Passing Over the Burdens of the gods
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Point: When we live in opposition to God, we will incure and inherit bondage and heavy burdens, intentionally and unintentionally. Just as God the Father heard the Israelites cry for delieverence from the bondage and heavy burdens of the Egyptians, Jesus wants to do so for us, if we will trust in Him, His grace, and follow Him.
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and He took notice.
What was the Passover all about? What was the Exodus event all about? God freeing Israel from the bondage and burden of Egypt.
Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant.
“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
The Passover was also about God executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt.
“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying every firstborn male the Lord had struck down among them, for the Lord had executed judgment against their gods.
What is God’s judgment? God’s judgment is described by the Bible as being sword, famine, wild beasts, plagues, stoning and burning (Ezek. 14:21; Ezek. 16:41).
“For this is what the Lord God says: How much worse will it be when I send My four devastating judgments against Jerusalem—sword, famine, dangerous animals, and plague—in order to wipe out both man and animal from it!
Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgments against you in the sight of many women. I will stop you from being a prostitute, and you will never again pay fees for lovers.
God’s judgments are for both Believer and non-believer, Jew and Gentile; in order that they/we may know, and be reminded, that He is God.
Although the Aramean army came with only a few men, the Lord handed over a vast army to them because the people of Judah had abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. So they executed judgment on Joash.
So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken.
So I will execute judgments against Moab, and they will know that I am Yahweh.”
You are to say: This is what the Lord God says: Look! I am against you, Sidon, and I will display My glory within you. They will know that I am Yahweh when I execute judgments against her and demonstrate My holiness through her.
Is the Lord God the same today, as He is yesterday, and will be tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8)? YES, we say emphatically. He is the same in His love, in His kindness, in His care, in His faithfulness, in His goodness, and also in His judgments. He is also the same in He will show His glory - in creation, in families, in marriages, in the church, in restored relationships, healings, and in redemption whether through conflict, life, and/or death.
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
Here is a worthy and applicable piece of wisdom for us today,
A greedy person provokes conflict, but whoever trusts in the Lord will prosper.
It is ALWAYS the greedy who provoke conflict. Greedy for power, for influnce, for control, for money, for reputation, and/or for fame; all of it is ALWAYS for themselves. When I provoke a conflict, what is it typically about? Most likely being right, but it is usually about us.
What would it look like to simply trust the Lord in the conflict? Why do we not simply allow God to take our burdens and bondages? Because we typically do not bring our burdens and bondages to Him. We try to handle it ourselves. Or we give God five minutes to address the problem and then move on, or we simply reject His solution. We are just like the Israelites as they witnessed God’s judgments against Egypt, are set free, only to encounter the desert, or a big sea of conflict, and they cry did you bring us this way only for us to die!
How many burdens and bondages, does God have to relieve us of before we will truly trust Him and give our lives to Him? How many judgments are we willing to endure before we will relent to God? How much is it truly worth to us to suffer with burdens and bondages, of self-infliction, because of our desire for power, control, prestige, fame, money, and/or reputation?
In the case of the Israelites, they were under heavy burdens and bondage because of the Egyptians. They were placed under difficult service and heavy labor to Egypt. The new king did not know them, their history, their God, nor Joseph. They were foreignors and they were treated as foreignors to serve the Kingdom of Egypt. God heard their cry and set forth to free them of their heavy labor and service.
God desires to do the same for us today. He sees the injustice, the mistreatment, the unfairness, and He will move with judgment, in His time and in His way. That is not ours to deal with. Vengence is His (Romans 12:17-19).
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
I have had my name, my reputation, maligned in ministry. I battled three years with darkness because I refused to please man, but instead please God and preach His Word. I have been called a country pastor, a city pastor, and I have even been called a Liberal and a conservative. I am so confused.
Which am I? I am who God says I am - a child of His, loved by Him, called to share His love and preach the Gospel and all the council of God.
I have battled discouragment, disillusionment, and depression. My daughters have done the same. I have even had to deal with being disrespected by my own family and extended family because of hersay and ignorance. What did I need to do with those things? How should I have handled these things? How did I have to learn to handle these things? By allowing God to take them, trusting Him to handle them in His time and in His way. I needed Him to lift my burden and bondage. I still do.
My wife, Lynnette, gave me a book by Max Lucado during my second year of ministry called, “The Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot”. Max had an encouragment for me that saved me and my ministry, probably my family as well. Max said something like this,
You are the person you are, in the place you are, at the time you are for God’s purpose.
What burden, what bondage, are you carrying that you need to give over to God? Give over to Christ? Jesus says this to us,
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
What was God trying to do with Moses? What did God do with Moses and what did God do with the Israelites? He bore their burden, he bore their bondage, as He broke the twisted hard heart of Pharoah. What does Jesus want to do for us? Break us free of our burdened and bondaged hearts, caught up in the affections of this world. What does the Apostle James say?
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?
You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.
Are Burdens and Bondage the same as Trials and Temptations?
Trials are designed to test one’s faith in God, in Jesus.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
A trial is a test, that may have resulted from a temptation. The word trial [3986] peirasmos means to put to proof, tempt, test. Usually, a trial of one’s character (1 Peter 4:12), virtue, of temptation, solicitation to sin, and especially from Satan (Luke 4:13; 1 Tim 6:9).
After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
A trial is a state in which God brings His people through adversity and affliction in order to encourage and prove their faith and confidence in Him. How confident are we in God? In Christ? In the Holy Spirit?
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,
When Jesus urges us to pray to the Father that He may not us into temptation, He is referring to those enticements to sin that we may not be able to resist in our present stage of spiritual growth. Again, what temptations, what burdens, or bondages does Jesus want us to bring to Him to let Him bear? Are we willing to hear to what He has to say? Are we willing to learn from Him? For the commandments, the burdens He has for us, are much easier and lighter to bear than what the gods of this world would have us bear. Which god or gods are you serving? What is the weight of the burden you are required to bear? Is it worth it?
Jesus can bear the burden, He can break the bondage. He bore the temptations of the devil, He even bore and broke the cross, the instrument of torture and death for sin, but yet He commited no sin, but yet bore our sin.
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds.
When we trust in Jesus, and the grace of His willing death on the cross, the burden and bondage of death and sin lose their power and control over our lives, because Jesus, by His death healed/(s) our wound.
Passover, or as the world calls it, Easter, is about God the Father hearing our cry, while in bondage to death, and burdened by sin(s), answering with Jesus the Son, who freed us from death and sin through His death and resurrection, and now today, because of His sending of Holy Spirit, we can live free of burdens and bondage because the Holy Spirit speaks, guides, and empowers us to know and live in Christ. Amen.
Point: When we live in opposition to God, we will incure and inherit bondage and heavy burdens, intentionally and unintentionally. Just as God the Father heard the Israelites cry for delieverence from the bondage and heavy burdens of the Egyptians, Jesus wants to do so for us, if we will trust in Him, His grace, and follow Him. Moses was God’s instrument for the Israelites freedom. Jesus is our freedom from the burdens and bondage of sin and death in and of the world today, guiding us, empowering us, and speaking to through Holy Spirit.
How will you choose to pass over the burdens and bondage of the gods today? Who will be your Passover offering?