Remember you were slaves

We have committed as a seminary community to read through the Bible this year. We have a reading plan that has been helpful, yet I confess. I fell behind over the holidays, and as a result, I have read Deuteronomy over the last several days to catch up. While much of the book is Moses giving a summation of the Israelite experience since leaving Egypt, a couple of verses really captured my attention.

In Deut. 24:18, Moses reminded the people to remember what they were before God got a hold of them. They were slaves, bound to do what their "masters" told them to do. Keep in mind that they have been free for awhile, but apparently they needed to be reminded of the great freedom they had.

Today we call it grace.

I am so tempted to fall back into pity party land as I think about how hard it is to be a Christian in a post-Christian culture, how hard it is to be a dad (more on that later), how tough it is in life. Allen, remember that you used to be a slave. You were captured by stuff that didn't matter in eternal ways. God set you free.

I also hit a speed bump in Deuteronomy 30 when I read that God knew that all of the declarations of "do" and "don't" and "blessing" and "curse" would be part of a journey of success and failure at trying to keep everything in order. Again the metaphor of slavery is used and God says through Moses that I can be restored from my captivity and experience the compassion (grace) of God (v.3) as I return to Him from whatever detour I have been on.

Grace really is amazing.