Still A Slave

“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt. [Genesis 45.3-8] 

Most of us never realize the fact that Joseph was still a slave. Even though he was the manager of all Pharoah's palace and the governor of all Egypt, Joseph was still a slave - a powerful slave, but a slave nonetheless to Egypt.

The key to understanding Joseph is found in his words: So it was God who sent me here, not you! Joseph maintained God as his one and only priority. The circumstances that made Joseph a slave in Egypt did not matter. What mattered is that Joseph did right by God's placement - and, that placement was to preserve the lives of many, albeit from the position of a slave.

I suppose the point of this story could be that Joseph accomplished more for God's will as a slave than most free people ever even dream of accomplishing. His focus was not his circumstances, but on his purpose in the circumstances.

Joseph's story, in a physical sense, revealed Jesus in the spiritual sense. What Joseph accomplished in the physical preservation of life, Jesus accomplished in the eternal preservation of life. Both Joseph and Jesus were resigned to their respective purpose: Joseph to preserve lives by his slavery in Egypt and Jesus to preserve lives by His slavery to the Cross.

Want to hear something even more compelling?

Joseph's family's lives were preserved because they came to Joseph in his slavery in Egypt. Jesus' family's lives are preserved when they come to Him in His slavery on the Cross:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)] 

Jesus was indeed a slave:

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. [Philippians 2.7-8] 

So, it took Joseph becoming a slave to accomplish God's purpose. It took Jesus becoming a slave to accomplish God's purpose. What do you suppose it will take of us to accomplish God's purpose? It has already been stated:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)] 

At the point we realize that our cross is our purpose, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing else matters. Until then, we are just playing games, albeit idolatrous religious games.

This backdrop gives much more depth to God's 1st Commandment:

“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.2-3]

Joseph was free in accomplishing God's purpose of preserving physical lives, but he was not free from Egypt. Jesus was free in accomplishing God's purpose of preserving spiritual lives, but He was not free from the Cross. Egypt and the Cross respectively both represent the place of slavery from which true freedom is accomplished. Why? Because only when we realize our bondage, can we appreciate the true freedom of God.

Ok, so let's take this into hyper-deep mode...

Why did God demand "no other gods"? For the same reason He gave the 2nd Commandment:

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. [Exodus 20.4-6]

True freedom can only be realized when first we recognize our bondage. Idols are our bondage. Idols' only purpose is to enslave God's people. They do so by keeping God's people focused on themselves (instead of God's purpose). They furthermore enslave God's people to debt's interest payments, insurance's premiums, medicine's prescriptions and technology's insatiability for "more and better." All the while, these idols, as if projecting the fact in brilliant LED light, are in violation of "You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind..." The industries of debt, insurance, medicine and technology are all made by man to alternately do for himself what God said He would do for man - mind you, God Who said, "no other gods..."!

Joseph's accomplished purpose for his family through slavery in Egypt was only temporary. Israel still needed to be delivered from Egypt. Jesus' accomplished purpose for His family through slavery to the Cross is eternal. Nothing more needs to be done - on the Cross Jesus said, "It is finished!"

If we can see it, the relief we get from the idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology is likened to Joseph's family's temporary relief found in Egypt. What starts off as relief becomes bondage. That's what idols do.

In contrast, when God's people recognize God as "God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt" only then will they understand God's demand, "You must not have any other god but me." Only then will they understand that Egypt represents idols that enslave. Only then will they understand the progression from the 1st Commandment ("no other gods") to the 2nd Commandment ("no idols"). Only then will they understand how the 3rd Commandment then addresses man's desire to religiously justify his idols by claiming they are from God - misusing the name of God.

Most "Christians" I know today are, like Joseph, still slaves to Egypt. They are slaves to the idols man has made for himself. They are beholding, in some way or another, to debt, insurance, medicine and technology. Jesus however calls us to "no other god" obedience to Himself. The jealousy of His Father flows in His veins. He is repeatedly on record in the Bible of calling His followers to miraculous mountain-moving faith and having scolded them when they relied on their own human reasoning. How can we not see this? The answer is simple: we are gluttonously drunk on the wine of our idols - blinded to the truth of God's Word. And, like the drunks we are, nothing is more repulsive to us than the cold hard bath of truth Jesus laid down as a gantlet:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

Idols are mentioned in Genesis and idols are mentioned in Revelation. We are fools to believe slavery to idols is not a real and present danger in our day! We are ALL still slaves! But whose slave are we? Egypt's? Or, God's?

Father, like Jesus, and, at His demand, I wish to give up my own way (slavery to idolatry) take up my cross (slavery to You), and follow Him. I can only rely on the power and strength of Your Holy Spirit to do so... help me. I know I am a slave - but let it be known that I am enslaved only to You. So be it.