Thursday: Remember That You Were a Slave
Read Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:3, Deuteronomy 16:12; and Deuteronomy 24:18, Deuteronomy 24:22. What specifically did the Lord want them never to forget, and why?
As we have seen, all through the Old Testament, the Lord constantly brought the minds of the people back to the Exodus, their miraculous deliverance, by God, from Egypt. To this day, thousands of years later, practicing Jews keep the Passover celebration, a memorial to what the Lord has done for them.
Image © Kim Justinen at Goodsalt.com
“It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households’” (Exodus 12:25-27).
For the church today, the Passover is a symbol of the deliverance we have been offered in Christ: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Read Ephesians 2:8-13. What are these Gentile believers told to remember? How does it parallel what the Hebrews in Deuteronomy were told to remember, as well?
Paul wanted these people to remember what God had done for them in Christ, what He had saved them from, and what they now had because of God’s grace to them. As with the children of Israel, it wasn’t anything in and of themselves that commended them to God. Instead, it was only God’s grace, given to them, even though they were “strangers from the covenants of promise,” that made them who they were in Christ Jesus.
Whether Jews in the wilderness, Christians in Ephesus, or Seventh-day Adventists anywhere in the world, how crucial it is for us always to remember, and not forget, what God has done for us in Christ. No wonder, then, that we have these words: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 83.
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As most of you would know by now, I am an academic. Books, journals, scholarly articles, seminars and conferences have been a major part of my life for dozens of years. But I grew up on a farm. I milked cows, grew vegetables, collected eggs, made hay, slashed gorse, sprayed ragwort and all the other tasks that make farming life. And I have not forgotten it. I don't want to give the impression that academic life is better or has more value than farming life. It is just that they are so different. One of the constant reminders I have in my life is that my farming mother with her primary school certificate, taught me more in the first 5 years of my life than I have learned in the whole of the rest of my life. That helps me to keep my perspective right.
As the lesson points out today, the book of Deuteronomy emphasises the idea that "they were once slaves in Egypt." Partly, it was a reminder of where they had come from and who had delivered them. It wasn't a call to dwell in the past, but rather a reminder that God had called them to freedom and responsibility.
Spiritually, each of us has an "Egypt" in the past, even those of us who have been church members for several generations. Perhaps some of us have become stuck in Egypt and do not understand that there is a wider horizon that we are invited to explore.
That is the key Maurice. Freedom isn’t free. Christ paid a huge price for our Freedom and it comes with responsibility to our fellow man when we take hold of the freedom He provides.
We live within a world that is very self-focussed. When 'push comes to shove', many people will focus on their needs and 'looking after number 1'. We can see this playing out on a daily basis with the stresses and strains people and societies are under at present. This is not what humanity was originally created to do - and it is not a recipe for true life. Self-focus, while it may seem to provide in-the-moment advantage to a person, nevertheless fosters self-destruction (and therefore societal self-destruction) in both subtle and definite ways.
True life is community-focussed - focussing on advancing the genuine best interests of others. Today's lesson touches on a 'mindset' that helps train and maintain a 'shift' away from focusing on ourselves and instead thinking about others in a healthy way. How?
By remembering that we are no different to others. This helps our sense of individuality - that is ever so subtly tainted with thinking we are somehow better than others - to dissolve into realising we are all in this together. When I keep these thoughts consciously and intentionally in my mind, I begin to retrain my responses to situations. And if I keep doing this, in time I will strengthen my 'default tendency' at a subconscious level to being more understanding and therefore compassionate towards others - just like Jesus/God.
Once again, I am not saying that we do this instead of being deeply connected with and willingly submitted to God. Rather, this is what we do while we are deeply connected and submitted to God. It is one further practical aspect of how we 'work-out' our salvation by putting to work the empowering and re-training that God though the Holy Spirit is wanting to have worked-out within us (Philippians 2:12,13 principle).
I wonder, Phil, if we could not say that this sense of being connected with others and not being "above" them is not the natural result of being connected with Christ? After all, He died for the homeless man with an empty wine bottle just as much as He died for me. And "there, but for the grace of God, go I!"
Those of us who already know Christ - some of us since our youth - are incredibly blessed, and with this blessing comes the responsibility and privilege to introduce others to the One who saved us.
We all have a dark past, personally, but even more especially in our families, our nations and our cultures. Egypt symbolizes our existence without freedom, just as Canaan represents the possibilities and burdens of a better life.
What is especially sad and difficult is to face the enormous violence with which freedom is bought. The Lord chases and drowns the chasing Egyptian militias, but only chapters later the Levite’s kill thousands if their fellow Israelites. The God who liberates also destroys, and all this is without a peep from the Bible writers who find ways to endorse this violence, whether itt is the mass human destruction during Noah’s Fllood, the killing of the firstborn of Egypt, or the attempted genicide of the Canaanites.
I hope Christians are horrified by all this—this account of life under the god of Israel. If you agree, please do not tolerate the lame excuses and explanations offered by naive readers who try to justify Gods actions.
That was all a long time ago, in as land far away. Let’s not use these narratives to promote continuing violence, slavery or oppression of others.
Hi Jordan
I agree with your call to refrain from using Old Testament narratives to promote continuing violence, slavery or oppression of others. And I agree that the enormous violence that occurred within the Old Testament is deeply saddening - and difficult to face.
I am interested to understand your personal response toward the God of Israel you have portrayed?
Signs to remember!
Rainbows
Blood on the doorposts
Boxes tied to forehead & arms
Blue fringes on clothes
I am a practical person and sometimes I wish I had a literal way to remember and treasure my relationship with the LORD - like a wedding ring or a cross on a chain or prayer beads - but I realize those are only outwards signs any way.
The best way for me is to start off each day with a time of prayer and meditation, communication and connection with the LORD. It takes dedication, to make it a practice, a delight that I cannot do without. The LORD has promised to waken me morning by morning to talk to me of His love and guidance for my day.
How does the LORD help you to remember your relationship with Him, I am sure there are many other ways which could be different for each individual? How do we keep it new and fresh every morning?
Isa 50:4 ASV The LORD has given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary: he wakens me morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as they that are taught.
Luk 9:23 MKJV And He said to all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Exo 31:13 ISV "You are to speak to the Israelis: 'You are to surely observe my Sabbaths because it's a sign between me and you from generation to generation, so you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
The original Jews were black people. Today, they call themselves Black Jews.
While the biblical account makes no mention of the colour of the Children of Isreal, it is interesting to look at the ethnic groups of modern jews and to try and understand their respective histories. A full discussion is beyond the scope of a short Sabbath School Net comment so I will make a couple of general remarks and point to an article that gives some overall background.
Today modern Jews fall into two main groups; the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic Jews. A third smaller group are the Black Jews. The Ashkenazi are largely associated with eastern Europe and speak Yiddish. The Sephardic are associated largely with Western Europe, mainly Spain. The black Jews are connected mainly to Ethiopia and Yemen. Each of these groups have intermarried in their local communities. In other words there is no such thing as a genetically pure Jew. (Remember that even in the Exodus, there was a mixed multitude who joined the Hebrews and were probably assimilated with them in marriage.)
There are a large number of articles available freely on the Internet that discuss the ethnicity and development of modern Jews. Here in one that I found interesting and informative:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4095674/jewish/Ashkenazi-and-Sephardic-Jews.htm
While it concentrates mainly on Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews it does give a short summary of the Black Jews and puts the issue into perspective.
Modern genetic studies do not reveal a common genetic "Jewish" code. One commenter made the observation that while there are a number of political assertions made about race, there is very little real research to back it up.
Yes, "The Passover Feast" was given to God's people at the very last plague God sent to the Egyptians etc. And this was a feast that was celebrated in the first month of their year. But then about the middle of their year God instituted for them the "Day of Atonement," where a goat and a bullock were sacrificed. The lamb at Passover represents Jesus sinless and flawless character and spilled blood for all sin. But then the "Lord's Goat" at The Day of Atonement represents Jesus becoming "Sin for us," to fully do what the Apostle Paul said Jesus did in Romans 5:11 to fulfill what that feast (Day of Atonement) signified for the world and for us.
Being a slave, no matter when in the history of this earth it was/is, is a hopeless situation. The Israelites had no way of ever being anything but slaves. By year four hundred or so, they had to have been so beat down (literally and emotionally) that they probably lived just hoping they’d live to see another day. God was their only hope, and God through Moses, was reminding them of that. The people Moses was addressing, at least the majority, had not lived through slavery, but they had heard about it from their parents and grandparents, and knew that was not something they would want to go back to. God was offering them a simple way for that to never happen again, obedience to His law. By remembering the past, obedience should have been a no brainer for them. Sadly that was not the case, and as scripture shows, they would end up in captivity time and time again, all because they would not remember where they’d been and how and by whom they were delivered from it.
For the unsaved, the journey out of Egypt has not yet started. For those beginning to hear the voice of the spirit of our heavenly Father, their journey just started. They need all the help in their struggle to not forget, but to remember that they were once slaves to sin. The ones who have immersed their life in Christ's Faith live intertwined with the Grace and Mercy of our heavenly Father; their life is the 'Newness of Life', it has become their New Nature.
I think it has become evident that our Creator is establishing our heart's remembrance, instituting repetition of special celebrations, rituals and statutes to help the heart to remember Him. He wants us to go beyond our mind's remembering 'what' He has done, to help us understand 'why' He has rescued us from 'Egypt/Sin'. He hopes that this will 'impress' the living soul toward thankfulness, to intimately wanting to know who our Lord and Savior is, the One who claims He is the only God worthy of our praise and adoration.
Yes, indeed, being hid in Christ and Christ living in us has become the believer's shelter, protecting him from the 'destroyer', the Angel of the LORD. Applying faith in the 'Word of God', believing in who He revealed Himself to be to all who desire to follow the 'Living Word' whenever He leads them, moves us along the Path of Life by the Grace of God.
All Praise and Glory belong to the Father and our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus for the mighty work they have done!
As you show, the Exodus narratives are full of metaphors and imagery that transcend the events. None of us, however, need to take things literally—as if we were all Jews living in the shadow of Mt Sinai over :3000 years ago!
The use of Deuteronomy for today is its universal principles and selective values. However Christians are not under that law in any sense.
You're right, of course, just as Paul says, those who accept Christ as Savior are not "under the law." That's because they have the Law of God written in their hearts, just as God promised He would do in the New Covenant. (See Jeremiah 31:31-33)
Those who have faith in Christ are the inheritors of all the promises made to Abraham and Israel in the OT. (Gal. 3:29)That's because God does not change (Mal 3:6) and Christ is the same God who made these promises to Abraham and other patriarchs. (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58; 1 Cor 10:4)
Amen, Inge Anderson. Abraham was a Gentile man of God and God accepted Abrahams' faith in Him as righteousness even before Abraham knew the 10 commandments as they were handed down to Moses many centuries later. God also promised to Abraham that via him "all the families of the earth would be blessed." This promise met its fulfillment in Jesus Christ for all people Jews and Gentiles alike and it still does even now.
To add to what I first said here about the "Day of Atonement," 6 months after "The Passover," there also was the bullock which also represented the same thing as did the lamb at "Passover," Jesus sinless, flawless, perfect character again and yet, both feasts were to represent what Jesus did "Once for all."
Respectfully, I believe this part of the lesson completely missed the point of what we are to remember. The context of Deuteronomy 5:15, 15:15, 16:12, 24:18 and 24:22 cited point to the responsibility of those who have to those who have not.
These citations remind us that we are to remember to be continually on the lookout for those who do not have the blessings that we have, that we might bless them as God has blessed us. God lays a solemn call on each of us to remember to provide meaningful rest to those who are in our sphere of influence, to go beyond the minimum statutory requirements in the workplace, to go out of our way for the good of people who are without hope and means, to meet those who live in squalor and poverty with respect which honours them as children of God.
This embodies the credo of “remember that you were a slave,” that is, the Law of Love.