The Path to Sustained Freedom

If the two images pictured here look familiar, it's probably because they are two of the most recognizable structures in the world.  They are also related in another way.  Jewish slaves contributed much, if not all, of the labor needed for their construction.

In the middle of the 15th century BC, Jews enslaved in Egypt were driven by extreme conditions and abuse to flee under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.  The famous account recorded in the Bible includes the plagues and the Passover.  But before their departure, the Egyptian slave masters had overseen an engineering marvel in the Great Pyramids in modern day Cairo.

The Romans, some 1500 years later, invaded the city of Jerusalem and overthrew it.  They carried off slaves and articles from the temple, including gold, silver, and other valuable jewels and stones.  With the bounty recovered in 70 AD, the Romans were able to finance the construction of the Colosseum under the Emperor Vespasian.  And like their ancestors of centuries earlier, the Jews were forced to provide the labor necessary to complete an equally marvelous feat of engineering.  In one of history's great ironies, they built it... and later died upon it's gravelly floors.

Immediately following the Jewish Exodus, God gave a detailed outline to Moses concerning the path to sustained freedom.  That path, often viewed as a moral code or simply a set of restrictive religious rules, was written on stone.  It was delivered to the people of Israel as the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, pictured in artistic fashion to the right.  The context of the passage in Exodus 20:1-21 is freedom.  God reminded Moses on the mountain that He was the one who brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, out of the "house of slavery" (Exodus 20:1, NASB).  It is from bondage to liberty that God had brought them.  And He specified the guidelines for them to stay in this freedom.

This is from a class I'm taking here at AIU.  Examine these thoughts and see if freedom isn't on God's mind...

SET #1: Freedom from the gods of bondage: God brought them out of Egypt.  The 10 Commandments will keep "Egypt" out of the Israelites.

"No other gods"... the form of Pharaoh worship meant that the gods of Egypt were slave masters.  God wanted Israel to see that He was a God, not of bondage, but of freedom... spiritual freedom.

"No idols"... idol worship destroys the dignity of man, that he was created in the image of God.  No graven image would serve as the image of God because man had been so created.  Far from pride, this image of God in man should lead us to value all human life, an essential trademark of freedom.

"No vain use of God's name"... we are not to use the name of God to oppress the masses.  We are not to crusade and enslave with Christian ideology.  We are not to advance personal agendas by using God's name.

SET #2: Freedom within society:

Freedom in your home = honor your father and mother.

Freedom in your community = don't commit murder or adultery (be at peace with people).

Freedom in your mind = don't covet and don't steal (be content).

SET #3: Freedom from legalistic sanctification:

Keep the Sabbath.  At first glance, this one seems to be the least important of the ten.  In fact, there was a death penalty for failure to recognize it.  Why?  In our western culture, the answer should seem so obvious.  If God is all about rules, keeping them and driving others to keep them as well, He is another god of bondage like those in Egypt.  But in the Sabbath, God says that we need to rest.  And in that rest, we find that He delights in us.  No other god is in the business of relationship.  All others demand performance.  But Yahweh calls His people to stop working.  He is not a utilitarian task master.  He delights in His people as treasured possessions.  Thus, keeping of the Sabbath frees us from defining ourselves by what we do.  We are free from the performance mentality.  We are loved in relationship, not based on performance.

Jesus then, is the ultimate agent of liberation.  He breaks the bonds to sin, death, and the power of the evil one.  He restores (spiritual) freedom to those long held in dark dungeons.  He is the ultimate expression of relational sanctification in his work that destroys performance based spirituality.  He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

So the next time that someone accuses Christianity of being all about rules, you can say that the rules are not really "rules" at all.  They are the guide to spiritual liberty.  Relationship is on the mind of God.  Freedom is on the mind of God.  And the 10 Commandments are the pathway to sustaining the freedom He provided you in your relationship with Christ.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free", not for following a set of rules.