A Great Deliverance

 "Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?" - 1 Samuel 6:6

God rules in the kingdoms of men with equal authority as he rules in the kingdom of heaven.  He has limitless dominion and power.  To the righteous, there is great comfort and rest knowing that God is in your corner.  To the wicked, only defeat.  So, what hope do you have if you would choose to fight against God?  And what reason to do so, when there is complete and total deliverance available to whosoever will?

The Jews spent four hundred years as slaves in the land of Egypt.  Cruel bondage, and harsh labor; serving under Pharaoh.  Then one day, God instructed Moses to go down to Egypt and lead them out.  Moses obeyed, but when he arrived Pharaoh protested (no surprise there).  Moses then went back and told God that Pharaoh was not going to let His people go.  Pharaoh stood in absolute defiance to God Almighty and God responded with a miraculous show of force.  Pharaoh was hardheaded, but by the time the showdown was done, he let the Jews go, in fact, the Egyptians were begging them to leave.  God’s deliverance was so great that generations upon generations would hear and tell of the mighty Exodus out of Egypt and the full deliverance into Canaan land.  The analogy is such to our spiritual lives.  When you live in sin, it becomes slavery.  Hopefully, there comes a point where you cry out to God because you just want to be free.  The scripture tells us that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  This is a deliverance that God has prepared for you and a grace that he is willingly offering you.  The devil would have us continue in bondage, blind, deaf, and laboring in our sin.  Slaving away with hard hearts, denying the wonderful works of God.  Rejecting the full deliverance in Christ.  When you decide to follow him, he will bring you out of bondage and it will not be a half-way deliverance.  Moses didn't know how he was going to even speak to Pharaoh, at first, and the Jews didn't want Moses’s help, the entire mission seemed impossible, but God majors in impossible.  God swooped in, delivered them, and the power of God was mighty in their lives.  So mighty, in fact, that it became a rallying point to the Jews and a terrifying reminder to their enemies.  God can deliver you from sin in such a fashion that it will resonate with the world around you.  In the past, you may have only been living in defeat and enslavement; a consistent and reoccurring state of “I can’t help it.”  However, when Jesus shows up, with great power, the deliverance is so wonderful and drastic that you change and those around you begin to say, “there is something different.”  It’s Jesus!  The only thing that made the Jews God’s chosen people was that God chose them.  When Jesus went to the cross, he chose you.        

The Hebrew writer asks: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;” Why would you neglect so great a salvation?  So great a deliverance? He can and will be a saving force in your life, he will be the greatest force in your life.  Jesus Christ can bring a great deliverance, and when he does: you will know it, the devil will know it, and everyone around you will know it.