“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”  (Galatians 5:1).

There are so many types and degrees of slavery: ownership of one by another which is opposed to the natural rights we have as humans, tyranny of evil government, oppression by someone in authority (leader, employer, spouse), inability to get around because of disability–physical or mental, lack of resources, and addiction. Slavery can lead to despair, hopelessness, or desperate measures. Some of us know this all too well. Others of us may have never experienced anything so traumatic.

However, the Bible tells us that we are all slaves; Paul explains that we are slaves to whomever we obey. “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18).

In Genesis 15, God portends a time of slavery:

“Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there” (Genesis 15:13). God gave Abram this promise as part of the unconditional covenant he made with him to make Abram a great nation. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it’” (Genesis 15:5-7).

I realize that verse thirteen does not sound very hopeful at first read; especially if you were on the front side of history. However, in this verse I see a Sovereign God with a purpose beyond what we can understand at times. I also see a limit, an end time, when slavery and mistreatment will end. God was not only prophesying about the Israelites sojourn in Egypt and their rescue by Moses, but also our sojourn on this earth, corrupted by the Fall. It may feel hopeless, it may feel like there is no end in sight. But God has promised, and he has already demonstrated his power to fulfil his promises. He made a plan to rescue us from sin and sent His son Jesus to lead us to the ultimate Promised Land.

God continues by saying: ^“But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions” (Genesis 15:14). It was these possessions that would be used to build thebeautiful tabernacle, portable earthly dwelling place of God. Our great possessions, our rewards from faithful obedience, will be the crowns we lay before the throne of God when we reach our heavenly eternal home.

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. This was Abram’s legacy of freedom. Let this be your story of freedom.

In Christ,

Judy