Week 1 - Coming Undone
Worship
Today I encourage you to listen to “King of My Heart” by Bethel & Steffany Gretzinger as you meditate on the Lords goodness and his love for you.
Scripture
Exodus 1:8-22
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them familiesof their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Devotional
We can see clearly from the beginning of the book of Exodus just how terrible it is for a people to be in bondage and slavery. And for hundreds of years, this was Israel’s story.
Because of his fear of the Israelites, Pharaoh oppressed God’s people with forced labour. But the more the Egyptians afflicted God’s people the more they multiplied, but the more they multiplied, the more afraid Pharaoh became. So he made them ‘work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service’. But no matter how much they were oppressed they continued to multiply. With his plan failing, and in hopes to completely crush the Hebrews, Pharaoh commanded that all the Hebrew boys were to be cast into the Nile and killed. The situation for God’s people was dire, it certainly seemed like a hopeless situation.
In the same way, being in bondage to pornography, or any sin for that matter can seem like a hopeless story; in which the weight of oppression and affliction just gets heavier and heavier with no light at the end of the tunnel. And yet, just as God sent Moses to bring deliverance for his people, God sent Jesus to deliver us and as with the exodus, deliverance comes in unexpected ways.
Pharoah expected the people to rise up and fight against him, but God raised up just one man to oppose him and the nation walked out without a war. In the same way, the deliverance of all humankind has been offered through one man, the god-man Jesus Christ.
So today, if your situation seems like there is no hope, remember hope sometimes comes from humble and unexpected places. Jesus died on the cross to set you free from the very bondage and oppression you are feeling the affliction of today. And this same Jesus has told us, who are feeling this heavy burden to “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Jesus is our exodus and our deliverance. He has taken upon himself the affliction and oppression of our sin that we might be free.
Prayer
Approach God in prayer today with confidence that comes not from your behaviour, whether you deem it to be good or bad, but in humility, acknowledge that you approach by the blood of Jesus. Enjoy the presence and relationship with God today, giving thanks to Jesus that he has made a way for you to commune with the Father like this.