Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned: Deliverance

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O Lord, hear me as I pray;

    pay attention to my groaning.

Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,

    for I pray to no one but you.

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.

    Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.

Psalm 5:1-3 (NLT)

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

    and his ears are attentive to their cry;

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

    to blot out their name from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;

    he delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The righteous person may have many troubles,

    but the Lord delivers him from them all;

Psalm 34:15-19
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OUR HUMAN CONDITION

Human beings who are humiliated, exploited, or enslaved cry out for deliverance. They wait for a deliverer. They plead, “Does anybody care?”

Disciple

The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Exodus 4:21
  • “Willful resistance to God’s intentions makes a person calloused. God allows us to resist His word. When we make that choice, it is the beginning of a heart closed to God.” – Disciple

Consider these words the Lord told Isaiah concerning Israel when they had turned their backs on God:

“Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;

    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused;

    make their ears dull

    and close their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    hear with their ears,

    understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 6:9-10

Today, if only you would hear his voice,

“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

    as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,

where your ancestors tested me;

    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

For forty years I was angry with that generation;

    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,

    and they have not known my ways.’

So I declared on oath in my anger,

    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Psalm 95:8-11

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19

Reflection

(from Disciple notes)

  • Bondage carries a cost, but so does freedom. Most people do not realize the price of justice and freedom.
  • People don’t always react with joy when they are being delivered from bondage.
  • The message of Exodus is God hears, God sees, God knows, God remembers, God acts.
  • When the social systems of humankind become oppressive, God hears the cry of the oppressed and acts. God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants is still valid. God is faithful to the agreement. In the Exodus God fulfills the promise of deliverance. That promise is to everyone who is “in Egypt,” to everyone who is in bondage.
  • God is faithful to God’s promise.
  • God hears the cries of those in bondage and calls them into freedom. The faithful disciple hears and obeys God’s call to be a bearer of God’s message of deliverance.

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