Exodus:the Primer of Freedom-true and false freedom pt 2

Exodus is a book of freedom. Even the name Exodus proclaims liberty. The ‘Exodus’ is out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. The God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob is the God of liberty. His purpose is to liberate the whole world, using a liberator people, Israel. But before Israel could be used to liberate the world, Israel herself needed to be set free from her sevitude.

Therefore God would raise up a vessel to set them free, Moses. But he himself was in a kind of bondage. There is the bondage of the lash, and servitude, and there is the slavery to the lusts and pleasures to this world. Hebrews 11 describes the personal Exodus of Moses,

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.(Hebrews 11:23-25)

It was only after Moses was liberated , that he could be used to set Israel free. The Exodus of Israel was necessary, that they could be used to become the stewards of the truth that would eventually set the world free.

Here are a few other aspects of true freedom that I believe that the book of Exodus teaches us;

* Freedom is to be seen as a gift of God..As Exodus 20:1 says , I am .the Lord thy God that has brought thee out of Egypt, the house of bondage… True freedom is always and ever the result of grace, it is a gift of the gracious God. Only through the antitype of the paschal lamb, by the precious blood of Jesus can we be delivered from the guilt and power of sin, which is the deepest bondage of all.

* Freedom is not an end in itself...”Let my people go that they may worship me” (Exodus 10:3) Freedom to do what? True Freedom isn’t an end in itself, God would set us free that we may truly serve Him, that we may be free to be what He created us to be in the first place.

* Freedom is internal…I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me…(Exodus 20:2-3) Note how the deliverance by the blood of the Lamb comes first, then the giving of the law. The idea is that true freedom is a gift of God’s grace and can never be attained by self effort.

But Exodus 20 makes it clear that freedom is internal. Its as though God was saying to the Israelites, ‘I am the one who delivered you from slavery in Egypt, now do you really want to stay free‘? The truly free man is the one, who only worships the one God. The truly free man is the one who fears God and would never take His name in vain, the truly free man is the one who doesn’t want anyone else’s wife, or things. True freedom is an internal condition, this is why James calls the law of God, “the perfect law of liberty’.

After all, the Law of God is also the very law of our being, we were not created by God to worship two Gods, or to be “one” with a series of women. We can only really be happy and true to our humanity when we are ‘content with such things God has given us’, (10th commandment), or when we love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus sets us free to be what we were created to be originally.

*Freedom from the group morality...A person who has been truly liberated, is inwardly directed, and not subject to the changing opinions ,and shifting doctrines of the day. “Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment.”(Exodus 23:2)

*Freedom is an ongoing call...For this one we go to Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. We are all called to maintain the position of freedom, that came as a gift of the Liberator God. That means being vigilant to recognise and resist the various entrapments of false religion, temptation, conscience surrender, etc.

These are some of the marks of the “true freedom”, which Jesus promised and which is unto eternal life. In the next segment we will contrast this with the illusion offered by those who “promise you liberty while they themselves are the slaves of corruption”and which is dragging the world, especially the west, down to hell.

Hey PBR, I always enjoy reading your posts. Always some interesting views. BUT...:o)...I do have to offer a perspective on this:

Only through the antitype of the paschal lamb, by the precious blood of Jesus can we be delivered from the guilt and power of sin, which is the deepest bondage of all.

And most Christian thought is similar, such as this:

"Have you put your faith in God's Passover Lamb that divine judgment might "passover" you?" The biblisist...Gary Nystrom

This is really an eisegetic rendering of the meaning and events of Passover.

A) The passover event had no...zero...remission of any sin to it. The passover lamb was not a sin sacrifice.

B) The passover lamb (or goat) was a killing of the Egyptian god. So, in other words, one of the many idols of Egypt was a lamb-god (ram-god)...that should give Christians pause. Moses talks about that in Exodus 8

25 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land." 26 But Moses said, "That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us?

The act of the killing of the lamb or goat were both to be males, why? Because the lamb would grow to be a Ram, one of the most powerful gods in Egypt. And the goat is also the god which ".. created man on a potters wheel and then breathed life into them...." appropriate when G-d is then killing the first born of Egypt. In fact, some view all ten plagues as attacks against Egyptian idols.

C) Now even if Jesus could be a passover lamb, there are still major problems. Jesus throat was not cut and his body was not consumed (eaten) by morning. The remains of which were to be burnt. Nor was Jesus unblemished, he was scurged, stabbed and circumsized. He suffocated to death on the cross, not by blood loss from the throat. (These same problems occur for a sin sacrifice also)

D) The main spiritual event is that they were brought out of Egypt which was a land of idol worship to go to the land which G-d would establish as purely monotheistic worship. It took a long time to get the idol worship out of the Israelites. And ironicly enough, the Christian worship of the lamb-god puts man right back under the slavery of idol worship.

A) The passover event had no...zero...remission of any sin to it. The passover lamb was not a sin sacrifice.

Exo 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
Exo 12:13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

The way we Christians see it the blood from the lamb painted on the doorpost was to cover their sins so G-d would pass them over with the plague. G-d does not bring a death plague upon innocent people , all were guilty of some sin but the blood from the lamb covered the sins of those who headed and placed it there. It is not so much about the meal they made of the lamb after wards.

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