Freed

I taught Sunday school today based on the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3.

Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus 3:16-17

One of the items the teacher's book pointed out (and that I didn't use today) was that God doesn't only say that he is going to bring them out of Egypt. He is also going to lead them to the land ... flowing with milk and honey.

He is going to free them from slavery, but he is also freeing them for something. He has a new land for them -- a new purpose for them (or at least a rejuvenated purpose for them.).

We, too, are freed from our sin for something. Today was communion during worship. In the liturgy we say that we are "freed for joyful obedience."

We are freed for joyful obedience, as were the Israelites.