched arm. In Deuteronomy 2:29 and 11:2, Moses again calls upon them to remember God’s power in His deliverance.
Generations pass. The period of the judges comes and goes. The monarchy is established, and the kingdom divides between northern and southern kingdoms. Hosea 8:13 records God saying the people of the north would return to Egypt. He does not mean literal Egypt, but they would return to the dangers of captivity. In Hosea 11:5, the prophet reveals Assyria to be the new captors. Contemporary to Hosea, to Amos 4:1 begins describing the terrors of this captivity, God giving them over to a people cruel and merciless because they have forsaken Him.
Amos 2 foreshadows another captivity. Verse 4 speaks of the transgressions of the southern kingdom of Judah, and Amos anticipates the bondage under Babylon. During the life of Jeremiah, the temple would be destroyed, the city burned, and the majority of the population carried away. The kingdom of Judah would never completely recover from the damages caused by Babylon.
Captivity Under Sin
What can these stories of bondage and captivity mean for us as New Testament Christians? After converting the sorcerer Simon, Paul in Acts 8:22-23 accuses him of being in bondage to sin. Discussing his inner conflict in Romans 7:14, Paul describes himself sold as a slave to sin, and Romans 6:6 and 16-17 speaks of sin in terms of slavery as does Galatians 5:1. Sin is spiritual captivity. Living in such a state puts us in the same situation as those Israelites being carried off to Assyria by fishhooks.
Longing for Slavery
In Numbers 11:4, the people of Israel remember their days in Egypt fondly. They long for the relative luxuries they had when they were in bondage to Pharaoh. They view their captivity as a form of good old days. Also, in Numbers 14, as the spies return from Canaan, the congregation of Israel weep against Moses, wishing they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. They even plan to return to Egypt. As terrible as their bondage was, when times were difficult, they sought to return.
Likewise, at the end of the Babylonian captivity, some were content to stay in the land of their conquerors. We shake our heads in disbelief at their resistance to God’s redemption while we do the very same thing. The bondage of sin can look very attractive at times, and we can turn back to sin as the Israelites wished to return to Egypt. We must understand the wretchedness of bondage to sin. I John 1:8 warns us against taking sin lightly, and Romans 6:23 spells out the consequences of sin. Like Israel should have come out of captivity, never looking back, we should come out of sin to never return.
God stretches out His arm to redeem us and pull us from slavery. We can accept that saving grace to live free from the chains of sin.
lesson by Tim Smelser
God’s People in Bondage
In Exodus 6, God tells Moses to go to Egypt and redeem the Israelites. God says they will become His people, and He will be their God. Deuteronomy 7:17, some forty years after the Exodus commences, Moses calls upon the people to remember their deliverance from Egypt by God’s outstretched arm. In Deuteronomy 2:29 and 11:2, Moses again calls upon them to remember God’s power in His deliverance.
Generations pass. The period of the judges comes and goes. The monarchy is established, and the kingdom divides between northern and southern kingdoms. Hosea 8:13 records God saying the people of the north would return to Egypt. He does not mean literal Egypt, but they would return to the dangers of captivity. In Hosea 11:5, the prophet reveals Assyria to be the new captors. Contemporary to Hosea, to Amos 4:1 begins describing the terrors of this captivity, God giving them over to a people cruel and merciless because they have forsaken Him.
Amos 2 foreshadows another captivity. Verse 4 speaks of the transgressions of the southern kingdom of Judah, and Amos anticipates the bondage under Babylon. During the life of Jeremiah, the temple would be destroyed, the city burned, and the majority of the population carried away. The kingdom of Judah would never completely recover from the damages caused by Babylon.
Captivity Under Sin
What can these stories of bondage and captivity mean for us as New Testament Christians? After converting the sorcerer Simon, Paul in Acts 8:22-23 accuses him of being in bondage to sin. Discussing his inner conflict in Romans 7:14, Paul describes himself sold as a slave to sin, and Romans 6:6 and 16-17 speaks of sin in terms of slavery as does Galatians 5:1. Sin is spiritual captivity. Living in such a state puts us in the same situation as those Israelites being carried off to Assyria by fishhooks.
Longing for Slavery
In Numbers 11:4, the people of Israel remember their days in Egypt fondly. They long for the relative luxuries they had when they were in bondage to Pharaoh. They view their captivity as a form of good old days. Also, in Numbers 14, as the spies return from Canaan, the congregation of Israel weep against Moses, wishing they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. They even plan to return to Egypt. As terrible as their bondage was, when times were difficult, they sought to return.
Likewise, at the end of the Babylonian captivity, some were content to stay in the land of their conquerors. We shake our heads in disbelief at their resistance to God’s redemption while we do the very same thing. The bondage of sin can look very attractive at times, and we can turn back to sin as the Israelites wished to return to Egypt. We must understand the wretchedness of bondage to sin. I John 1:8 warns us against taking sin lightly, and Romans 6:23 spells out the consequences of sin. Like Israel should have come out of captivity, never looking back, we should come out of sin to never return.
God stretches out His arm to redeem us and pull us from slavery. We can accept that saving grace to live free from the chains of sin.
lesson by Tim Smelser
