I imagine the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage wanted a place where their lives mattered…that they were looking for a place where they were not conditioned to struggling for the basics of existence: for the right to exist.
Don’t you think?
But, even in the midst of their longing for freedom, they still remained convinced of the greatness of the society that had held them in bondage. So they repeatedly railed against God and Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and onto the way of freedom.
They repeatedly declared the greatness of the Egyptian way of life. They still held the way of life they had in Egypt, in high regard…
“Would we had died, smitten by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to the full. For you brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
“Why is it you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, our children, and our cattle with thirst?”
The Israelites were stuck on stupid…
No matter how much the Lord had provided for them, they preferred Egypt over freedom. They trusted in the power of Egyptian society over the Power of God and His Kingdom.
They were married to a way of live that kept them in bondage to Egypt, even though they were free. So, they continuously longed for their oppressors. They religiously cleaved to the ways of their oppressors. They held firm to the way they had learned while under the authority of their oppressors.
They continuously rejected God and the way of freedom.
Nevertheless, they still wanted their lives to matter, don’t you think? Do you believe they wanted their lives to matter? Can you believe that is what they wanted?
Yet, their circuitry had been tampered with and they were malfunctioning. So the Lord needed to rewire them that they could become human again.
In order to get what they wanted, though…
In order to find and enter into that space where their lives mattered, they had to reject the way of life they had learned in Egypt. They had to learn a new way of life. So the Lord gave them the Ten Commandments.
So what do we learn from Israel’s receiving the 10 Commandments? And how might that help us enter into a place where Black Lives Matter?
That’s our exploration this week on Bread for the Way. Join us live for Question and Answer on Exodus 20:1-21. Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 9:30AM EST on JahBread TV.
