Exodus Haiku

I loved reading Exodus. I think the danger of this reading plan is that every book becomes my new favorite book of the Bible. It's the most thrilling thing to have this incredible thirst for God and His Word. I can't help but sing from I Love To Tell The Story - 

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best 
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest
And when in scenes of glory, we sing a new new song 
Twill be the old old story that I have loved so long. 


I think what I saw in Exodus over the last couple weeks is that our freedom from slavery is constantly being renewed. Exodus is the story of God's people being brought out from under the Egyptians, who tormented them and lorded over them, and how the Lord takes care of them. You'd think with their freedom they'd be happy, right?

Think again.

They quarreled with Moses and each other. They complained about not having water (and God provided water from a rock). They complained about food (God rained manna from heaven). They said it would be better in Egypt. They made an idol while Moses received the commandments that would be the sign of the covenant relationship God had with His people. Think about what a blow that is. Can you say unfaithful maybe? And as always, God's faithfulness is magnified in our filth.

I crafted my haiku with the idea that slavery is not always about your location or your job or your social status. It's about your heart. You can, like the Israelites, be completely free and totally enslaved to your self and your sin, or you can be in prison and one hundred percent free to worship and love Jesus.

I posted this story awhile back, but here it is again:

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand spoke of Jesus in Communist Romania, and paid dearly for it. He spent 14 years in prison, being tortured on a regular basis. He lived in silence, with no books and nothing to write with, not even a cellmate to talk to. He composed over 300 sermons while in prison, committing them to memory using rhymes and other memorization strategies. He spent his first hours after being released just writing them all down so he would not forget.

Richard Wurmbrand also wrote a number of books. I am reading Alone With God, and he shares his thoughts from his cell. In one breathtaking line, he talks about freedom:

I do not desire to be free. I am free.

The apostle Paul would say it this way

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound in chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 
2 Timothy 2:8-9. 

I think I had so much fun reading Exodus because it helped me look at what kinds of slavery God has led me out of already, and what kind of freedom He still longs to give me. It's an exciting thing, salvation and sanctification.

And with that, here's the haiku

God is who He is
He sets all of the slaves free
Back then, and today

And my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Exodus 33:14