Remember.

We just finished a very exciting week of Vacation Bible School. I am so excited about the way our church ministered to a record-breaking number of children this week. God was really able to use His people to share the love of Jesus with a great bunch of kids who have never known that kind of love before. It was awesome!

We spent the week traveling through the story of Moses and the Israelites. Such a great study on the Israelites breaking free from the bonds of slavery with God's power.

During today's Bible reading, I sort of haphazardly turned to Deuteronomy 24. I was struck by this passage and feel compelled to share what the Lord has revealed to me.

Deuteronomy 24 reads as a sort of Rules of the Classroom list. If a man divorces a woman once, he shouldn't remarry the same woman. Men shouldn't go to war for at least a year after marriage...to make their wife happy. Kill anyone who kidnaps an Israelite. Be careful with people who have skin disease. Be fair to people who owe you money. Treat hired servants well. Each person has to die for his own sin...not your friend's sin...not your parent's sin....just yours. Be fair to foreigners, orphans, and widows. Leave a little of your harvest in the field so that if one of these passes by, they can have something to eat.

You get the idea. God wants us to treat others nicely. He wants us to watch out for evil and protect our camps from sin. Deuteronomy 24 is a call to a God-honoring life.

There is so much more to this passage. A fairly short little line that ties it all together so well. A couple of times, after giving these commands to us, God says: "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; this is why I am commanding you to do this."

"Be fair to others. Oh, and don't forget: you were once a slave to Pharaoh."

"Be a little kinder than necessary to people from distant lands, women who are grieving for their husbands, and children who have no one to love them. And while you're doing that, remember you used to be a slave in Egypt until I saved you."

"Pay those guys that work for you well. They are really poor and need the money to take care of their families. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Don't ever forget what opression felt like under the rule of that controlling King."

You know, after a week of thinking of Moses trying to be God's voice, demanding the freedom of all of God's people, that little sentence really spoke to me.

"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this."

God found a sinful, runaway shepherd with a speech problem wandering alone in the desert and called him into His service. This shepherd would become God's tangible voice to a hard-hearted, slave-driving Pharaoh. He would speak God's message of freedom for His people. Moses would do the talking. God would prove He meant business by sending forth some serious plagues to the Egyptians, while protecting the Israelites. Nothing made Pharaoh budge. Until the final plague. The Death of the Firstborn. That did it. Pharaoh was driven to his kness and in his grief he finally allowed all Israelites to exit Egypt. He would put up a final fight right in the middle of the Red Sea, but it wouldn't get him anywhere. He and his army would go down into the sea and never return.

This story allows me to see that God will go to ridiculously amazing lengths to save His people. There is nothing He wouldn't do to rescue them from slavery. Because a few thousand years after this Moses fellow exits Egypt with a bunch of free (albeit, whiny) Israelites, God sent His only Son to earth and allowed Him to die so I wouldn't be a slave anymore.

I've never been one of Pharaoh's pyramid-building slaves. I've never answered to a master. I've never experienced a lashing intended to force me to produce more mortar or haul more bricks.

But, I have been a slave. At points in my life, I have been enslaved to sin. I've thought bad thoughts, said bad things, made poor choices. And it had a great hold on me. No, I wasn't building pyramids, but I was building a life layered on poor choices. Sin became my master and oppressor. It was the driving force of my life, controlling my every thought, crushing me with the consequences of being "in control" of my own life.

And then, He saved me. He died on a cross for me and the moment I turned my life over to Him, He became my only Master. I started answering to Him. He is the boss...not me, not sin...Him. He broke the chains that enslaved me to my former life.

And He has no intention that I should ever forget it.

"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this."

God was not asking the Israelites to remember a historical event that occurred in a distant land. He was asking His people to remember when God of the universe showed love for some pretty sinful humans. He was asking them to remember His protection, His provision, and His power when they couldn't protect themselves, provide for themselves, or yield enough power to demand their own freedom.

He commanded the Israelites to honor Him in their new-found freedom way back when and He commands the same thing of me today. He expects me to show the same grace to the people in my world that He has shown me. He asks me to treat people fairly. To get rid of the sin in my life. To be kind to people. To give a little of what I have been given to people who are not as fortunate as me.

And while I'm doing all of those God-honoring things, I am to remember that He gave of Himself so that I could be free. He's called me to remember how oppressed I was, so I can see how free He has made me.

"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; this is why I am commanding you to do this."

I will never forget.