OUR LORD WHO IS OUR GREAT EMANCIPATOR

The children of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for about four hundred years and the Lord God heard their cries and prepared His servant Moses to go into the land of Egypt.

Moses was sent to tell Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from slavery. When Moses first told Pharoah the command of God, he refused but the Lord brought His  power to bear on Pharaoh and ultimately, the children of Israel were released from slavery and were free to leave Egypt.

After the Israelites left, Pharoah changed His mind and pursued the Israelites with His army up to the edge of the Red Sea. The Lord opened the Red Sea and the children of Israel went through but when the Egyptian army tried to follow, the opening in the sea collapsed and the army perished. It was then that the children of Israel were truly emancipated.

Exodus 14 verse 30 says this;

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

This astonishing narrative tells of the Lord sending someone into the land to set His people free and defeat  the enslavers and lead His people to a promised land.

These historic events serve as a foreshadowing of the story of the Lord Jesus being sent into the world to free God's people and to  defeat the enslavers and lead His people out to freedom. 

When people are saved by Jesus through His death on a cross, the cross condemns the flesh  to death in the same way the Egyptian army was killed. The works of the enemy are put to death so that we can emerge free of the enslavement we suffered under the kingdom of darkness.

Romans 8 verse 12 - 15 says this;

 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 

Here, the route from  slavery to freedom  includes putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit of God as prefigured in the death of the Egyptian soldiers in the red sea. When the children of Israel were finally free, they were now able to be part of the house of God and received the spirit of God to guide them to the promised land. This prefigured the receiving the spirit of  adoption by which we become sons of God. 

It is by this progression out of slavery into sonship that we are emancipated by our Lord and God.

Amen.