Set free from sin
Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Exodus 6:1-9 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).
‘I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgement. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.’’ Exodus 6:6b-7a
I suspect we have all got to the point with someone of getting to the end of our tether – getting to that point where there is nothing further to be done but to act to make something right.
As we continue our journey through the book of Exodus, we see in today’s passage a glimpse of the Lord getting to that point. The Israelites are held in slavery, being forced to perform increasingly impossible workloads. And here the Lord responds by giving reassurance to Moses that the people of Israel will indeed be freed from their bondage – they will be freed through the Lord’s own outstretched arm and with His mighty acts of judgement in such a way that Pharaoh will drive them out of the land of Egypt.
In our Christian context as we journey through Lent, of course, this can be seen as a metaphor for the slavery that you and I need to be set free from. It is a slavery not to making bricks in the oppressive heat of Egypt, but a much more profound one – the slavery to sin. Time and again, we fall into the trap of disobedience to God’s will, whether by what we have done or what we have failed to do, and as such we fall short of God’s glory, and find ourselves caught up in sin.
But our Lenten journey gives us hope, for we have the promise of freedom. Jesus himself offers us the answer to our slavery to sin. And that answer is through looking to Him and His overcoming of the power of sin and death on the wood of the cross. And the way in which we do that is through repentance; through confession of our sins, and through our acceptance of the reconciliation that Jesus offers to us. This reconciliation comes through love – the love of a God who offers His own Son on the cross, so that we can be truly freed from our bondage to sin, and live the life of freedom He wills for us as the chosen people of God.
The Revd Canon David Arnold, Vicar of the United Benefice of Accrington