Greg Ford - The Exodus
All right, we’re in a series right now called «Cover to Cover.» We’re looking at the Bible for 15 weeks, examining it completely. We’re certainly not going to be able to delve into all the granular specifics of the Bible, but what I’m trying to do is set you up for success in your study of God’s Word so that wherever you find yourself in the Bible, you can understand how it fits into the overall big picture of the Bible.
What’s important to think about with the Bible is a lesson I actually learned early on-specifically, I learned this during the first 10 years of marriage. I learned that my wife and I often miscommunicated, and it might be because, let’s say, for example, she says something, and when she says it, I hear something different. So later on in the conversation, I bring up, «Well, you said such and such,» and she’s like, «I didn’t say that.» I’m like, «Excuse me, you did say that,» and we end up in this argument over «he said, she said.» But really, «he said, she said» doesn’t mean much; what really matters is «he meant, she meant.» That’s what it comes down to-she might have said something and I heard something, but that’s not what she meant. So I learned over time to say, «You know what, I heard you say this,» and she could then clarify her meaning. And the marriage gets a lot better. That’s free and has nothing to do with «Cover to Cover,» other than the Bible’s the same way.
The Bible says what it says. Okay, the Bible says something, but the question is, what does the Bible mean? And if you’re going to understand what it means, you’re going to have to look at it as a piece of literature. You’re going to have to see it as history. Understanding those elements will help us move from just what the words say and keep us from the reality that we’re prone to miscommunication, even with the Bible, just like we are with the people close to us.
So how do we fight for that meaning? Well, we dig deeper in understanding words like exegesis, which relates to what the original hearer heard; and then we move to hermeneutics, which is about how we interpret this into our lives. And all the communication gets better. There are some foundational things that I want to quickly revisit with you so that we can continue to build on them. One is the meta-narrative of the Bible. «Meta» meaning the overarching storyline of the Bible. So go ahead and bring that up. We find this in Genesis chapters 1 through 3. By the way, I can’t say it loud enough-the first three chapters of the Bible are critical and essential for understanding the Bible as a whole. In fact, throughout this series, we’re going to take an event in the Bible, we’re going to reach back into the garden of Eden, we’re going to reach forward to Jesus, and then through to us. That’s just a good path to take anytime you’re reading the Bible.
Reach back to the garden. Why is the garden so significant? It’s significant because we understand the world the way God intended it. So when you hear things like, «God wants to bless the world,» or «What is God’s will for the world?» okay, that’s all connected to what God intended when he created the world. And we see that God created humans in His image. That means we know who we are; our identity is clear. We have affirmation from heaven. I don’t have to wonder what God thinks about me; He declares, «They are very good.» They have healthy relationships, okay? Complimentary relationships with each other-so peace with God, peace with each other, meaningful work, okay? The work that mattered-things they were good at, they were built for- and then appropriate pleasure. The trees were beautiful to look at; the text says they tasted good. So, appropriate sensory experience, and then also self-confidence. They were vulnerable; they were naked, but they were not ashamed.
This is how life was intended to be lived. And what happens over time in their flesh leads them into free will decisions. Sometimes our flesh can be impulsive because we have a bunch of appetites. Sometimes I can make rash decisions that are selfish or can just be flat-out confused. I thought I was gaining wisdom, but I was trying to get the right thing in the wrong way. And sometimes I’m impacted by other people’s fallen or fleshly decisions.
When that happens, ultimately, it’s not the end of the story because God is longsuffering, He’s patient, and He loves to bring grace. There’s a redemption process. This is why, no matter how badly we fail, we know that God is eager to give grace, to help us heal, and to forgive. So we never fall into despair after a fall. That’s not the end of the story. We walk through a process of redemption and then restoration. Sometimes restoration doesn’t mean going back to the garden; it means you’ve lost the garden because that’s a consequence of the fall. But now we’re going into chapter 4 — a new place, a new beginning, a new opportunity-a little bit wiser than we were a few days ago.
So, that’s the meta-narrative of the Bible. We introduce a word that I want to keep putting in front of you: the word «Shalom.» This shows up in Genesis 15, but it appears hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. You have to grasp the range of meaning for «Shalom.» It means peace, but it doesn’t just mean peace. Often, it’s translated into English as peace, but it has a broader meaning; it means prosperity. When you hear «prosperity» in church, people start twitching because they think it’s like «name it, claim it, grip it, rip it, dip it, pistol-whip it,» and flip it. They think God will give it to you if you love Him and He loves you, you’re going to be rich.
That’s not what the Bible teaches; that’s hogwash gospel- it is not theologically accurate. But what is true is that if you are using your God -given gifts for God’s glory, and you’re healthy, healthy things grow. You may not have an exponential increase, but both quantitatively and qualitatively, there will be growth in your life, and you see this in the garden. Remember when they were told, «Be fruitful, multiply»? Completeness, wholeness, satisfaction, safety, fulfillment, contentment-okay, this is what Shalom means.
And this is what I want to have top of mind for you. We started looking in Genesis when, as you know, humans developed and grew, and cities and empires began to develop. Now people began to develop technology and the same technology they used to make garden equipment to be fruitful, they used to make weapons to go to war and kill. What you essentially have described in the first part of Genesis is the chaos of the world.
So God says, «I’m not giving up on my planet. I’ve not given up on people. I want to bring Shalom to Earth.» So He raises up a nation. He says to Abraham, «Through your family, I’m going to create a nation that will bring Shalom to the Earth, and I’m going to give you land and law. It’s going to be through your family, but don’t get it twisted. This isn’t just to set you apart so that everyone will envy you. This is to set you apart so you can demonstrate my will in the world. And then other nations will see this happening, 'Wow, that Shalom thing! That makes sense.'» So you bring this to the Earth, and then the whole world will be blessed through you.
So we looked at that last week. Today, what we’re going to do is look at the Exodus. So if you kept reading Genesis, you would see Abraham, the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and eventually Joseph. It’s a lot of good text; we’re not going to go into it today. I’ve preached on them before, so you can go back and listen to all that. What we’re going to do is move from the family of Abraham into the nation being in Egypt.
All you need to know about that is that through these generations when it gets to Joseph, the family of Abraham ends up in Egypt. All right? While they’re there, it says in Exodus chapter 1, verse 6, «Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. But the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increasing in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.»
All right, this is supposed to go «ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.» You’re supposed to think, «That reminds me of something.» What does it remind you of? Back to Eden! Back to Genesis 1 in the garden! God blessed them and said in verse 28, «Be fruitful, increase in number, fill the Earth and subdue it. Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the Earth.»
So what the statement that’s being made here in Exodus 1 is that while they were in the region of Egypt, they were in a land called Goshen. They were shepherds. It was a rich land with fertile soil. They were doing the work that God had given them to do-kind of like Shalom. They were in good relationship; they were being fruitful and multiplying. They ultimately caught a little Shalom here on Earth; things were going well.
And yet, back to the meta-narrative-creation, Shalom, fall-in Exodus 1:8 it says, «Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.» He said to his people, «The Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.»
So here we have a fall that is similar but different from the fall in Eden. In Eden, you have free will-Eve and Adam decided not to be content with the world God made them and their work. So they took and took because they weren’t content. But they also took, in some ways, it says that Eve wanted to be wise, so she wanted the right thing but went about it the wrong way. But these were all decisions that Adam and Eve made. In Exodus 1, we see that the family of Abraham is minding its own business. They’re in Goshen, just doing the shepherd thing, having babies, living life, having a good relationship with God, themselves, and each other. They found a little bit of paradise and, having nothing to do with them, you have Pharaoh who gives in to his flesh. Pharaoh has his own fall; we see it explicitly in the text. He has his own fear, and he looks and is intimidated that these people are having a little too much Shalom and they’re growing too quickly. He starts to extrapolate the potential of what could happen; he starts to do the math. If these people keep multiplying like this, right? They’re a little too happy; they’re growing too fast. Eventually, they will become a threat to us.
Now, in his fear and his fall, he impacts them. This, friends, is what the real world looks like. Unfortunately, sometimes the fall is that you took something you weren’t supposed to have, and sometimes the fall is that you were minding your business in Goshen, and Pharaoh, in his insecurity and fear, was threatened by your prosperity. And now he turns on you and attacks you. What it says in Exodus 1:15 is Pharaoh says to the Hebrew midwives, who delivered the babies, «When you help the Hebrew women during childbirth and see that the baby is a boy, kill him, but if it’s a girl, let her live.»
You’re going to see now again this becomes a very real-world scenario. Now the children of Israel, the family of Abraham, goes from Shalom-not because of anything they did but because of something someone else did-and now they are living in bondage. It says later in Exodus that their time in Egypt was 430 years in total, including their time in Goshen, but certainly their time in bondage and slavery. So now Pharaoh starts to not only kill their baby boys — many boys died-but you have Moses, who ultimately becomes the main character in Exodus. He escapes. His mom and sister — long story short, God spares him, and he grows up in the home of Pharaoh. Eventually, he ends up killing someone, goes out into the wilderness and desert, and hides out. But ultimately, things go from bad to worse, and now you have the nation living in the bondage of the fall of an insecure, afraid Pharaoh.
In Exodus 2:23–24, it says, «The people of Israel, in their bondage, in their oppression, and in their pain, cried out to God for mercy and help.» «Lord, back to the meta-narrative; Lord, redeem us, restore us, deliver us.» So God takes this unlikely character, Moses, and raises him up to go back and deliver the people. Look what it says. This is one of the best texts in the whole Bible. I wish we could sit here for two hours and just stare at this and think about it. Exodus 3:7- 8: «The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt; I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land.'»
God, in Exodus, demonstrates who He is and says, «I am the God who is not ignorant of suffering. I am the God that sees the misery of those who are impacted by the wicked decisions of powerful, insecure people. I am the God who sees misery, who hears the cry, who cares about suffering, and who shows up to deliver.»
I’m speaking to somebody today who may be in a season of life where you’re like, «Man, I was minding my business in Goshen. I was just trying to raise my kids. Man, I was just trying to use my gift for God’s glory. I was just trying to do my job. I was trying to live in Shalom, and I was actually in a pretty good place.» Outside of my decision-making, I don’t know what happened-some complex issue. A Pharaoh in my life has come now and is creating difficulties. They have come and attacked me, putting me in a situation I didn’t ask for. Maybe you’re in a place of misery, and it feels like nobody gets it. Maybe you’re in a place where you’re crying at night. You hold it together in front of everybody because you don’t want to fall apart, but once the lights go out and once you put the kids to bed and shut the door, the tears start to flow. You wonder, «Does anybody know? Does God even see?» God is the God who sees the misery, who hears the cry, who cares about suffering, and ultimately shows up to deliver.
God begins to announce His character in Exodus. In fact, I’m going to jump ahead to a text that is after they’re already delivered. In fact, this is going to be a private conversation with Moses up on Mount Sinai in Exodus 33. Moses is going to say to God, «Hey God, I’m glad to be your spokesman, but I want to know you better. I want to see You. Who are you? Tell me who you are.» Look at this in Exodus 34:6-7. God says to Moses, «I’m Yahweh, the Lord. I’m the God of compassion and mercy; I’m slow to anger. I’m filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected-even children in the third and fourth generations.»
Now, if you opened up, like, the Bible app and that was the reading for the day, and you were sitting there reading that, you might wonder what to do with it because it almost feels like a contradiction. In the first part, He’s waxing poetic about His character, «I love to lavish love,» and then over here, He says, «But don’t get it twisted; if you’re guilty, there is justice.»
Okay, there is an idea where I can’t just be the parent who tells you only about the benefits without telling you the real-world consequences of sin and how fall and fear and flesh ultimately lead to downline consequences. So, how do we interpret this? We have the discipline to step back and go, «What is being said here?»
A couple things are being conveyed. It invites us to hold the tension between God’s grace -His slowness to anger and eagerness to lavish mercy- at the same time He’s holding out justice. That God is a God of justice is important. If we take that away, all we think about are the benefits, and we don’t consider the consequences. When you start ordering the deaths of baby boys, you bring a lot of fall and a lot of pain and a lot of brokenness into the world.
Essentially, He’s giving you both narratives but is also giving a disparity between the thousand generations of His lavish love and mercy and the three or four generations of the guilt. What do I make of that? Because it says He lays the consequences on three or four generations. Does that mean that if I sin today, God is going to hold it against my great — grandkids, and they’re not going to get a fair shake? When they come out of the womb, they will be as pure as they are and will be trying to do good-like, «Sorry, your grandpa was a scumbag, so I' ve got to hold it against you.» I said it in Exodus. No.
Okay, this is what you have to understand. In the ancient world, the concept of using a literary term like three or four generations was about giving you the full picture of a family. For example, my family took a picture at Christmas; my parents were in the photograph, my sister and I were in the picture, all of our kids were in the picture, and my sister’s son has two twin boys. In one family photo, we have four generations.
Here’s the reality. The flesh or the fall of Mimi and Papa is going to impact all of us. Even if Mimi and Papa mean well, okay? Most of us could say our parents were good folks, but we' re still trying to sort this stuff out because we’re passing stuff down behaviorally and psychologically. It makes its way down. So, all of us are trying to sort through some things from great-grandparents who may or may not even know their names, but it impacted you, right? For better or worse, a lot of it’s really good and some of it isn’t.
What He’s ultimately saying is justice. Okay? When you fall, when you sin, when you take according to your flesh, it’s going to impact this snapshot, this family picture. Make your decisions wisely. When you’re deciding today, just realize your great-grandkids are going to be trying to sort that out for better or for worse. Let’s do our best, right?
So essentially, the big point that’s being made in the disparity between a thousand generations of his lavish love and mercy and the three to four generations of the guilt is to show how eager God is, in His temperament and character, to bring healing and how willing He is to forgive rebellion and iniquity. Does that make sense?
So we see now, again, we cannot cancel out the conversation about justice. We see how it fleshes out in Pharaoh’s life. Let’s go back to bondage. The Israelites are in Egypt, and God raises up Moses. Moses goes to Pharaoh and says to Pharaoh, «Listen, Yahweh is the one true God. I know you all have a bunch of idols, and these idols are distorted images of Him. They’re not even real; He’s real. He said, 'Let My people go.'»
Pharaoh says, «No, I’m good. They’ve actually been doing a lot of good work; they’re building my storage centers in Pithom and Ramses, and I kind of like the arrangement.» Moses is like, «You might want to think that through because God said He’s not playing around with this. If you don’t soften your heart and get with the program, He' s going to show you how powerful He is.»
So what happens? Pharaoh hardens his heart, and God sends nine plagues. Each of those plagues is symbolic of each Egyptian false god idol, and what is God doing? He’s demonstrating His power. He’s saying, «Okay, you’ve put your faith in this god; watch this.» He’s ultimately showing that He is the one true God.
Pharaoh is given nine chances to repent, nine chances to reflect. Each time, instead of him going, «I might be wrong on this one; I might want to rethink this; I might want to humble myself,» he hardens his heart harder and harder until it gets to the 10th plague. He says, «The 10th plague is going to remind you of what you did back in Exodus 1. If you don’t turn now, soften your heart now, repent now, what’s going to happen is just like you took the firstborn of these innocent people, I’m going to take the firstborn of everybody. Unless you do this, now what I’m going to do is different than what you did; you didn’t give anybody a chance for grace.»
God says, «I’m going to give you a chance for grace. If you take the blood of the lamb and put it over the door, I will pass over that door and demonstrate My grace. But if you harden your heart, then today you’re going to get justice, and it’s going to hit in the third and fourth generation.»
So what happens? Pharaoh hardens his heart, doesn’t listen; he thinks, «I’m Pharaoh; I know better.» Then everybody who put the blood of the Lamb over the door-it becomes the beginning of the Passover feast. This is what’s being celebrated: the mercy of God passing over the door.
In that process, Pharaoh hardens his heart, his firstborn dies, and he says, «Fine, get these people out of here.» Moses now leads them out of Egypt, gets to the Red Sea, and as Pharaoh changes his mind, he goes to get them, his army bearing down. This is where God parts the Red Sea; they cross the Red Sea; their enemies drown in the Red Sea, and now they’re in the wilderness.
So, when you think of Exodus, think about the deliverance of God-God’s ability to deliver. He’s the God who sees your misery. He’s the God who hears your cry. He’s the God who cares about your suffering, and He’s the God who shows up to deliver.
What happens is, in the story, they go through the Red Sea, and now they’re in the wilderness. In the wilderness for the next 40 years, we are going to get a multi-dimensional view of what actual real-world bondage looks like. Because you would think if I get out of Egypt and I get away from these oppressive people and now I’m in the wilderness on my way to the promised land, you would expect now, «I’m free.»
But over 40 years, you’re going to see a lingering psychological bondage that the nation remains in. Even though their bodies are free from Egypt, their minds are still bound in a psychological, theological, and spiritual bondage. That’s what that 40 years is about. What’s going to happen is a series of experiences that could either train the nation out of their psychological and theological bondage or drive them further into it. And you’re going to see this really get weird and ugly. That’s why they’re going to stay lost for a period of time.
Let’s talk this through quickly. What psychological bondage were the children of Israel in during the wilderness years? The first one is they were in the psychological bondage of discontent. The way this shows up is in grumbling. You’re going to see in Exodus 16 that they grumble against Moses and Aaron. They’re still grumbling in Numbers 14, saying, «If only we had died in Egypt, or even if we had just died here in the wilderness.» In other words, «We' d be better off dead than alive.»
What happens here is they thought if they could just get out of Egypt, they would be happy. But now they’re actually out of Egypt; they’re through the Red Sea; they’re in the wilderness, and they cannot find joy or contentment or Shalom where they are. When we see grumbling, oftentimes we think a little too petty about it-we think, «They were complaining. You know how God feels about complainers — just shut up!» But it’s deeper than that.
Because if you think about it, everybody who expresses frustration with a bad situation-that doesn’t make you a complainer, right?
Sometimes I think, in certain environments, anytime someone brings up something negative, we’re like, «Stop being a complainer.» Sometimes it’s appropriate to put the skunk on the table and discuss the problem. It wasn’t that they said negative things to Aaron, Moses, or God; the issue was that they had a deep sense of discontent. Wherever they were, they were not able to find contentment.
In fact, what you’re going to find is that they’re going to get to the promised land and guess what? They’re going to be discontent there as well!
So think about it. You’re in the wilderness, frustrated where you are, but you’ve got to be able to psychologically pause and think, «Wait a second. What just happened? We were in bondage, crying out to God, miserable. God heard our cry. He raised up a deliverer, sent 10 plagues on our behalf, passed over our homes, and helped us exit that awful place. He even parted the Red Sea on our behalf; we saw it, we lived it, we crossed over on dry land. He neutralized our enemies, and now we’re free as a bird!
We were hungry, and He fed us. We were thirsty, and He gave us water. And we have a future hope for a promised land. Life is good! I’m excited to get to the promised land someday, but that’s kind of cool; I have something to look forward to. But I’m not going to defer my contentment to the promised land; I can be content right here and now, even in the wilderness. Look at what God has brought us through; look at His faithfulness. This food is good enough for today.»
But they look back and they long for the food of Egypt and what they had there. Because of that, it created an attitude of discontent.
This is the big issue, and we’re going to talk more about this in three weeks when we discuss why God has such a short fuse about idols. This discontented attitude opens them up to temptation for idol worship because these idols promise immediate gratification for something that God wants to do slowly over time.
But they' re not giving you the real thing. Good things take time. God is taking you through a process because you have to unlearn some stuff and learn some new stuff.
So that attitude of discontent creates impatience. When Moses went up on the mountain to get the good law of God, which would come to show them Shalom-peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with yourself-Moses goes up, and they’re like, «Where’s this guy at? Where you at, bro? He’s not here.» Instead of being patient, trusting God, they build an idol. They build this golden calf and begin to worship it.
In the same way, this is where it gets really relevant for us because you’re probably not going to worship a golden calf, but what if we live in impatience and discontent and not trusting God? Ultimately, we become vulnerable and prone to sales pitches. We become prone to buying things that will give us something quickly that God might want to take a little time to give you deeply.
Sometimes the deep lesson takes a while. So while we may not bow to a golden calf, we tend to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like because we' re trying to fulfill a sense of peace, fulfillment, and security in ourselves instead of looking to God to trust His plan and His character.
In the same way, this is the psychological bondage of insecurity, impatience, and discontent.
All right, just five more minutes, I swear. I’ll be nice to the 12:00 crowd; they’re about to get bad news about their service moving back 30 minutes. They’re going to be brokenhearted, so don’t do them dirty in the lot.
Okay, this is the last thing.
Look forward to Jesus. Matthew writes the gospel of Matthew, written to Jewish people; he speaks shorthand, and now you’re going to get it because you know more. We just looked at Genesis and Exodus. Go ahead and bring this up.
In Matthew 2:2-4, look what he does: he’s using Israel and Jesus. Jesus is the new Israel. Why did God create a nation? Because He wanted to bless the world through you. He wanted to bring Shalom to Earth. What was Jesus, the Prince of Shalom, coming to Earth to fulfill? What God wanted to do through the nation. Jesus is faithful where Israel wasn’t, so Jesus is the new Israel.
Go to the next thing. The children of Israel — Jesus is the Son of God.
Go to the next thing. We see that Pharaoh is like Herod. What did Pharaoh do? He said, «Kill all the baby boys.» What did Herod do when Jesus was born? «Kill all the baby boys-the King of the Jews.»
What happened? Moses was able to escape; his mother saved him. What happened to Jesus? Jesus was spared, just like Moses. Jesus is the new Moses, leading us into deliverance and into Exodus.
Go ahead and look at the next thing. The Red Sea! They take the children through the Red Sea. God does a miracle to bring them through the Red Sea. What does Jesus do? He passes through the waters of baptism. When they came through the waters of the Red Sea, where did they go? To the wilderness. How long? 40 years. Jesus comes through the waters of baptism; where does He go? The wilderness. How long? 40 days.
The nation was unfaithful, disobedient, and bound in psychological bondage because they didn’t know who they were. They lost their sense of identity. They became impatient and took quickly. They were discontent. What did Jesus do? He faithfully endured temptation. He walked through temptation and was obedient to God, even though he was tempted in the same way.
«Will you turn these rocks into bread?» Discontent? «No, I’m good. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God.»
«If you’ll bow to me, I’ll give it to you right now.» Trying to capitalize on his impatience, Jesus says, «No, I’m good with that. I’m going to trust the plan of my heavenly Father. I’m not going to bow to you; I don’t bow to anybody but God, and if He wants to take a long time. That' s what I’m going to do. If I go to the cross, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do whatever God is leading me to do because I trust His plan and I trust His character.»
What Matthew is doing in Matthew 2 to the Jewish audience is showing them what God intended to do through the nation. Our complicated history is now being fulfilled in Jesus, and he’s using these symbols, taking them on a journey that now leads to us.
I want you to think about today what we’ve talked about. Some of you, depending on where you are in your life right now, might be in a place wondering if anybody hears your cry, if anybody sees your misery. It feels like God’s a long way off.
Today, the story of Exodus starts with the belief that God is the God who sees your misery, hears your cry, cares about your suffering, and shows up to deliver. It’s a story of deliverance, and this process of deliverance starts for us. It’s been fulfilled through Jesus, but we come through our deliverance, and we, as the body of Christ, as a church, are the ones who see the misery. We are the church that hears the cry. We are the people who care about suffering and show up to deliver — to bring God’s will and God’s kingdom to Earth as it is in heaven.
So, I want to take a moment right now, wherever you are, however much you may be in some sort of bondage-maybe physically, maybe relationally, maybe psychologically-to understand that God sees you, He hears you, He cares, and He will not leave you where you are. He will take you through to deliver you.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we come to You in Jesus' name. Just like we saw with the children of Israel, You did what only You could do with things like the Red Sea and the plagues, but there was still work they had to do to be willing to deal with their minds and have their minds renewed. We are not bystanders to our minds being renewed; we are participators. So, I pray, Lord, today, no matter how stuck or in bondage someone may feel, that today, through the language of tears, through a broken heart, even through a season of misery, that You come to our rescue.