August 24 - Covenant - A New Home

August 24 - Covenant - A New Home
Exodus 6:4-8

I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. 

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”

The Israelites were far from their home.  They had come to Egypt during the time of Joseph in order to escape the famine that threatened them.  For the next four hundred years, they remained in Egypt.  Families made their homes there, they had friends.  Several generations after Joseph had died, the Pharaohs forgot about the help that he had given Egypt. The Israelites were different from the Egyptians and because they had no power, they were turned into slaves. Their population continued to grow and the best thing that could be done with all those people was to keep them busy.

For generations and generations, the Israelites cried out for relief. Those who lived during the time of Moses had never known freedom, had never known what it was like to live without an owner. They knew they were different, they kept their racial integrity, but they were far, far from God.

The time of slavery was over. God … Yahweh announced it was time to bring them back home, to the place He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It would be their home.

Dorothy remembered her home in Kansas. She was desperate to return there.  The Israelites didn’t feel that same desperation to return, but were weary of living in terrible conditions. They wanted to be anywhere but Egypt.

There was an arduous journey ahead of them.  Dorothy had to complete her journey before she could arrive home.  Do you look at your life as a journey toward home? How might that attitude change your life?