Out Of Egypt

If you were taught like I was, growing up, you probably came to believe that God freed the Israelites from Egyptian bondage in order to bring them to the Promised Land. It seems to be the general consensus of Christians and Jews today. 

Well, the trouble with consensus is that it doesn't make a thing true, it only illustrates how many people accept a certain position spas true. In this case the consensus is anything but correct. 

God did not bring Israel out of Egypt to enjoy the Promised Land, instead "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself" (Ex -9:4). God brought them out to the Promised Land so they could know Him as God. He delivered them so that they might have a relationship with Himself. 

Christians today are often under a similar false assumption, held by consensus, that we are called out of the world so that we can go to Heaven and therefore we need to be busy about the task of making our way there by religious activity  - especially church attendance and ministry efforts. 

Not!  He has called us out of the world not to religious activity so that we can make our way to Heaven but rather, He has "called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours" (1 Cor1:2). God sets us free from "Egypt" so that we may be with Him in Kingdom relationship now and forever. 

We are not to be making our way to Heaven by doing works. We are called into the Kingdom, which is consummated in Heaven but we are ought to be working now because we are children of Gid, living in the Kingdom, serving our King by treating one another in love and reaching out to the lost and hurting in the world around us. 

God calls us into a relationship that begins now and lasts forever. We are not "making it to heaving by works," we are doing the work of the King in Whose Kingdom we already live. Jus' Sayn.