by Jen Gentry
There is no denying that the fight for the Hebrews to be freed from bondage to Egypt was an out and out battle. I say battle because it was part of a war that was not yet won. We seem to focus on the ten plagues God brought down upon Egypt in a tremendous display of His Might and Glory. And what a display it was, but what about the Hebrews mass exodus from Egypt? What of the harrowing flight of hundreds of thousands of people to get out of Egypt to escape the wrath and rage of an angry Pharaoh bent on revenge? How does the Hebrew’s flight from bondage apply to Christians today?
I confess to having been freed from bondage. Like the Hebrews I allowed myself to be led into a life of bondage thinking I had made the right choice. While I did not suffer in bondage for hundreds of years, I did suffer for most of my adult life. Had I listened to the Lord and prayed about the decisions I made I would have saved myself many years of pain and grief. When I realized, many years later, where I was I knew I had to get out. I prayed fervently for months on end for deliverance The Lord heard my cries and delivered me and you know what I did? The very day I was released I begged to be let back in.
I remember clearly on that day the Lord spoke to me. He told me I had two years left. Two years and then my career as a nurse would be over. I cried and I said to my Lord How can this be? Father, how will I support my family? Nevertheless two years later I walked away from my nursing career. Just as the Lord said I would. But my battle to stay out of the life that had brought so much pain and misery would become a flight like no other as the enemy fought to keep me bound and to steal my deliverance in any way he could.
This is where I think of the Hebrews and the fear they must have gone through as their enemy in the form of a raging Pharaoh chased them down. How many times did the Pharaoh and his great army come within striking range of the Hebrews? How many times did God show himself to the Hebrews and the Egyptians during that chase? I pause here and wonder What were the Egyptians thinking? If I were them I would have said Nope, I do not want any more plagues. Thank you very much. Then I would have turned my chariot around and rode off into the setting sun.
The problem here is that as the word teaches us we do not fight against flesh and blood. We fight against the dark powers in high places. The Hebrews flight was not from the flesh and blood Pharaoh. Their flight was from the devil. The Hebrews carried with them the hope of all the nations. From their tribes would come the savior of all mankind. The enemy must have feared the Hebrews above all other men. The devil had to do everything he could to keep the Hebrews enslaved and under his rule with the Pharaoh in the high places. Thus, the way I see it, the enemy pushed the Egyptians forward in the chase fueled by their living God the Pharaoh’s need for revenge against Moses.
Here is where I wonder how many times in this flight across nations, deserts, mountains, rivers, and seas did God’s people cry out Let us go back. Back to Egypt, surely the Egyptians will kill us. No matter how many times the Hebrews cried out the Lord delivered them. However, the Hebrews regretted their deliverance at the first sign of the battle to keep their freedom.
What part of the plagues upon Egypt did the Hebrews miss? I suppose it is easy for us to look back and say to the Hebrews if only you had kept your faith you would have looked upon the promised land instead of wondering around the wilderness for forty years.
The point is no deliverance comes without a fight before and after. The enemy will battle to keep you in bondage. Is your own flight to freedom worth the fight? Christ tells us over and over to keep our faith. I can tell you many times after the Lord delivered me the devil struck at me. Many times I wept and every time my God stepped in to save me. Because I kept the faith in what the Lord had done for me I survived my own flight from bondage.
If you have been praying for deliverance ask yourself if maybe your deliverance is nigh, but you are still afraid of the flight to freedom. Be Blessed.
Psalm 34:7 NIV I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from ALL my fears.
Jen is a bestselling Christian writer of fiction and non-fiction works. She writes to entertain and inspire as well as to bring glory to her own personal savior, Jesus Christ. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a Registered Nurse. Her life journey has not been an easy one. She knows what it means to walk through the fires of faith, as she knows the pain and the joys of life.
She has a strange fascination with hummingbirds as one has always showed up in times of difficulty in her life, either a real one or an image of one. She loves things like old tea-pots and mopar-muscle cars from the seventies. She thinks of herself as kind of a redneck chick-slash-southern belle, as she loves to dress up fancy, but spends most of her time in jersey tee-shirts and jeans, with her hair up in a ponytail.When she is not writing or spending time with her family, you can find her with her nose stuck in a book. She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached by email at jengentrysbooks@gmail.com