When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. (Exodus 12:25 NIV)
Freedom is something we take for granted these days in our culture. We forget the thousands who are slaves around the globe this minute. We don't think about our country's history with slavery. And we don't pay much attention to the ancient Israelites who were slaves in Egypt.
But today is this year's first full day of the Jewish Passover, marked by the celebration of unleavened bread--a tradition that has been observed for many generations to celebrate and remember God's gift of freedom from Egyptian oppression. In today's verse, the Lord actually speaks these words directly to Moses and Aaron as a command they are to follow. (I just love that--always wonder how I would react--but that's for another day!)
Slavery takes many forms: physical bondage, yes, but there is also addiction, being a workaholic, being controlled by road rage, laziness, eating disorders, worries, gossip, and countless other masters. God's power can easily remove us from bondage, just as he escorted the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Today, during one of these last days of Lent, I will ask God to remove bondage from our lives in any of it's forms, like he did for the Israelites.
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