Fall 2000
Deliverance from Bondage
Betty Jeffers

Many of us have spent a large part of our lives in “egypt.” Our deliverance from the power and pull of this world must become a personal reality within us, in order for us to be free. As we look back over our lives, we can identify ourselves with the Lord’s people, who were in bondage to the commercial system (egypt) of their day.

All of this begins with our acknowledging our need - that we also need deliverance. As I did this, I realized that I also had spent many hours working in “egypt,” as I was driven by a whip to labor under the hot sun.

The taskmaster over me was placed there, in his position of authority, by me. Each morning, when I reported for work, I handed him the weapon with which he drove me. Each brick that I made with my own hands was used to further enslave me. Pride, fear, greed, arrogance, selfishness; these bricks, and more, were used to build the enemy’s kingdom of death within me.

All this time, I had an “Advocate” who stood by me and whispered words of love and comfort, but I would not listen. He spoke of freedom. I heard His words, but I thought myself unworthy. After all, look at all these bricks I had made. My heart was becoming as hard as the fruits of my labors. All I could feel was that whip upon my back.

But my Advocate would not leave, nor would He give me up. He kept calling me to leave “egypt.” But I did not see how it could be possible. Besides, there were pleasant things there. The food was good, life was passable, and I knew what to expect. The pain of my life had become part of me.

My Advocate was asking me to follow Him, to leave the land I knew, to find a freedom that threatened me. I questioned, would He care for me, would He lead me into a land of giants who would grind my bones for bread, could He be trusted, would He love me?

But He would not leave. He stood besides me as I labored and hurt. He imparted His love to me, until I began to long for more. In pursuing me, He made known to me His faithfulness. Finally, I realized that He was worthy of my trust.

I left “egypt” under His banner and protection, as the chariots of my old master rumbled behind me in pursuit. I walked out of that land, and into a sea which He had walled-up on either side of me, as a fortress, to allow my feet to fall on dry ground.

He stood as fire behind me to protect my going out of the land, and confounded my former masters. He released the waters onto the heads of my enemies to defeat them. He fought for me.

But the wilderness was only a little better than what I had left behind. It seemed as though I had traded one harsh taskmaster for another. However, when night was at its darkest, He stood before me as a flame of fire, comforting me with His presence. Even in my chastisement, I came to love Him.

One day He showed me a lump of clay, much like that which I had used in past days to make those bricks of bondage. It was riddled with debris. I asked Him what it was, and He said that this clay was me, filled with imperfections, but that in His hands, I could be purified.

All the remnants of my former life would be kneaded out, and discarded. I could be shaped into a vessel worthy of holding His truth; a lamp to burn the oil of His Spirit to light the world.

Now I understood that this clay needed to yield to His hand, and submit to His labors. It would be painful to remove these things embedded within me, but as they were eliminated, the pain they caused would go with them, to be remembered no more. Once cleansed, I would be shaped and put within His furnace to be strengthened by His fire.

I yielded myself into those wonderful, strong, nail-scarred hands to be shaped by Him. When the pain gets great, these hands soothe, when my heart gets cold, they warm me, when I am weak, they hold me.

I have gone from creating bricks by my hands, to being formed into a vessel of honor, shaped by the hands of my Lord and Savior, to love and serve Him. I do not know all He has for me, but there is no safer place to be, than in the hands of He who has transformed my life.