A Tribute to the God Who Set Us Free


Exodus 1-14. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 6, 2025.
The title that I have chosen is a bit vague.
As Americans, this is the Fourth of July weekend in which we celebrate our freedom from Great Britain, which God gave to us. At the foundation of this freedom, we must always recognize the grace and help of God in this.
As Christians, we rejoice that Jesus has set us free from sin.
It is easy to say that we “want to be free!” However, freedom always brings with it responsibility and duty. We see this in the story of the Exodus. The people of Israel had been pressed into slavery in Egypt, and yet one day, God showed up and set them free, leading them out of Egypt. He did this through great acts of power.
Though this is real history, it is recorded in the Bible for a greater reason. This story is key to understanding God’s purpose for humanity, and the redemption that we have in Jesus. So, if you are asking yourself what God is doing today, you only need to look to this story to see that He is setting us free.
Leading up to and during the time of the War of Independence, Exodus 1-14 was quoted and preached quite often. It is ironic that a people could draw such hope from this passage and, yet, balk at giving that same hope to others. I’m talking about the slavery issue.
The newly formed States were divided over this issue of slavery. The northern States were strongly opposed to it while the southern States were strongly in favor of it. Of course, the States that were in the middle had some that were for and some against.
After, the war, they were in a pinch. From a moral standpoint, those strongly opposed to slavery felt they should refuse to allow the slave States into the union they were forming. George Mason of Virginia said at this time, “As much as I value a union of all the States, I would not admit the southern States into the union unless they agreed to discontinuance of this disgraceful trade [i.e., slavery].”
He was an important voice and was respected by many. Yet, pragmatism won the day. Others believed that the British would eventually return, and if the States were not strongly allied, they might not be so lucky.
Of course, luck had nothing to do with it. No, it was God who gave them (gave us) independence, freedom.
Many do not realize that the Article 1 Section 9 Clause 1 was a compromise between both opinions. It essentially said that Congress could not pass a law regarding the slavery issue (and immigration of any sort) until 1808. This essentially set a clock of twenty years. In 1807, Congress passed a law that made trafficking of slaves into the union illegal as of January 1, 1808. This wouldn’t stop the slavery that was already here, but it would squelch further importation of slaves.
Black communities celebrated this date for years. The first black Anglican pastor in America, named Absolom Jones, preached from Exodus chapter three, calling his people to recognize that day as a day of thanksgiving for God’s grace. In fact, verse 8 details how God tells Moses that He has “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” Pastor Jones then went on to declare that God had come down into Congress in their day in order to give them grace.
After the War between the States, the 13th Amendment would make all slavery illegal in America. At that point, the stopping of the importing of slaves into America became yesterday’s news. Now, something even greater had been given to the people of America, both blacks and whites.
This idea of God coming down and setting people free is baked into us as a people; it is part of our cultural DNA. Freedom is a big deal. However, when you have never been physically in bondage, it is hard to understand the true benefits of your freedom. You take much for granted and neglect to see the many ways you are bowing to slavery of different kinds.
The colonists testified that they had been reduced to bondage by their own people, King George and the British Parliament. They had been enslaved under a system that was making money for the crown and the great trading companies of the day. Yet, that is a lesser bondage than that of those who were actual slaves.
Even though troops and battles were involved, the victory was given by God for His purpose of teaching us the truth about freedom. The challenge is this. It is easy to be for “my freedom” in a particular way, but lose sight (be blind to) the need for freedom that others have.
Whether we are wanting free from a corrupt political system, literal slavery, or an oppressive economic system, we must understand that, though God is also concerned about these things, He is concerned about so much more than we tend to see. The slavery of sin in all of our hearts is at the root of all the others kinds of slavery.
Today, we give this tribute to the God who sets us free! He is the One who is fighting for complete freedom, not just the myopic freedom upon which we tend to fixate.
Humanity was made to glorify God through a fruitfulness that images Him (Exodus 1:7)
The people of Israel are described in this verse as being fruitful, increasing greatly, multiplying, becoming exceedingly mighty, and filling the land. This terminology is descriptive of their experience. However, it is using words that come directly from Genesis 1:28. God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. This can be seen as a command or mandate. Yet, at a deeper level, it represents God’s desire and purpose for humanity. We were created to express the glory of God by a life of fruitfulness on the earth.
We see this same desire and purpose reiterated to Noah following the flood in Genesis 9:1. Though He had poured out great judgment upon humanity, His desire and purpose were not changed. In fact, the judgment can be seen as a way of protecting that purpose from the great evil and corruption that had spread throughout all people.
This same theme is spoken to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are the chosen line through whom God’s promises to help humanity would be fulfilled. Israel’s fruitfulness is a sign that God is faithfully keeping His promise to them, and to humanity.
This is a strong theme of Genesis and the Bible as a whole. Of course, this is not meant to be only a material and natural fruitfulness, i.e., population growth, crops, wealth, etc. This is a fruitfulness that is a product of a spiritual relationship with God. We are first spiritually fruitful in our hearts, families and communities, and this spreads out into these material and natural things. We are intended to be a source of life in all of its connotations.
Here is a question we can ask ourselves. Am I like a weed or thorn bush to others, or am I like a fruitful tree? Am I imaging the destroying influence of the devil, or am I imaging the life-giving activity of God?
From the very beginning, the devil has attempted to stamp our this purpose within humanity. However, God continues to help us against him. The source of his despising of humanity is not completely explained, but it is real nonetheless.
This story of Israel’s fruitfulness is then connected to a Pharaoh who, much like the devil, despises and fears this.
This is a threat to tyrants (Exodus 1:8-14)
Israel had been only a blessing to Egypt. Yet, the fruitfulness and freedom of those who are called by God is generally taken as a threat by the devil and those who are cooperating with or trapped within his systems. Thus, powerful people who have sold out to immorality have actually given their services to the devil, whether they know it or not.
We see Pharaoh in these passages pressing the free Israelites into slavery. In that bondage, he uses them like cattle to labor for his great glory, and the glory of Egypt. This is a signature of tyrants. They harness the labor of the people for their own glory, whether that is Egypt, Babylon, Rome, London, or Washington D.C. There is a long history and a well crafted art of subjugating a free people. Some ways involve brute force. However, there are far more insidious ways that essentially seduce a people into shackling themselves. Once they realize that they are in slavery, it will be too late to back out of the trap.
This is what the colonists of the 18th century came to understand. George III and the British Parliament took advantage of their great distance from their brothers in Britain and supplanted their English freedoms. All of this was done for plunder and great gain for the crown and elite of Britain. The colonists were not pressed into abject, literal slavery. However, they were in slavery to a system that was using them for its own gain at the expense of their freedoms.
The Great Awakening of the American Colonies was a time of spiritual renewal in the 1730s to the 1740s. This movement stirred up a recognition of God’s purpose in governments and how this was being abused. The preaching that began in this period and continued up to the War of Independence was not about rebellion and war. It was about the purpose of God for His people and for human governments. It was a recognition that even kings are accountable to God and the people they are supposed to serve.
Whenever a people are under bondage, it can feel hopeless and futile. In fact, a subjugated people will often self-monitor themselves out of fear of being found out. They can rat out their brother and collaborate with the tyranny in order to protect themselves.
Yet, there is one more aspect to this story that we need to remember. Why was Israel in Egypt in the first place? Why did they leave Canaan, the land promised to them? We could say that it was all about a famine that required them to go to Egypt for food. However, that famine was long gone. If we go back further, we know that Egypt had food only because Joseph their brother was there and was used of God to save it. Why was Joseph there? At the root of this story, we find the sin of the patriarchs of Israel.
God is concerned about our slavery, but He is more concerned about our sins that keep pulling us into bondage. God is in the business of helping us to face our sins, not because He delights in rubbing our noses into it, but because it is a place where our flesh is most able to hear His rebukes and turn to Him for help.
Let’s read further.
God hears the cry of those in bondage and responds (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-8; 3:19-20)
In chapter 2, we find that God is responding to the cries of Israel under their bondage. We can feel forgotten during times of bondage. However, God has not forgotten us. Notice the verbs that God uses in that first passage: God heard, remembered, saw, took notice. Throughout these passages, He also says, “I am aware…I have come down to deliver them…I will stretch out My Hand…with all my miracles.” They may have felt forsaken, but God had not forsaken them. He had a perfect time of deliverance planned all along.
We can say that God began to help them when Moses came out of the wilderness, but it is clear that God was already moving on Israel’s behalf at his birth. We often think that God is not doing anything because we don’t see anything that looks like God in our life. However, the things that God does are often unrecognized until after the fact, and that is if we trust Him enough to cooperate with His salvation.
What we have here is a template of God’s heart and plan for us, for humanity. This world is full of slavery systems that have been harnessed by the devil to subjugate us. However, in Christ, we have a calling that he cannot destroy, and we serve a God that he cannot resist.
God showed up and mightily saved Israel from Egypt, but the next forty years revealed that Egypt wasn’t their true problem. They were having trouble trusting God, and it continued to lead them into discipline and even judgment. Thus, the redemption from Egypt became a picture of what God would need to do for His people when Messiah came. The prophetic books are full of allusions back to Exodus while pointing forward to the Messiah who was coming. In the first century, Israel was not just in bondage to Rome. They were also in bondage to their own religious leaders as a people and their own sins as individuals. Jesus went to war against their greater enemy (sin within us) and called his followers to extend an offer of grace to the Romans, et. al.
The colonists of the 18th century found themselves under a similar tyranny. Yet, they weren’t as good at seeing the tyranny that they were doing. Don’t get me wrong. Many abolitionists spoke out against the evils of slavery during this period, but their voices were not the ones that won the day, expediency did.
I believe that the War between the States was God’s judgment against the North and the South for not giving to the African slaves what God desired for them. God won’t force us to do His will, but He will hold us accountable to ignoring it and pushing it off to a later date. Yet, He is also faithful to open up doors of repentance even in the midst of our bondage. He may let us circle for forty years in the desert, but He will always bring us back around to the greatest act of faith, repenting of our willfulness and trusting Him. It is these hard years of bondage that soften our hearts to hear the message of repentance.
I want to end by looking at two New Testament verses.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 (NASB). This first verse is particularly talking about the freedom Christians have in regard to the symbolic aspects of the Law. It can be called a religious freedom, but it is deeper than that. It really is a spiritual freedom given to us by God through Jesus.
“[T]he creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:21 (NASB).This verse is talking about a freedom that is cosmic, universal. It is not just spiritual, but a freedom for all of the creation that has come under the effects of the curse of Genesis 3. Though God placed the creation under a curse, it was always His purpose to bring it to a day of removing the Curse. All of human history between Genesis 3 and Revelation 19 has been us circling in the wilderness. Yet, God was being faithful to teach us all along so that we can be ready, like Joshua and Caleb, to enter into the Promise that He has secured for us through Jesus the Messiah.
We must unravel the layers of bondage and face our own sin
We can imagine a spectrum that goes from spiritual bondage on the left to physical bondage on the right. Our tendency is to point to the things on the right and complain that God is not doing anything about them. However, it is the bondage on the left of this spectrum that God is most concerned about because it is at the heart of why we end up on the right side of the spectrum. The moral, social, economic, political, and global problems of our world are not because of a particular system, nor is it because of a certain race of people. It is always about the heart of people who are trapped by their sins and unwillingness to surrender to God. Thus, we become tools of the true enemy (the devil and his cohorts) instead of becoming fruitful imagers of God.
God could destroy the Romans, (insert most feared nation here), but would it “fix” everything for Israel or for us? Israel had the same problems as the Romans who had the same problems as the Americans and any other nation. We need God’s help, and He has given it in Jesus.
Christians cannot be satisfied just to work for spiritual freedom in their life and the lives of others. We must advocate against and proclaim the truth about the systems of bondage that we have created in our world. However, we cannot fix systems while ignoring the greater problem beneath. Thus, in the name of humanity, we will crush individuals. Is this righteous?
This is a signature of those who hate freedom. They use the guise of helping a particular group as a moral cloak while binding everyone (the group included) under a system that entraps them through their own sins.
Jesus has shown us the strategy. First, become a person who is free from sin by dying to yourself and living for him. Then, work to bring that freedom to others. As we do that, God works and supplies help for us to demolish systems of bondage in our own heart, family, town, State, Republic, even world. It is ours to trust Him and be faithful to the moments when He comes down to deliver.
Yes, in facing our own sin, we can feel discouraged because we will never be perfect enough. However, God’s plan has taken this into account. Through death and resurrection, God will perfect us into beings who are not sinful by nature. Even now, we can live as spiritually fruitful trees in this world. We can image the life-giving source of God Himself to our world.
So, what did fruitfulness and multiplying look like for Jesus? “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.” John 12:24. Dying to what I can do in the flesh will help me to come alive to what the Spirit of God wants to do through me. We serve a God who sets people free! When we whine to God about fixing the government or the world, He responds by saying, “Let’s talk about you first.” Don’t be threatened by this. God loves you and wants to use you to help the world around you!