Week 4: The God Who Heals His People
God has delivered his people from Egypt. Physically, the Israelites are free from their oppression and slave labor. While it took only a few days for God to deliver them physically, it will take forty years in the wilderness to deliver them spiritually. The Lord desires for his people to live healthy, prosperous lives. For the Israelites to live in this freedom, they are going to have to let go of the old before they can embrace the new.
The same can be said of us today. The Lord longs to set us free from the bondage of sin so that we can walk in his abundant life. However, the lure of sin is strong. Like the Israelites, we remember the good foods we used to eat, the good wine we used to drink, the pleasures we enjoyed in our land of bondage. Instead of relentlessly looking forward to the abundant life of Christ, we keep looking back at what we have left behind. Nostalgically, we look back longingly for those things.
Just as the Lord taught the Israelites a new way, he wants to teach us to walk according to his plans and purposes. Israel will learn that God’s laws are given for their instruction and protection. When they follow those laws, they experience health and vitality. When they disobey, they experience disease and death. Obedience led to their healing; obedience will lead to our healing. In this lesson, we will consider the call to live in alignment with the Lord’s laws.