Thursday, July 21, 2011

In the Iron Furnace of Our Own Making

Jeremiah 11:4 KJV
Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:

Deuteronomy 4:20 KJV
But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

1 Kings 8:51 KJV
For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

Three times the Bible calls Israel's experience in Egypt an iron furnace. Gill says Egypt is, "…compared to an iron furnace for the grievousness of it, its long continuance, and the use of it to try and prove them…"

• Israel was in Egypt 400 years
• They entered 70 souls, they left in the millions
• Their stay began in comparative favor
• But as time went on, people forgot why and how they got there
• Slavery appears to have been a slow progression until Israel had no idea how to leave
• In the end they were baking bricks in the furnace

How often is it we are trapped in a manner of living, not because we have to be but because it never occurred to us we could change? God brings to us a deliverer to lead to where we ought to be so we may escape where we have found ourselves.

No comments:

Post a Comment