About the same time that Christians are celebrating The Resurrection the Jews are celebrating Passover.
It was the final plague God designed to get Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. God would make a distinction between his people and the Egyptians. “I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” Ex 12:13
The blood of the sacrificial lamb saved their firstborn males from death. This very much points to the ultimate sacrifice of God’s son Jesus Christ. It is by his blood he ransomed us from death and damnation. He delivered us from the fate and judgement awaiting the rest of the world.
Anyone familiar with typology will understand that Egypt is a type for the world. Like the Israelites, we are to “come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Do not touch the unclean thing and I will receive you.”2 Cor 6:17 And that “he called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Pet 2:9
Well after a miraculous delivery from the Egyptians they were on “cloud nine” and ready for some”the milk and honey.” The promised land was approximately an 11 day journey. Why did it take 40 years?
According to an archaeological find in The Jurusalem Post from 4/1/2015 , a historian noted, “we uncovered evidence from many years after the Exodus, which reflects the influence of Egyptian culture on the Judahite residents of the country.”
Being 400 years in captivity in a foreign country had a significant impact. The Israelites adopted much of their captors’ customs and deities. In short, while they left Egypt, but Egypt didn’t leave them. As further evidence was the incident of the “golden cafe” found in Exodus 32:21-24. The cafe was an Egyptian diety.
Simply put, God had to purge them and teach them his ways. And until that happened they were not ready to enter the “promised land.” The way of the wilderness was the only way. And so it is with us. We happily embrace the salvation that the Lord has so graciously provided for us, but we don’t really want to go through the wilderness. What we don’t realize is the effects the world and our learned ways of behavior has to go. All those habits, wrong thinking, and behaviors God wants to change. Yes, even after “deliverance” or salvation of our souls, we still have things that displease the Lord. Some believe we’re sinless after conversion. While it’s true that the true convert will sin less, he or she is still going to sin. However, our heart and desire should be that we don’t want to sin. However, since we live with “our carnal, sinful nature”, we will. 1 John 1:8 tells us, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” For further evidence, read the admonishment found in Hebrews 3 &4.
The truth is that sanctification is both a one time act and an on going process of us cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
We must continually be on guard. The ways of the world have a way of entrapping us again if we’re not careful. We can’t allow ourselves to adopt the values and norms of our present culture. We are a now a “peculiar people.” We are “strange” to the people of the world. Paul writes “they think it strange we don’t run with them in the same dispensation.” Moreover, “if we are a friend of this world we are enemies with Christ ”
The ways of this world have a way of entrapping us. Their culture can become our culture. Their culture determines what is good and what is evil. What is acceptable and what’s not. If we’re not careful their values can become our values. What they determine to be gods can become our gods. If we’re not careful we can become passivfied and anesthetised. All this is the slave mentality. There is a certain amount of slave mentality in all of us. After the passover,after our deliverence from the external task manager, we still have to be delivered internally. And that is a working of the Holy Spirit.
It is necessary for God to lead us into the wilderness before the promised land. How long we’ll be there is ultimately up to us. The sad fact is that many die in the wilderness. They simply refused to learn God’s ways primarily because they couldn’t unlearn theirs.
We are to rejoice that “the horse and rider fell into the sea”, we’re saved! But we need to realize that’s just the first part of our deliverence. After the Passover comes the wilderness. After the wilderness comes the Promised land. And in that order
(Next up,the mentality of the soljourner)