The writer of Hebrews recapped the responses of the nation of Israel as Moses led them away from the bondage of Egyptian oppression toward a land of promise. Although recipients of God’s faithfulness, they griped and complained, hardening their hearts with evil and unbelief. With their rebellion and abandonment of God, God withdrew the blessing that should have been theirs. Instead of blessing, they wandered in the wilderness of God’s discipline for forty years. As the story is briefly retold, the readers are cautioned to avoid making some of the same mistakes the Israelites made.

 

In each aspect of the story – the bondage of Egypt, the spiritual discipline of the wilderness, and the blessing of the promised land – there is a potential parallel in the life of the believer. We would be quick to point out the potential bondage of obvious sin that infects the life of the believer. What we don’t recognize as quickly are areas we can tend to deal with apart from a biblical perspective – addictions, abuse, dysfunction, tragedy, loss, broken relationships – to name a few. These, in and of themselves, may not be personal sin issues, but life clearly spells out that they can create a bondage that holds us in their control. And with the bondage comes a deficiency in the spiritual blessings God wants us to enjoy. The spiritual discipline that is needed to break the controlling hold of bondage is totally God-dependent, but we can make choices that allow that discipline to effect necessary change. Remember too that discipline is not punishment. It is instead, God’s grace actively at work to bring the freedom to move toward His blessings. It may be that persistent quiet whisper of God that we choose to listen to. It may be the sense of emptiness or worthlessness or even guilt that brings us to a place of deep and honest self-examination that begins to see my own nothingness or my inadequacy to meet the needs of my life. But spiritual discipline doesn’t leave us groping for answers. The discipline that is God-dependent grows an awareness of God and all He wants to offer me. It encourages me to let go of the bondage that wants to control me, and offers in its place, the incredible and limitless grace of my heavenly Father to rise above the bondage, and to move toward His blessings, wrapped securely in His loving and enabling arms.

 

In the promised land of blessing, I live out the security of God’s love and forgiveness,

empowered by His peace, and growing in Christlikeness, and compelled, not to live in bondage, but compelled to share the truth of His grace. Do I attain and then live totally apart from the vulnerabilities that bondage can bring? That would not be human. Spiritual discipline may continue as I depend on God to maintain the blessings of the promised land, but it is a discipline that will be richly rewarded.