Exodus 1 — Thoughts

Are You a Slave or Are You Free?

Have you ever tried to quit a bad habit? Maybe you wanted to look at your phone less or stop sleeping through your alarm. There are useful strategies for breaking habits like these, but it's not easy.

Now, think about this: Have you ever tried to quit sin? That's even harder.

Nothing has convinced me of my need for a Savior quite like my futile attempts to remove sin from my own life. I simply can't do it (Romans 7:18).

And nothing has convinced me that sin leads to death quite like the experience of living in sin. It drains the life out of me (Romans 6:23).

Maybe that's why the Bible so often uses the imagery of slavery to talk about sin. Jesus describes us as "slaves to sin" (John 8:34), and Paul describes us as "enslaved to sin" (Romans 6:6). Sin has us trapped. It controls us. And it is beyond our ability to break free.

That's why we need Jesus. We need a Savior who can break us free from our slavery to sin and death. Someone who can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We need Jesus to set us free (Galatians 5:1).

The story of Exodus is like a big metaphor for this relationship. Israel was enslaved to Egypt, and it was a slavery that led to death. But God didn't leave them in that place. As we read, we're going to see Him come through in an incredible way — devastating Egpyt and leading His people out of slavery.

This is what Jesus does in our own lives. He destroys the sin in our lives by taking it to the cross with Him, and he leads us into new life by conquering death through His resurrection.⁠

God set Israel free from slavery — and He sets us free from sin.

(Originally written October 6, 2020)