#DailyDevotion I’m Going To Need Some Gospel If You Want Me To Do This
3rd Sunday in Lent
Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3“You shall have no other gods before me.”
So before we get into the all the do’s and don’ts of the Ten Words of the Lord, we should follow the Lord’s lead and start off with some Gospel! First and foremost is the fact the Lord, the Creator of the Universe had chosen the Israelites to be his people and he would be their God. Sure he could have let them go the way of the rest of children of Shem to be deceived by demons into false worship of false gods. But no, he sought them out. He made covenants with their ancestors and made them his people.
Then the Lord reminds them of the great work he had just done. He brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. The word for Egypt in Hebrew is Misery. For the last few generations of the Israelites, probably since the Hyksos were driven out of power and the original Egyptians took back power, they had been enslaved by the Pharaohs and Egyptians. Slavery is a pretty miserable life.
With mighty deeds the Lord had delivered the Israelites: turning water to blood, plagues of frogs, gnats, locust, hail and darkness just to mention a few. Finally with the judgment of the firstborn of Egypt, well everyone’s firstborn who did not believe the Lord’s word through Moses, that was too much and Pharaoh let them go. Even then Pharaoh had a change of heart and the Lord killed the Egyptians who tried following the Israelites into the Red Sea.
It is this Lord, who was their Savior, who now calls to the Israelites from the mountain, “You shall have no other god before me.” And you would think they would not seek after any other after all that. But what does it mean to have a god? A god is what you look to for every good. It is as John Lennon sang, “Whatever gets you through the night.” But with the Lord that is not alright. The Lord wants to be the sole thing you fear, love and trust.
This same Lord that delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians and Pharaoh is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not from them that Jesus delivered us but it is from a house of slavery, the world. Jesus by his life, suffering, death and resurrection has made a claim on your life. For in those things he has freed you from your sins. Jesus has freed you from the slavery of the fear of death and the one who has the power over death, the devil. He makes a claim upon you in this Gospel, the good news of freedom from these things and says, “I will be your God and you will be my people. Everything done in the past is forgiven. I am the God you should fear, trust and love because I did all these things for you.”
Heavenly Father, you revealed your great power and might of our Lord Jesus Christ through his deliverance of the Israelites in Egypt and now in these last days through the cross and grave. Grant us such faith as to have no other Lord and God than your Son Jesus Christ that through him we may be freed and have access to your throne of grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.