The Israelites were destined to become a kingdom ordained by God. He promised Abraham, “I will make you a great nation.” He saved them from famine through Joseph and established them as a thriving people in Egypt. A few generations later, they had a problem. They were slaves.
There can never be a kingdom when the people are enslaved. So God sent Moses to set them free. But it wasn’t Moses who delivered them out of bondage. It was God. He spoke to Moses, who relayed His words to the Egyptians through Aaron. He performed miracles that confounded the wisest men. He broke the power of their captors through plagues. They had no choice but to let God’s people go. Then and only then could the Israelites begin their journey towards their destiny to become a great kingdom.
The same is true with us today. We cannot enter the kingdom of God while we are slaves. Paul tells us that we are all slaves to sin, which is why we need a savior. So God sent His son to set us free. Jesus spoke God’s words directly to the people. He confounded the wisest men with miracles. He broke the powers of darkness. Sin has no choice but to let God’s people go. Then and only then can we begin our journey towards our destiny to become a great kingdom.
Freedom from the deadly power of sin is the necessary first step on this journey. We cannot free ourselves. Like the Israelites, we are powerless against it. This is the message we must first receive, then proclaim to others. The world talks about things like love, peace, kindness, justice, and abundance, but these are all traits of a kingdom that can never be fully attained by slaves.
Certainly, the Israelites in Egypt experienced a level of these things, but they were always overshadowed by the fact that they were not truly free. We see the same thing today. Expressions of God’s kingdom surround us, but until the yoke of sin is broken people cannot live in them. They can only look upon them from their chains.
Following Jesus Christ, the breaker of chains, is the only path to freedom. “The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” Paul wrote to the Romans, echoing Deuteronomy 30. “that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:8-10).
At that time, Rome was the most powerful nation on earth, yet it was vile and wicked. Roman citizens were arguably the wealthiest, most esteemed people in the world, yet they were slaves. They needed a savior. We must maintain this message that Paul preached. We are surrounded by people enslaved to sin and they need the only One who can free them from bondage.
“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?” Paul continued. “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’” (Romans 10:14-15)
Let us be the ones to proclaim this good news to them. There is freedom in Christ. There is a kingdom to be obtained. This is the hope of salvation for everyone. May we preach this truth with confidence, love, and courage.
