Emancipation of God

Exodus 15:19 Many African American churches hold a “Watch night Service” on the last day of December, New Year’s Eve. This is a service of joyous remembrance that the slaves in the “rebellious states” were waiting for President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation that would become law on January 1, 1863.The nation was approaching its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” As worshippers participate in Watch Night Service they praise God and thank God for bringing them through the year; and often through some difficult days under trying circumstances. Regardless to their present life situation, they look forward to the New Year anticipating with faith that God will bless them. Thus, worshippers see a God who is continually in the business of emancipating or setting free His people. There is a bond that holds their ancestors and themselves together as one people. Since this is true, Christians today cannot separate themselves from the people that God emancipated from the bondage of Egyptian slave owners. With this in mind we can look back and see what emancipation meant to the Israelites whom God had just set free from Egyptian bondage. In Exodus 15:1-19 Moses and the men sang a song in which they praise God for His delivering them from slavery. From this psalm we can learn what it means for us to experience the emancipation of God. The first thing that is seen from reading this psalm is that God frees us by His power. Moses calls God Lord. This means that God has defeated Pharaoh, and God is now the new owner of the people. The people are to serve God alone as God declares in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-7. In verse four the Lord cast the chariots of Pharaoh into the Red Sea and his army is drowned. God’s right hand is majestic in power (v. 6). The power of the blast of His nostrils is seen in verse eight. We can know that our God has the power to deliver us from anything and anybody that holds us captive. Secondly, God uses His power to destroy His enemies. Pharaoh and his army are drowned in the Red Sea (v.4). Pharaoh decided that instead of letting the slaves go free he would pursue them. Instead of letting them be free he would kill them with the sword. These are the thoughts and words of a ruler who lives in rebellion to God’s commands. Although Pharaoh relented when the first born of Egypt died, at no time did Pharaoh surrender his power and submit to the Lordship of the Lord. In verse ten Moses again praises the Lord who caused the wind to blow covering Pharaoh and his army in the sea. With His right hand he causes the earth to swallow them up (v. 12). Thirdly, when God emancipates us there is a separation of our past from our present and future. “‘In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation” (v. 13, NASB). God has set aside a place for His people, the Land of Canaan, just as He had promised to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen 17:8; 26:3; 35:12; Exod. 3:8). In addition, the word holy denotes a place God reserves for Himself and the people that He has elected and redeemed only. The people praise God because they have been set free. They believe that they no longer need to be concerned about the power of Pharaoh because God has demonstrated that His power is superior to the power of any ruler and the power of any god. Finally, God’s emancipation motivates us to move forward to the land that the Lord has prepared for us. In verses 14-16 the song describes the reaction of the peoples who stand between them and the Promised Land. Having heard of the Lord’s great power and His mighty acts, the people of the nations are dismayed. They tremble and fear holds them motionless until God’s people have passed through their lands. The song ends with praise to the Lord. They sing: “‘You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands have established” (15:17-18, NASB).Verse 18 concludes that God has sovereign rule over His people. Pharaoh is no longer their king. “‘The LORD shall reign forever and ever” (v. 18, NASB). In this psalm Moses praises God for delivering His people from a physical bondage. However, any physical bondage will have ramifications for the mental and emotional health of the one held captive. In addition, physical bondage affects spiritual consequences. Today, many Americans are still held in bondage by judicial systems, economic systems, and health systems that favor those who have above those who have not. I will not elaborate here because these oppressive systems fill the news media as well as the social media; the internet, email, face book, twitter, and You tube. On the other hand, as Americans increasingly rely on the media, too many fail to rely on God. The systems of the world teach us to rely on the power of the people. Even the church is becoming less knowledgeable of God as church members and even preachers of the Gospel depend more on what they learn from the various forms of media information and less on what God says in the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures teach us that human problems are spiritual at the core. People are victims on their own sins. Sin keeps us separated from God and holds us in bondage. In bondage we rely on human knowledge and wisdom. The exodus story teaches us that God seeks to reunite with His people. He seeks to redeem people and guide them to a holy place; and a new life. The new life means a new way of thinking and a new way of behavior in which we relate to one another in new ways with rewarding results. We must be separated from our old past before we can move forward to our new future. Nothing holds a person back more than an unfruitful past that holds one in a vicious cycle of living that offers no hope for a better future.