The Civilized World’s Made Things Harder For Us

The civilized world has taught us that we're independent and don't need anyone but ourselves. We are taught to think of ourselves first, to love ourselves, to be ourselves, to do for ourselves. We're taught that no one can make us do anything and we can do and be anything we want to. We're told anything and everything is ok as long as it makes us feel good and that we should feel good. We're taught how great and wonderful we are. We're taught that the stars are our limit -in other words there is no limit to what we can do. (sounds an awful lot like the tower of Babel to me) It's funny, but the more I study God's Word, the more I find that the world has lied to me about many, many things and has corrupted the meaning of many things as well. As I was studying Deut 5 I came across something surprising that I'd like to share with you. It's something else that our civilized world has made it hard for us to understand and relate to.

Deuteronomy 5:6 —“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

Let's look closely at this first sentence. "I am the Lord your God". Before we can really be saved or have the fear of God or love Him or anything else, we first have to know that He is. As Hebrews 11:6 says: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Now that may seem strange to us, because we rarely question His existence, but then again, if we really believe He exists and is aware of us and all of that, wouldn't we tend toward being obedient to Him a whole lot more? No, I'm not suggesting we don't really believe in Him, but I am suggesting that we might benefit a lot from focusing on His existence and reflecting on it until we really, really knew it. At least, that's what I determined for myself.

I've thought for many years that because we're so "blessed" to live in such a "civilized" country, that we really don't understand concepts such as "God", or "slavery" or things like that. We know the definitions of them, but we don't have any real personally emotional attachment to them. Most of us have had jobs and bosses we may not have liked at all, but we could always quit. When I dwelled on the concepts of Lord's and slaves, and tried to imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning, knowing that another person owned me and that they could literally kill me at their whim, it was hard to do that and make it "real" to myself. Sure, I can imagine it, but it's more like a fantasy then anything possible, even though I know that there were and are slaves all around the world. When I imagine it, I think I'd "run away" or find some way out of it - I can't make it last in my mind for a lifetime.

Yet, it IS real. God is real. God created us and He sustains our very lives every moment of every day. He can wipe us out en mass, or one at a time or any way He chooses, whenever and however He chooses. The fact that He doesn't do so, doesn't mean that He can't. He can bless us or curse us, give or take away. Yet for the most part, we ignore Him and go on with our lives as though He wasn't there. If we were slaves in this world with a physical Lord over us, we couldn't do that. He'd be in our face constantly and be a constant reminder that if we don't obey Him instantly, He could and just might, have us killed. See what I mean about why I felt I needed to dwell on that and make God more "real" to me?

So first, we need to know that God IS. He is God, He is the Lord. But, there's another word in that sentence that makes a HUGE difference in it's meaning. It doesn't say, "I am the Lord God", it says, "I am the Lord your God". Out of all the other people on this earth, He is MY God and I am His. He's personal. He knows and acknowledges me and wants me to know and acknowledge Him. It's more then that though. Because He's not "my God" and no one else's. He says that to everyone. It's up to each individual to accept Him as their God or reject Him. And that means something very important for each of us and this is what kind of blew me away when I realized it.

Everyone has a "god", it's just not always the One True God. In fact, everyone generally has quite a few gods. We all serve someone/something. That may change according to what happens during the day and how we're feeling, but regardless, we all serve something. It's just that in our civilized world, we don't think of them as gods. The problem with that is that The One True God does think of them as gods and He doesn't want us to serve any one or anything but Him. See, God designed us to be in relationship with Him -with God and so we seek that constantly whether we realize it or not. That's what I've always thought of as the empty "hole" we're always seeking to fill, that will make us "happy" and "complete". It's the something missing that we all search for even when we don't know we're looking for it.

Whenever we're not in an intimate relationship with God, we will be in an intimate relationship with something/someone else, because that's who our hearts have been designed. We have to be in an intimate relationship with something/someone. Many women look for it in a man. Many men look for it in a woman. Others look for it in work or school, money, children, booze or drugs, or books, movies, porn, sex, parties, friends, food, the internet, computer or video games, our homes, gardens, etc. or for instance when we endlessly strive for the approval of others, or the love of others. The things we look for it in aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves, although they can be at times, but they become bad no matter what they are because whether we know it or not, we become slaves to them. (Rom 6:16)

So we're all slaves, all the time. We're simply slaves to different things or people or "gods". Remember too, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve 2 masters. We have to choose. Besides which, God also tells us that He will not "share" us with others. It's Him or them. That's why Jesus pleads with us and says in Matthew 11:29–30 —Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. *For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” * A yoke is what's used to join 2 cows or horses together so they can pull a plow. Jesus used that word because whoever or whatever we're slaves to, we're joined together with. We're "yoked" to them. That's again why we're told not to be "unequally yoked". If you yoke a little cow with a large horse, it won't work. They can't pull the plow evenly. Back to the point though, when we serve someone or something besides God, we are slaves to that and we're yoked to it whether we realize it or not.

And that too is something I really needed to dwell on because generally, in our day and time, we don't realize that. We think we're just hanging out with people or just eating junk food or just drinking, or just running after a man to love us, or whatever. We'd be more inclined to think of them serving us rather then the other way around. The Truth though, is that we're serving them; we're slaves to them. That's why we run to them every time we're scared, or depressed or worried or lonely, or whatever our personal triggers are.

Here's the really bad news for us who are saved. When we do that, we're not just slaves to those things, we're slaves to false gods. They are our "idols". We have put them in God's place in our lives. We can know that because if we didn't have any false gods or idols, we'd be running to the One True God, "our God", when we felt that way. All the various things we each choose as our idols and false gods, generally look pretty good to us. If they didn't, we wouldn't run to them. But in reality, they're cruel masters. For example, those of us who choose food, then must constantly worry about our weight and/or our health because our idol has messed up our cholesterol and our weight. Our false gods have made us promises to make us feel good and they can't keep those promises; worse, they lead to death. But there is a True God who will help us, if we will just choose to take His yoke on ourselves instead. Yes, we will still be yoked to someone, but this God is loving and His yoke is easy and the burden is light.

That brings us to the last part of that first line -“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery". The One True God tells us that He is our personal God and He qualifies that, even though He certainly doesn't have to. He says that He is "our" God because He brought us out of the land of slavery. He doesn't want us yoked to those false idols that lie to us and use us and throw us away. He created us to be in an intimate relationship with Him, not with them. He wants 100% of us though and He wants us 100% of the time. All day, every day. He wants us to be yoked to Him and nothing else. Can you imagine yourself literally yoked to Jesus? That's what I try to do to remind myself that no matter where I go, what I do, what I look at or who I talk to, He is with me. He's not just a passive partner that I'm dragging around with them though. No. In fact, He's bearing most of the burden for me, making my burden lighter, just because He loves me and He's "my God."

Speaking of bring us out of slavery, some folks might say, that's not talking about me, that's talking about the Jew's when He brought them out of Egypt, and so it is. But it's also talking about you and me. Well, at least me for sure, because I know without any doubt at all that He's brought me out of my slavery. He rescued me from myself, from the occult, from the new age, from depression, from loneliness, from fear and worry, and from so many other things that I've been a slave to all my life that it would take too long to list them all. And He's still doing it. He brought me out of that slavery and shows me every time I start to slip back or sneak back into one of them. He says we all are enslaved to various different things, and if He hasn't freed you from those things yet, He wants to and He will, if you will let Him.

When we do finally agree with that first sentence and can say, "He is the Lord my God, who brought me out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery", then He adds a command to it. Then He tells us, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. *“You shall have no other gods before me. * (Deut 5:6–7) Most of us don't even think twice about that statement. I know I certainly didn't used to. Not until I understood what a false god really was. When I finally understood that it could be other people, other things, and put it together with who I ran to when I was hurting, instead of running to Him and His Word, only then did I understand what a false god and an idol was. It's not necessarily some statue in a church that we kneel before, light incense to, pray to or "worship". (although that certainly can be one too). That's often what it was during the time when the Lord brought the Jew's out of Egypt, but times have changed and we worship other things now. Even they often worshiped other things besides their stone idols. Whether the idol is stone, wood, a person or thing, doesn't matter. It's still a false god and an idol and we should run away from it as fast as we can.

Why? Because He IS God. Because He is OUR God. Because He loves us and paid an awful price to bring us out of slavery and set us free from slavery to sin so we could be slaves to righteousness instead. Now our slavery doesn't lead to death, instead His yoke is easy, our burden is light and it leads to eternal life with Him.

This is now something I try to dwell on daily and reflect on it as it's important to let it really soak in. He is God and I am not. (in spite of what I often seem to think) I imagine myself literally yoked together with Jesus and try to hold that picture in my mind several times every day. I'll pick out something I do regularly, like opening the fridge or something like that, and every time I do that, I imagine myself yoked to Jesus to remind myself that He is here and He is REAL and that He is God.

Somehow we have to get past this "civilized" world's training that I'm god and make ourselves realize that we're really not and He really is, and just what that means. How can I love God with all my heart, with all my mind and all my strength if I don't really get what God is, what a Lord or Master is, or what a slave is? How can I fear God if I don't understand those things?

I've chosen the idea of imagining myself yoked to Jesus and remembering Deut 5:6-7 as well as Romans 6:16–23 and reflecting on them regularly every day.