If He sets us free, we are free indeed
S - Lev 25:39-43 (NASB)
³⁹ ‘If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. ⁴⁰ He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee. ⁴¹ He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers. ⁴² For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³ You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.


O - In the Levitical portion of the book of the law, God lays out for the people a series of sabbatical laws.   Jesus is still Lord of the Sabbath, but we are no longer bound by the sabbatical laws;  however,  their principles still remain the same.   The way I have been reflecting on it lately is that God gave Moses the ten commandments,  all of which are still applicable today.    After the ten commandments where given, God gave Moses the book of the law which described how this wandering people who God set free from slavery was to live.  Much of this was simply to help the Israelite s live, wise lives, and help them maintain their communion with God.  When Jesus came,  he fulfilled the law, he didn't cast it away.  He met all the sacrificial and ceremonial laws of old testament to include, to include the sacrifices, and offerings unto the Lord via a levitical priest.  He now acts as our perfect eternal sacrifice, and intercedes for God for us.  He dwells in us, vice the need for a temple and ceremonies.    What is still so revealing though  in the old testament is how God reveals his heart and desire for us. Here with regard to slavery we see God desires us, once set free to never be enslaved again. The book of the law forbade another Israelite taking a poor countryman in as a slave but rather was to treat him as a hired hand.  God laid the law of year of Jubilee to redeem both land so that even if a man became poor his "clock" would be reset after 49 years, and he was guaranteed to never be a slave.


A - The application for me is to understand God's desire that once He has set me free through the blood of Jesus Christ, he has set me free forever.  I may fight battles in my life, wounds from the past not completely healed, but freedom is still the guarantee.  I may face seasons of less freedom, or more challenge, but I can trust in the eternal freedom that has been granted to me and I can trust God's promise He will never leave nor forsake me.   I know in my own life, I have escaped slavery in area's that I don't desire to come back.  The bounds of anger,  coveting, and even false witness, have all but been erased from my life.  Moments come when I doubt I will be able to maintain a life free from these things, but today's scripture reminds me God desires, and even promises to never again let me be enslaved.


P - Dear heavenly Father, thank you for today's lesson, may it be sealed to my heart.  I pray Lord that you would use me in your ways, and in your time.  I am available for you.  I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.