Deliverance Dilemmas
Pt. 3 - Diet
I. Introduction
The load had become too heavy. 430 years of harsh slavery. 430 years of no freedom. 430 years of being treated as less than. Finally, the people have had all they can take and their desire for rescue has culminated in the desperate cry for deliverance. The people of God, once again, cry out to Him for help. We find the cry for help is heard in Exodus 2.
"During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
In Chapter 3, God responds by sending those in need of deliverance a deliverer. We talked last week about the dilemma that we, I mean the Israelites, have in recognizing a deliverer. Their lack of revelation almost cost them their release. They show us that preferences can keep you in prison.
Moses on a mission stands before Pharaoh and demands the release of God's people. Here is where the story gets interesting. Go back with me and read what happens at this point of demand.
Text: Exodus 5:4-13 (TLB)
“Who do you think you are,” Pharaoh shouted, “distracting the people from their work? Get back to your jobs!” That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the taskmasters and officers he had set over the people of Israel: “Don’t give the people any more straw for making bricks! However, don’t reduce their production quotas by a single brick, for they obviously don’t have enough to do or else they wouldn’t be talking about going out into the wilderness and sacrificing to their God. Load them with work and make them sweat; that will teach them to listen to Moses’ and Aaron’s lies!” So, the taskmasters and officers informed the people: “Pharaoh has given orders to furnish you with no more straw. Go and find it wherever you can; but you must produce just as many bricks as before!” So, the people scattered everywhere to gather straw. The taskmasters were brutal. “Fulfill your daily quota just as before,” they kept demanding.
Moses' demand for freedom is met with an edict from Pharaoh for even harsher, more brutal treatment of the Hebrew slaves. I don't even have time to mess with this, but just for a second can I tell you that one of the deliverance dilemmas is that often the darkness gets darker right before we are delivered! The enemy will test your resolve. The enemy won't give up his slaves easily. The enemy won't gleefully give you up. If the chains seem tighter. If the bars seem stronger. If the dungeon seems to have darkened. Hold on . . . deliverance must be close. Keep fighting. Keep hoping. Keep believing. Your freedom is approaching if you won't quit now!
Finally, after 10 plagues, culminating with the death of all the first born in Egypt, sent by God against Pharaoh causes the dictator to relent. He finally releases the Hebrews. Once again, the Pharaoh changes his mind and gives pursuit and is ultimately swallowed up in the waters of the Red Sea. The slaves are now free. The people who had been in bondage for 430 years are now tasting the flavor of freedom. The ones who had longed for freedom, cried for freedom, plead for freedom, dreamed of freedom now find themselves unchained. It as free men that they face the hardest of the deliverance dilemmas. It is found in
Numbers 11:4-6 (TLB)
Then the Egyptians who had come with them began to long for the good things of Egypt (BTW - not everyone you were in bondage with is good company in freedom. They are comfortable with you as a slave, but not as a soldier). This added to the discontent of the people of Israel and they wept, “Oh, for a few bites of meat! Oh, that we had some of the delicious fish we enjoyed so much in Egypt, and the wonderful cucumbers and melons, leeks, onions, and garlic! But now our strength is gone, and day after day we have to face this manna!”
Deliverance will force you to deal with diet.
The most difficult dilemma that we will face as we work towards deliverance is our diet. You can visit freedom, but you can’t stay there if you won’t deal with your diet. What am I saying? Am I railing against donuts, cake or caffeine? No! What I am saying is that in order to be free and remain free our spiritual appetites have to change.
Paul addressed this need for change in Galatians when he says, "Gal. 5:24 (NIV) - Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In other words, their diet changes. Their desires change.
He then compares the bound with the free. Notice what he says in Philippians 3:18-19, "For many are walking in such a way that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. I have told you of them often and tell you again, even weeping. Their destination is destruction, their god is their appetite, their glory is in their shame, their minds are set on earthly things.
Did you catch it? The difference between free and bound is diet. The key to staying delivered is that our diet must change. Our desire for comfort. Our desire for normal. Our desire for acceptance. Our desire for our rights. Our desire for our own way. Our diet, appetite or desire for these things will march delivered folks right back into bondage.
Think about it . . . babies can’t feed themselves. But eating is not something we have to be taught. It is innate. What we have to teach is diet. The truth is we will eat something and because we have come out of slavery our diet/desires are not good.
Sons have to manage diet for their own health. We are all self-feeders the question is what do we desire to eat? Instructions are overrated. Everyone is telling us what to do. I get that however, what we miss is that desire is also underrated. What you feed yourself will determine whether or not you can stay free.
It is funny to me that adults want youth pastors to rail on students about what they should and shouldn't consume (like music, movies, video games, relationships), but then when we "grow up" we can handle it. We handle it all right. We handle it right back into slavery!
Our diet keeps us from being fully free. If you want to be fully free it is time to lay your desires/wants/diet on the cross and crucify those things!
If we don't crucify our diet, then we will develop . . .
Appetite amnesia.
You can tell when people are struggling with their diet because they remember bondage better than it was. Notice what the people begin to say. “Oh, for a few bites of meat! Oh, that we had some of the delicious fish we enjoyed so much in Egypt, and the wonderful cucumbers and melons, leeks, onions, and garlic!"
They are literally willing to trade freedom for fruit! They have totally forgotten the harshness of their slave drivers. They have overlooked the stripes on the back of the person marching in front of them placed there by Egyptian whips. They have developed appetite amnesia. It wasn't as good as they chose to remember it.
I think some of us on the verge of freedom may be suffering from appetite amnesia too. We long for things and people that would have kept us enslaved.
We remember the relationship from the lens of loneliness and forget the pain, the lying, the tears, the cheating. We forget the lack of blessing because we chose to ignore God’s way or plan. I want to be free, but I want someone in my bed too. Through the lens of comfort, we remember the workplace and conveniently forget the stress, sleepless nights, and desire to quit. Through the lens of familiarity, we remember the parties, late nights, the scene only to forget the shame, the misery, the hangover, and the waste of time and money. We want what we used to have when we were bound. I want to be free, but I want to be high too. I want to be free, but I want to keep talking like I used to talk. I want to be free, but I want to hang out with who I used to hang out with. I want to be free, but I want to go where I used to go. I want to spend everything I make, but I want to be financially free.
We long for the diet and forget the destruction. We long for the taste and forget the terror. We long for the flavor and forget the fear. We long for things that will put us back in lockdown.
We can tell when we have appetite amnesia because we will
Despise the provision of God.
As the Israelites are complaining about what they don't have they also complain about the provision of God. We are tired of the mana You give us. We don’t have to slave for it. We don’t have to buy it. We don’t have to do a thing, but we are tired of it!
A sure-fire sign that we have a diet dilemma is that we will despise angel food. You can always tell someone is having a dilemma with their diet when you remind them of what God has already done and all they can see is what they don't have. We will overlook and exhibit no thankfulness for the provision God has already made in our lives. We will overlook the new friends, the good friends, the godly friends. We will overlook the new job. We will overlook the restful nights. We will overlook the small amount in our savings. We will overlook the clear mind. We will overlook the lack of stress.
If you want to remain free, then you must open your eyes and take an account of the mana you have been given. We are given daily bread for which we should be daily mindful and thankful!
So, how do we deal with this dilemma?
We must become like Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 when he says, "I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave." or "I beat my body into subjection!" What is he saying? He is saying that if we desire to be free and stay free, we must deal with our diet and our appetite. We must not allow ourselves to develop amnesia or we will make chains sound like castles. We must open our eyes and look at what God has done. It is time for us to deal with our diet! We need to access our appetite because our destiny will be determined by our diet. We must be hungrier for Him and His ways than having our way!
What are you hungry for that will put you in bondage?
What desires are jeopardizing your deliverance?
What are you remembering and glorifying that would send you to the gallows?
What gift or gifts from God are you overlooking?
