slavery

When I read the Bible on my phone, I’ll take screenshots of verses that I want to explore in more detail. At the moment, I have a backlog, and I’m not sure I’m going to get caught up. But I have a lot to look forward to!

As I was doing my devotional reading, I snapped several screenshots of verses in Jeremiah 23. God jammed a lot in that chapter!

This is one passage that stood out to me:

“‘So then, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when people will no longer say, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,” ⁸but they will say, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where He had banished them.” Then they will live in their own land.’” – Jeremiah 23:7-8

Verse 7 refers to the Exodus, the time when God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. The annual feast of Passover commemorates this marvelous event. The slaves were set free. The captives got their freedom. The hopeless found a future.

But while the children of Abraham were in bondage, they had two things going for them. First, they were God’s people. Centuries earlier, the Lord had promised Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). This status carried a significant implication: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). Egypt got itself into trouble with God because of their mistreatment of His people.

And that’s the second factor in Israel’s favor. The Israelites didn’t deserve their suffering.

“During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” – Exodus 2:23-25

Knowing that we’re innocent doesn’t ease our pain, but there’s nothing like the feeling of being right. If we suffer a fair punishment, we can’t complain because we know we deserve it. But if it’s unjust, we have a legitimate gripe.

And a reason to pray!

Well, the Lord heard His people and answered them. But God didn’t want the Israelites to forget His rescue, so He instructed Moses to establish the Passover as a yearly memorial:

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD–a lasting ordinance.” – Exodus 12:14

So Jeremiah 23:7 pertains to the Exodus which was ritualized in the Passover festival. There’s nothing wrong with looking back at our history. Indeed, the Lord required Israel to do so. And with good cause; without this seminal event, the nation wouldn’t exist. God’s intervention prevented them from going extinct in Egypt. That wasn’t His plan!

But in Jeremiah 23:8, the prophet announces a change. There was going to be something like a second Exodus. God’s people would return to Israel from the northern countries to which they’d been sent.

The problem with the Israelites was that they didn’t stay loyal to the Lord. They got enticed by the gods of the surrounding nations, they didn’t trust God’s ability to provide for them in the Promised Land, and they mistreated the poor and defenseless. Things got so bad that the 10 tribes of Israel were conquered by Assyria in the year 722 BC. The Assyrians had a practice of moving captive peoples around. The Israelites were forced out of their homes and relocated elsewhere. Other Gentile groups were then transplanted into Israeli soil.

The southern kingdom, which consisted of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, mimicked the failures of their northern brothers. God called Jeremiah to prophesy about the coming invasion of Babylon which would usher a period of 70 years of exile. (Babylon toppled Jerusalem in 587 BC.) Enamored with the beliefs and behaviors of the pagans, Israel and Judah would suffer the consequences. Like their forefathers in Egypt, they became bound.

But verse 8 assures a future deliverance. God didn’t abandon His people in Egypt; neither would He forsake them in Assyria and Babylon.

The Lord cared about Israel and He cares about us. Whether we deserve our trials or not, God is concerned about us. These two verses foreshadow the gospel. 

God told Abraham that He would bless all the nations of the world through his seed. And Paul elaborates on this issue.

“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.” – Galatians 3:16

Jesus fulfills the promise made to Abraham, but He does so on our behalf. We who were in exile because of our sin can draw near to God.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:13

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

Jesus died on the cross for us to atone for our sins and to undo the chief effect of sin–death.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil– ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

Exile is separation from God, and that distance is death. It’s spiritual and relational; it’s also physical. By the sacrifice of Himself, Jesus overcame our worst problem. Now, He leads us back to the Father.

We no longer need to live as refugees; Jesus is our way home. We no longer need to live under the control of the devil; Jesus is our Lord.

Welcome home!