The Children of Israel that came out of Egypt numbered over 600,000 men. This was not counting women and children. The Pharaoh took his army of 600 chariots after them. Each chariot normally held one person. The word doesn’t say if there were any men on horseback. But needless to say, the Israelites seriously outnumbered the Egyptians. They could have gone to war and defended themselves.

Instead, they complained that Moses had brought them out into the desert to die. They were afraid of the Egyptians. They still had a slave mentality. They didn’t understand who they were and who had been watching over them. Even after the ten plagues of Egypt, they could not grasp that God would protect them. They had been slaves their whole lives and it wasn’t easy to realize they were free. 

We have been held captive by satan. He is like the Pharaoh he doesn’t want to let us go.  He is so evil he wants to take as many souls as possible to hell with him.  Even though cartoons and television shows depict him as being in charge of hell, this is not biblically accurate. He will be there to be punished.

Satan has only the power we allow him to have over us. Just like Egypt used fear to control the children of Israel; satan uses fear to control us. He tries to keep us bound with fear. We have a blood covenant with God almighty, which gives us power over our oppressor.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

We are given power over the enemy. God is on our side. He is our protector and savior. He will never allow the enemy to overtake us. We have the power to let our flesh overpower us and give in to the enemy.  Because God gives us free will. It all comes down to us. Do we have a slave mentality? Are we going to believe in the enemy’s words or God’s? Are we going to let the flesh fear the enemy?

James 4:7 – Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

I have often heard the second part of this verse. Resist the devil and he will flee. But if we are not submitted to God, we will not have the power we need to resist the devil. The children of Israel had not learned how to submit to God. They let their fear be bigger to them than the fact that God had delivered them from the ones they feared.

We cannot allow our fear of the enemy to keep us bound. God has set us free. Freedom is scary sometimes if we have spent a long time in bondage. God will break off our shackles if we ask him to set us free. But because we have been bound so long, they have become a part of us. We have a hard time knowing who we are when we are free. Like the children of Israel, at the first sign of trouble, we want to go back to bondage.

The path of least resistance never leads anywhere worthwhile. This is why we need to stand strong and resist the devil. The understanding that we are free is a realization that every Christian needs to get a full grasp.

John 8:36 – If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

It is time to shake off the shackles. Resist the devil. Embrace the freedom we have as God’s children. We are free because he made us free through and by the blood of Jesus. We have no reason to fear the enemy.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS