Live on this earth long enough and all of us will in some way endure a season of bondage. Whether it is bondage to physical addictions such as alcohol, illicit drugs, prescription drugs, sex, porn, or it’s emotional bondage such as being held to anxiety, depression, fear, anger or guilt.
Bondage looks many different ways. For some we can see the painful consequences of bondage, others suffer silently and without witness. Regardless, bondage is Satan’s primary tactic in warfare against God’s people. If Satan can bind us up in negatives, it keeps us focused on pain instead of our Provider.
The people of God have a long history of fighting bondage. From the moment sin entered into our story in the Garden of Eden, bondage has been our struggle. The issue of bondage is so important to God there is an entire book of Scripture (Exodus) dedicated to telling the story of the pain of bondage and the power of God to redeem His people.
The children of Israel were all too familiar with the pain of bondage. Having been subjected to harsh labor and slavery in Egypt for 430 years, the people of Israel cried out for a Deliverer. As we look at the book of Exodus there are many lessons we can learn about the power of bondage, the power of God, and how the Lord will work things together for His glory.
God allows hardships in our lives.
One of the hardest concepts to reconcile in our minds is the tension between the sovereignty of God and the freewill of humanity that God bestowed upon us. Because of our freewill and the choices we make, we often have to suffer through painful consequences of sin and its effect. Many times we suffer the consequences of other’s sin.
God did not make us as puppets without choice, and He is not a puppet master pulling the strings to every one of our decisions. Therefore, one of the greatest tensions of this life is struggling to understand that while God is good, He will often allow us to endure hardship.
The sin of Pharaoh, his fear and insecurity, lead him to oppress the Hebrew people. The bondage he subjected them to was cruel and perpetuated more evil. The struggle the people endured led them to cry out to Yahweh (another name for God) for deliverance. As their lives endured hardship, their hearts softened to the power of God as they awaited salvation.
There are many reasons God allows hardships in our lives, most of which we will never know or understand, but we can stand firm in the truth that God is sovereign and hears the cries of His people. God heard the cries of the Israelites as they suffered under the bondage of slavery, and He was working out the plan of deliverance.
Whatever area of your life may be an issue of bondage, whatever challenges or hardships you may be enduring, the pain of this will not be wasted. We may never know why God allows it, but we can trust Him to do something through it.
Hardship can harden us or soften us.
In Exodus we see two people groups endure different sets of hardships and have extremely opposite reactions to the same God. As the Isrealites endured hardship in bondage to Egypt they cried out to Yahweh God for deliverance. Their hearts were softened to God.
Their counterparts, the Egyptians, particularly Pharaoh, did not respond to suffering and trials the same way. As plagues fell upon him, and his people, rather than surrender his will to the Almighty God and soften his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart and allowed more hardness to enter him.
Suffering, hardships and even bondage have a way of forcing us to respond to God. We can either throw our fist up at God and blame Him, hardening our hearts toward Him, or we can humble ourselves before Him and cry out for rescue.
Deliverance is possible.
As the children of Israel cried out to God, God prepared Moses to be their deliverer. The process took time, and it wasn’t without challenges, but God provided the people with deliverance and rescue from their bondage.
The same is true for us millenia later. When we cry out to God for deliverance and we are willing to work with Him through the process, God will rescue us. The path toward freedom may not be without challenges, but it will come. Deliverance may take time, but it will arrive.
Friend, we can view struggles, bondage and trials as opportunities to see God move and work among His people. We can humble our hearts before Him and partake in the power of His work, or we can harden our hearts and allow the suffering and bondage of this world to destroy us.
Bondage doesn’t have to be the totality of our story. Rather, the seasons of bondage can be a testament to God’s deliverance and faithfulness.
In His grace,
