Exodus 5.21 Comfortable Bondage -29th May 2022 (Benoni Bible Church)

Liberty is not free and neither is it cheap. There is a cost and a big one. Historically, we look at a society and can trace their liberty, albeit a humanitarian one, to the cost they paid for it at some point in their history, which cost involved a fight. When Jesus died for our sin to emancipate us from the slavery of sin, He suffered and died on the cross, which testimony we are glad to make public but suffer for His name sake we will not. Jesus did not negotiate a better way for us. He bought us with His blood. He did not do what He did for us in a boardroom but on the Cross. He did not negotiate political asylum for us. He came to break the yoke of bondage. He did not secure safe passage for us. He secured eternal life for us. He did not come to make you amenable to the world. He came to free you from its evil grip. Of course, His great work subsumes all these lesser works.

We speak of liberty, emancipation, and freedom, but to fight for it is another story. To fight means to get up close to the enemy, which, for obvious reasons, is incredibly daunting and better left alone. To many people slavery is a gift that gives them an unusual form of security because it accustomizes life for them or them to that life. They labour under the delusion that if something is standard then it is accepted and regulated, which regulation has noble intentions. Nazism was standardized in Germany in the 1940’s and it was regulated and accepted by the majority but it was wrong morally. This is a distinction Christians seem unable to make these days and that is because they are mental slaves. Many years ago, Bob Marley in his ‘Redemption Song’ sang, “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.” Though he recognized the need for mental emancipation, it was the source of the emancipation that would not avail. We cannot look to ourselves and when we do we end up with a more severe form of bondage.

So many of you are in bondage that you have forgotten that it is. You have grief and grudges that you have been nurturing and nursing over time and now find that they are your close companions. You have troubled marriages for such a long time that you think it normal to have troubled marriages, after all, you are two sinners. You cannot live without your griefs, grudges, and fears. Your life story is designed around these motifs and now to change all that would mean to rewrite your script entirely. This is too much work! In fact, some of you even boast about it. This is true of fear! It is now a comrade to many of you. It is a life concomitant. It is your guide and guard. Your fear is that if your fear is removed, how then will you live, if not fearfully? It is normal to live in fear. We have high walls, electric fences, guard dogs, armed response, and domestic weapons to boot. Everything in society is designed around and driven by fear, whether clothes or cars, food or family. This is because threats exist. Even the health, wealth and happiness programme is driven with this agenda that undergirds it. Were it not so, it would not be successful. You treat your fears as you would a spouse. You can’t imagine your life without it. Fear involves torment, writes the apostle John (1 Jn. 4:18). It is an irrational self-infliction. In Matthew 10 Jesus inaugurates and instructs the disciples who will henceforth be apostles. In His lengthy treatise He says this to them, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (v. 28).

In the section before us, the officers of Israel set up a meeting with the Pharaoh behind Moses’ and Aaron’s backs, who did find out about it and waited outside for them but as soon as these representatives of the working class came out they saw the two appointed leaders and off loaded onto them all their pent up vitriol. Evidently, their meeting with the Pharaoh did not go as planned. What they did not realize, because they are not leaders, is that by going to see the Pharaoh behind their leader’s back, they showed that man that they do not respect their own God-appointed leaders and by coming to him first implied that he is before them. To the Pharaoh, who is wicked but not stupid, this implied, as it revealed, their disrespect for their leadership, and this was something he could exploit, and exploit it he did. This, by and large, is a major contributing factor when Christians address their political leaders. These leaders know that Christians have no unified voice. It is an abundantly evident thing for a politician whose bread and butter expediency. This is a morsel he can hardly refuse.

Take the mandate of John the Baptist, who, by today’s so-called Christian standards, was an intriguing but not an appealing testimony because He lifted up the name of the Lord despite facing danger from the authorities. It was His motto, and possibly mantra, when he said regarding the Lord, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). Would to God that such a motto would be yours.

The text before us, in its narrative form, reveals certain issues about people operating purely on fear instead of faith.

They Fearlessly Turn Against their Leader

This is the most apparent observation. Men get scared at the decisions their leaders make. Granted, some leaders are irrational and are to be distrusted. However, in the majority of cases they are afraid of their earthly rulers and thus are nervous about the decision that their spiritual leaders will make that will imperil that relationship.

Twice they mention the sight of these earthly rulers but never once do they mention the sight of the Lord. It is their primary concern that they look less abhorrent or less stinky in the earthy ruler’s eyes than in their Maker’s. More intriguing, leave alone confusing, is that these are the ones citing Scriptural injunctions and principles to you while living in opposition to that. They will cite from Romans 13 while completely forgetting that Paul was writing that entire letter to vindicate the Lord’s sovereignty in all things, chiefly in salvation and complete and eventual redemption. Notwithstanding, they will lecture you, scold you, and for dramatic effect, even wag their finger at you, as these did to Moses and Aaron here, to insist that it is our ultimate obligation to look good in the sight of our Pharaoh for, apparently, this is our testimony. Looking good in the sight of God comes a close second, if that. Of course, they do this, not knowing, or perhaps, in some cases, knowing, that Pharaoh has nothing to do with God and just because God has allowed him to rule for a time for God’s purposes, and not his, does not mean that God approves of him or, for that matter, so should you. The fact that Moses and Aaron went in and spoke to the Pharaoh (v. 1) shows you where the relationship starts and ends. They did not intend on doing anything clandestine. They went to inform him of their obligation to God first, which is the very thing the apostles did when they were confronted by their authorities (Acts 4:19, 5:29). We are here to be respecting of and submitting to God’s Law while serving and accommodating to the Pharaohs. All would end there had the Pharaoh felt the same but that he does not, which means that they leave him and obey God. Respect was given to the Pharaoh in that he was conferred with but as the previous verse says, “they came out from Pharaoh” (v. 20). While it is a factual observation it is, more importantly, a deliberate and deeply spiritual remark. Of course, it is true that Moses made them abhorrent to Pharaoh but the indictment came out of their own mouths. He had to do it because they wouldn’t. They should have done this a long time ago. You don’t have to go out there and look for creative ways to be abhorrent. All you have to do is put the Lord first in all things and you will find that you will become abhorrent very quickly.

Yes, the Pharaoh has a sword and Paul writes of it too in Romans 13 but this was given to him by the Lord and were he to misuse it, as he is currently doing, it will return on his own head. Paul reminded us at the close of chapter 8 that we will never be separated from the love of God, no, not even by the ill-use of this sword (8:35). This is true throughout the Christian world but the ones who complain most about this are they who have never counted the cost of their relationship with Christ. These are the comfortable and convenient Christians. They know how to “abound”, i.e., to live in prosperity but unlike the apostle they do not know how to be “abased”, i.e., live humbly. Dare you remind them of the latter then you are a legalist. These are the ones who don’t want trouble. They are more afraid of their loss than the defamation of the Lord’s name. That the Lord’s name is blasphemed is not an issue to them. For them, the Lord is a big boy and He can take it.

The bigots and the ones with double standards are the first to bring up the Lord when they want to defend themselves. ‘The Lord is my witness’, they will say. Considering what they are saying and if they have sense enough to hear themselves say it, they would know that they would not want the Lord hearing their bigotry. It is not as important to them to have the Lord hear that as long as they get you to hear that. They are so afraid of their fears but not afraid to instill fear, or attempt to anyway.

These officers came perilously close to cursing Moses and Aaron. Is it better to die as slaves or to live as slaves? Is it better to die serving God or to live serving man? Is it better to choose life abundant through death or death slowly through slavery? Would you rather be extremely wealthy and serving Satan or extremely poor and serving the Lord?

They Foolishly Yearn for their Taskmaster

Slavery meant that they were not free to do God’s will but if you were to ask them, they would argue that they are serving the Lord by serving their taskmaster. They might even cite Obadiah in the Old Testament who served under wicked king Ahab, as a case in point. Proving, or attempting to, that he is not far removed from his ancient counterpart. This is also the modern or post-Christian thinkers response as well. They forget that Obadiah met with Elijah without the knowledge, let alone, consent of Ahab and took a message to his boss from Elijah, his real boss. He was so nervous and afraid but he obeyed. Prior to that he was already involved in feeding 100 prophets behind Ahab’s back (1 Kings 18:4), which Elijah did not rebuke him for. It is not true that we are serving the Lord by serving our taskmasters. It is true that when we serve the Lord then we can serve the taskmaster. Which is to say, that we serve the taskmaster by serving the Lord, and not the other way around, as is so often popularized these days. This cart-before-horse Christianity is an abomination. This Procrustean approach to cut short the legs of faith to fit the bed of Christianity will never work. At the heart of serving is submission, which is why we should ask, ‘who are you submitting to?’ In the case of the Israelites, in that they are submitting to Pharaoh’s whims and building his evil empire and doing nothing for the Lord was not at all troubling to them, and even if we grant the benefit of the doubt and recognize that it is troubling to them but they prefer to ‘wisely’ steer clear from confrontation, the real trouble is the command of the Lord. How do you propose to steer clear from that? After all, we have been doing this for 400 years. They were oppressed but they had houses. They were enslaved but they had their daily meal. They were prisoners but they were not prohibited from getting married and having kids. So what is this you are telling us that we are in bondage? We have to do a hard days work, we have a roof over our heads, and a plate of food to eat. Their response, as it was with the blind Pharisees after Jesus confronted them, was, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone” (Jn. 8:33). Oh really! What about the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medo-Persian, the Greeks, and the Romans?

In the evenings we can educate our children with the little time we have before we sleep, can we not? Should we not be content with these? Does the Scriptures not say that in whatever state we are in to be content (1 Tim. 6:8)? Why should we take advice from a scoot who seems oblivious to the fact that we could lose our jobs, houses, and provision? Does not Paul not write in 1 Corinthians 7:21 “Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it.” Of course, they forget what Paul wrote two verses later, “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

Moses came with the gospel of the day and they tell him that he should shut up and leave them alone. He should rather tell them how to get through it rather than out of it. Is that not what a leader’s job is? Is it not to help us navigate the difficulty of our lives by motivating us daily? Is it not his responsibility to help us negotiate our way through the malaise? Should he not rather advise us on how to appease than to displease? He should desist from bringing God into the equation all the time as that would make Pharaoh angry and make our daily jobs well-nigh impossible. God can wait! After all, He has been delaying His deliverance for 400 hundred years. We must keep calm and avoid reprisals. We should not stoke the fire.

Their expectation was that their leaders should always negotiate better employment terms and conditions. You think that your leaders exist to make your days smoother and more manageable? You think that they exist to make your mundane quotas achievable and your careers successful. It frustrates, yea angers you when they have the temerity to speak on your behalf and end up making matters worse. At the heart of all earthly government is this, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice” (v. 2). When they gather to legislate, they never consult Him and yet, you are more inclined to listen to them than to God. More Christians will tune in when the president is speaking to see what level they are now on than attend their local church services.

No, that is exactly what his job is not. Moses and Aaron are not union arbitrators. They represent God’s agenda to this heathen government.

A false sense of security is not a fail safe. This amounts to psychological protection only and that is considered selfism. Later they would continue to manifest this problem as they constantly complained to Moses about how much better they had it back in Egypt.

They Fearfully burn for their Lives

People hate fear and in their abhorrence of it they end up courting it. The irony of life is, what you flee from you inevitably face. To employ the vernacular of modern psychology, what you run from you run into. The secular advice to face your fears while parading as astute is somewhat myopic considering they don’t advise caution and wisdom for that encounter. They propound a cavalier courage that becomes unstuck when the loss mounts. This advice works well, to some degree anyway, until that fear is God Himself. Then it does not work! For when it comes to Him your most elevated position is your face before His feet. Notwithstanding, people, Christians in particular, seek to be far removed from fear but find an impulsive obsession for it. It is in their nature to run from it but not after they stand and stare at it. I remember reading an actual report which serves as an illustration of this point. I am referring to the tsunami that was moving towards a certain beach in Phuket. Noticeably, the animals who had sensed what was to come had the good sense to flee a while before but humans were on the siphoned shore taking camera footage and some were laughing and joking while not a few were visibly expressing concern at the approaching wave. Instinct did not avail for them nor intellect for that matter. They opted to stare at the very thing that was about to kill them. Why would you trust this fallen human nature. Why would you look at a man and see a potential possibility for deliverance. They considered it more important to capture the moment than to save their lives. They were captivated by the fear and thus became captive to it. Things that frighten you tend to allure you. It is in this sense that they find fear inviting and accommodating.

Similarly, they love it when you tell them of their freedom but hate you when they have to enjoy it at a cost. Freedom is not as valuable to them when compared with the price for it. They find, rather frustratingly, that they are not allowed any reduction or discount in matters related to fear but rather face an exponential hike in price. This is not acceptable with those with a frugal faith. It is not uncommon to find Christians so attached to their bondage that they consider emancipation a burden. It is not that their sin does not beset them, only that they have grown accustomed to carrying it. They see efforts to free them as upsetting the status quo. If they have been doing a certain thing a certain way for a certain period of time then along comes this leader who is seen as an untethered maverick and who puts them in jeopardy by his understanding of the situation, or lack thereof. The Hebrews had been slaves for 400 years in Egypt. They were slaves and not citizens. What they were used to was beyond habit. It was tradition! It was a normative custom! It was their lifestyle! It was their normal! It literally was their new national identity. And to be told that this was not the ideal the Lord had in store for them is to step on toes. So many of you have made a career out of slavery, and a successful one too. We’ve become well-educated and wealthy slaves.

Paranoia is the new reality. Once friends, now become enemies because they dare to warn us. Friends who were once close are now harmful and toxic and God’s will, which was once our chief joy, is now the most irritating inconvenience.

Let’s switch that around. If, as it is in their view, Moses and Aaron made them look abhorrent, then to whom have they made Moses and Aaron look abhorrent? If they accuse their leaders for endangering them, then to whom have they endangered their leaders? The answer to both questions is, to God. This was their intention! This is not to suggest that their efforts will be successful.

Conclusion

Do you fear change more than you fear God? Do you fear freedom more than you fear slavery? Is God inconveniencing you? Cost free Christianity is cheap Christianity. It is a knock-off Christianity. It is a fong-kong Christianity. The cost of obedience to Christ is high but the cost of dishonoring His name is steep.

Of course, fear and faith are mutually exclusive. They are strange bedfellows. If you like your fear you will not enjoy your faith, assuming you have it. Faith does not ensure that you are delivered from danger, it is there to ensure that you do not suffer defeat in them. It is not an aid to keep you from trials but one to keep you in trials. It does not rescue you from trouble but carries you through it. It is not there to make your life easier but to make your life victorious. It does not require you to shut off your intelligence but to gainfully employ it. Intelligence exercised in faith is wisdom in action. Faith is not credulity nor is it ignorance. Faith opens your eyes to see life better with all its spiritual beauties more vividly, i.e., from God’s perspective. It will ensure that you do not become overcome by evil and not that you ignore the presence of evil.

Why are you so drawn and driven to looking good to those on the earth? The things of the earth are too attractive to you. If looking good to those who rule this world is your primary concern, then living righteously will be anything but, and living victoriously will be an even more remote reality. These were already abhorrent which is why they were slaves to begin with. Their abhorrence had nothing to do with Moses. Suddenly they are concerned about their testimony to the world when all this time they never considered it a priority to be a testimony. Suddenly they consider the safety of their family when all this time the sanctification of their family was anything but a concern. All of a sudden it is a matter of witnessing and evangelism when all this time that was never their priority. Why did they not tell Pharaoh about the Lord’s coming judgment? They only ask him to ease the law of the straw. They accuse Moses of putting “a sword in their hand.” Really! The sword was already in their hand when Moses got there and had been there for 400 years. They blame Moses for making them look bad to this world and for putting their lives in jeopardy and yet, this already was their reality, except they were too blind by virtue of their acceptance and customization of their secular regulations to see it.

Lewis Sperry Chafer writes, “In his wicked assumption of independence of God, man has lost the sense of the Creator’s rights and looks upon the authority of God as unjustifiable intrusion into the sphere of human autonomy” (Chafer, Soteriology, Vol. 3, 2005:78). I think he is on to something there because, as I see it, at the heart of this whole God verses government debate that we are locked down into and that has taken the Church by storm thanks to Lockdowns, is the lurking sense of autonomy. There is this underlying argument at the base of everything posited and punted and it is that the give must come God. That the tolerance must be shown by Him. That yieldedness is something to be displayed by Him through His followers. Apparently, we must show our love to them by capitulation. This is the neo-evangelism methodology that the apostle Paul knew nothing about. June is gay pride month, so why don’t you fly the LGBTQIA2S+ flag out side for the month with a view to inviting them in?

You cannot serve two masters (Lk. 16:13). You cannot serve God while sympathizing with the agenda of man nor serve man while sympathizing with the agenda of God. This is confusion and if you were to ask Lot, he would tell you that it results in vexation of spirit, which we sometimes refer to as spiritual depression.

I am not suggesting that this only applies to leaders. You may have been on the receiving end of much vitriol because of your view but take heart and example from Moses. He went to the Lord in prayer. The officers hadn’t even thought of this. Yes, Moses went to Pharaoh but only to inform him of God’s instruction and not to engage him in any spiritual discussion, or God forbid, look to him for spiritual direction. Pharaoh cannot tell God’s people how, where, and when to worship. He is given that information and not asked for it. Yes, it might be that our lives get very difficult because we took a stand that glorifies God but that is nothing new under the sun. How is it that you have been praying for the Persecuted Church all these years.

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Faithful Christians do not profane their lives, pervert their testimony, pretend in their salvation, propagate lies, and promote sin.