Who's your Pharaoh?

It's no wonder why Exodus is my favorite book. Every struggle I have somehow relates back to something Moses or Israel went through. Let's talk bondage. My concordance has two words defining the term - slavery and servitude. One, servitude, can be a choice a person makes based on a personally motivating factor - be it joy, money, or obligation. The other, slavery, has never in this world's history had a positive connotation; slavery is without choice-without freedom.

Bondage to Israel came when a new Pharaoh ruled Egypt and did not know Joseph. He feared the multitude of Israel in Goshen, and, however he did it - placing taskmasters over them, afflicting them with hard labor (Exodus 1:8-14) - Israel grew. Bondage = slavery. This was no choice servitude. I can imagine what the brick pits must have been like - the grumbling against Egypt when the taskmasters weren't listening or perhaps they cursed the Egyptians in their native Hebrew tongue. But maybe not - some, if not all, of Israel continued telling the miraculous stories, from creation through Joseph, and kept their faith. Exodus 2:23 - the Israelites cried out and God heard their cries; literally "their cry for help...rose up to God." God always keeps His promises - and so it was time to call forth Moses to His plan for Moses' life.

Servitude can have a more positive meaning -depending on how the situation comes about. After all, Christ Himself told us we are his friends if we serve Him (John 15:14). In most cases I've found, a person's entrance into servitude is by choice, at least at first, due to a certain affinity to that which he (or she) serves. Many of our Biblical forefathers were regarded as servants of the Lord: Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5), Joshua (5:14), Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10), David (2 Samuel 3:18)...the list goes on much longer than this. Also, people throughout the Bible pledged their loyalty to relatives, kings, and friends by calling themselves "your servant." By choice, servitude shows loyalty, honor, even love.

Yet what happens when servitude morphs into slavery? Matthew 6:24 & Luke 16:13 - "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God & Money." In context, this is the moral at the end of "The Parable of the Shrewd Manager." When faced with a choice between two things we "serve," we inevitably must choose one over the other - rarely can a compromise allow service to both and even more rare, and possibly non-existent - is equal devotion. Money is obviously high on the list of masters - so are fame, career, family, community, drugs, alcohol. Yet, some of these can be blessings when not placed ahead of God.

What about the moment when we are tested - asked to put God before our wealth, family, career? Failure marks slavery to something given to us as a blessing. Bondage.

Ive been there. Being asked to give up on something I thought I was entitled to because I'd worked so hard. Hardly! I'd worked myself into slavery because I feared losing that which I was at first voluntarily serving - which was a gift from God initially. I'd placed so much value in my bondage that following my true Master - my God, Father, & Creator - seemed nearly impossible.

It seems Pharaoh is not something ancient Egypt alone placed on a throne. It is a term synonymous with those thing which hold us captive today. Pharaoh was Joseph's friend, then his family's friend, and they were happy to live in his kingdom under his rule. Time passed and eventually Pharaoh became a slave master. It took God's intervention to break that bondage. And so it is with us today and whoever/whatever binds us today. Only our true Master can set us free. Serving that which God has blessed us with can lead to slavery if we focus on it rather than God. Uninhibited freedom in Christ is a gift to those who choose to leave this bondage behind.

Let me ask you all, who's your Pharaoh?