God created man with total authority over the earth (Gen. 1:26,28). But Satan usurped that authority and it is about this stolen authority that he boasts before Jesus. ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please’ ( Lk 4:6). Man who was created free surrendered his freedom to the devil through his sin. Thus it became easy for the devil to establish his authority over everything about man because he surrendered his most precious treasure – his spiritual freedom- before the devil.
Even today it is the same way. Any person going to physical captivity should have, before that, gone into spiritual captivity. But as he voluntarily embraced spiritual slavery, he could not realize that he had already become a slave.
Israelites who entered Egypt at the invitation of Joseph were a free people. Moreover the Pharaoh gifted the most fertile parts of his country to them. But by the time of Moses, they were slaves! The reason was those four centuries they spent in Egypt, mingling with its people and accepting their customs, rituals, and above all their gods. Remember the calf that Aaron made for them at Sinai? Why calf? Because it was a replica of Apis, the bull god of Egyptians. The Israelites were attracted to it during their stay in Egypt.
As long as they worshiped the One God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob they were free and honorable citizens in an alien land. But when they moved to idolatry and the spiritual slavery that followed it, physical slavery was but a foregone conclusion.
The history repeated before Babylonian captivity also. God sent prophets one after the other to give them warnings against idolatry. But they were so rebellious and stiff- necked that they were drawn to abominable idols instead of the living God. Jeremiah was candid when speaking to Israelites, that unless they come out of their spiritual slavery, what they had to expect was a cruel physical slavery. But the people threw Jeremiah into a cistern as punishment. It was not a coincidence that there was no water in the cistern, but only mud. It was a true reflection of what they had been doing for long. ‘My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water’ (Jer 2:13). But history proved that Jeremiah was correct. The fall from grace led Israelites to their captivity in Babylon. It was so horrible as we read in the book of Daniel. ‘You have handed us over to our enemies, lawless and hateful rebels, and to an unjust king, the most wicked in all the world’ (Dan 3:32).
Ahab and his consort Jezebel systematically led the country of Israel towards spiritual darkness. Not only Ahab, but all other seventeen kings of Israel also were leading their people through the same path of idolatry. As a result Israel ceased to exist as a country in BC 721. Judea, her sister and neighbor, was watching her plight from close quarters but did not learn any lesson either. They too embraced false gods with more vigor. Their physical slavery was complete by BC 587 when the temple and city were destroyed and its people taken to Babylon as slaves.
The Holy Bible tells us many tales of exiles. Each exile denotes a period of spiritual slavery that is followed by physical slavery. When they are denied their personal freedom, they would turn to God with supplications. It is then, then only, that they come to their senses and realize that there was a period of spiritual slavery in their history that preceded their physical slavery.
Not all meadows of green grass are good places to go. It needs wisdom and that was why Abraham gave the right to select to Lot, who ‘saw that the plain of Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar’ (Gen 13:10). But poor Lot didn’t know that this place, together with all its inhabitants, was destined to be destroyed. Though Lot had a providential escape from Sodom, a bleak feature awaited him. Lot came to Sodom with a lot of dreams but his lot was to spend his final years in despair and ignominy.
Much before the jingle of thirty silver coins enthralled Judas, he was enslaved by the devil himself who used those coins to seal the fate of one out of twelve. And those who stood with Judas in that heinous crime were also destined to go into total ruin at the hands of the Romans.
Jason, who secured high priesthood by corruption, ‘ destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law’ (2 Mac 4:11). It was to show his loyalty to his new masters. He could please the king, but God was not pleased. ‘It is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws- a fact that later events will make clear’ ( 2 Mac 4:17). Later events did indeed make it clear. ‘Within the total of three days forty thousand were killed and another forty thousand were sold into slavery’ ( 2 Mac 5:14). A nation who opted out of divine protection ended up under the tyranny of Antiochus who was so arrogant as to think that ‘he could sail on the land and walk on the sea’(2 Mac 5:21).
We are living at a time reminiscent of Daniel’s prophecy; ‘Many shall be running back and forth’ (Dan 12:4). So be cautious about your destinations. Abraham commenced his journey to escape from a tribe and family that were immersed in idolatry. But ironically Abraham’s progeny runs to embrace idols. For many, money is their idol. As it is not possible to serve God and Mammon at the same time, they forget God conveniently and set out for destinations that promise them money and a life without the burden of obeying God-given commandments. Before leaving his father’s house, the prodigal son had already severed his relationship with the father. His desire was to enjoy those pleasures that were taboo at his father’s house. And the journey took him to the most despicable place, a pigsty. There he was to serve his master as a slave.
The history of modern day slavery commences when the people of God start comparing certain religions and philosophies that deny the universal salvation that Jesus Christ secured with his blood, at par with Christian faith. They think Ishmael who was born to Abraham ‘according to the flesh’ (Gal 4:29) and Issac who was born ‘according to the spirit’ are equal. They claim that Jesus Christ and an imaginary character by the name Issa found in a book written in Arabia after many centuries are the same. They teach that all of the so-called ‘Abrahamic religions’ worship the same God whom Abraham worshiped. Such false teachings have shaken the foundations of the spiritual life of many Christians. If everything is the same, then what is the point in being a Christian? This spiritual bankruptcy is the root cause of the physical slavery that Christians across the globe experience now and which is going to be grave in the near future.
Physical slavery- by whatever name you call it – has its roots in spiritual slavery. It begins when we forsake God and exchange his glory for worthless idols. As the prophet says, it is going to be a bitter experience. ‘Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God’ (Jer. 2:19)
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