A form of Bondage

 Jeremiah 59:33-46

America for many years was under a form of bondage by the King of England and many today have little or no understanding of that fact.  But in the year of 1775 America began a revolution that lasted eight long years and the greatest army and navy of that time were overcome by a very small group of people who were willing to die for freedom.  How did they do it, much is recorded of the leaders of this revolution and a common thread wove them together?  They believed God wanted them to be free to worship and live; not under a state controlled church, but as free people to choose, and to have a voice in their government.

With that stated above, you understand how impossible it is for this writer to understand oppression or bondage.  America has no understanding of slavery, do we?  Sure we do, and it has happened to each of us, and for 27 years I was in bondage to sin, it was my master, and I was a lover of self, a lover of stuff and a person who did not submit to God’s authority over my life.  Now, this must be stated, I saw myself as free, as a good man and not a rebel, even as a Christian who gave a tenth of his income to the church.  I never thought of harming anyone or even wronging someone else, and I sure did not view myself in bondage to sin.

The Apostle Paul proclaimed in Roman 3:23,“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  So all of us have experienced bondage to sin and are still experiencing sins control over us.  Israel and Judah were no different than us; they fall under that “all” and sin brought seventy years of physical bondage to a nation that was not kind to most of them.  But God, yes God was not sleeping and now He is allowing His sword, the nations from the North to come and bring death and destruction to Babylon.  The destruction is so complete in that God has withdrawn the rains and the water has dried up, and the wells no longer have water and it becomes like a desert area.  The mighty warriors of Babylon are full of fear, and they are killed along with most of its people, but Israel and Judah are free, and Babylon destroyed.

God often tells us that He is in charge, that he has total authority over His Creation, as He has done in verse 44. “Behold, like a lion coming up from the thicket of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make them run away from her, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me?”   Yes, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But God, who loves all of us from the greatest by world standards to the very least by this world’s standards, has made a way of escape.  Return to Romans 3:23-26, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Yes, we all stand guilty before a Holy God in His court, and yet He declares not guilty to all whom by faith has believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.  Jesus redeemed “all” by His blood.  Do you recall Hebrews 9:22? “Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” 

So if you find yourself in the bondage of sin, choose today to ask the Father to forgive you and put the faith God will give you in what is finished, and that will bring you into a freedom from the control of sin.  It will not make you sinless, but as the children of Israel, you will choose each day whom will you serve.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice