Deliverance is quite a different matter than freedom. Freedom is not deliverance. A truly "delivered" person or people sees themselves as free and they are able to act. In the history of the U.S., blacks were freed by the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, but the deliverance from the bondage in soul and spirit came later. Likewise, inmates of WWII death camps were "liberated", but deliverance from the soulish and spiritual ravages of their experiences, similarly, came later. The body may be free, but if the soul and spirit continue in bondage and oppression, deliverance is necessary.
The captive people of Israel got physically out of Egypt, but deliverance from their Egyptian "mindset" and the "spirits" of Egypt did not happen before or during their hasty departure. Deliverance requires a Deliverer stronger than that which constrains, binds, and hinders us. If we are physically free, but unable to act out of that freedom, we need a Deliverer. They needed a Deliverer to make possible "the choosing and doing" of a new life. Service, feasting, and worship of their God was going to require more than just walking out into the wilderness, and going forth into the wilderness only heightened their awareness of what they had left behind in Egypt! Something like the "you can take the Jew out of the Diaspora, but it is another matter to take the Diaspora out of the Jew!"
Deliverance requires a strength greater than our own---we cannot deliver ourselves---otherwise we become the strength, the strong arm, the Deliverer. Deliverance has to include deliverance from ourselves: self-images, imaginations, delusions, lists of what ifs, lists of wants, and lists of "I can't"... Deliverance is for faith in the Deliverer, and that sets in motion the possibilites of action. If a people are truly delivered, they are free and able to respond to the demand: "This day choose whom you will serve." Deliverance is for obedience to the Deliverer's commands, instructions and teaching...that is for obedience to the Torah. The Passover Deliverer is essentially a Messiah. So the people of Israel now had the possibility of saying "Our God has saved us!" He, "my Deliverer" is in Hebrew Yeshuati my Salvation.
Clearly, the spies who went into the Land of Canaan had not been delivered from Egypt: their complaining, their faulty eyesight, and perceptions concerning "the giants"---all these and more were wrapped up in a fear that killed any possibility of faith. A delivered person would have seen themselves as free and able to act. Such an un-delivered leadership could only propose a return to Egypt.
Slavery is much more than simply physical chains. We need to be released from our slavery mentality, and it is only in the wilderness that this deliverance takes place. It is there where our God takes care of the deliverance of our souls and spirits. It is impossible to take the old life of Egypt with us into the wilderness and have a hope of making the whole journey. The LORD said to us "leave it all behind and take nothing with you"...except...what? He said to them first eat your unleavened bread and bitter herbs, have your sandals on, and staff in your hand.
Be ready! Be ready for my call. Be prepared for I will come in an hour you might not expect!
I will come in an hour of great darkness! (Is this the dark night of our soul perhaps?) The instruction is simply to walk by faith with him when he calls even if it is the darkest time in your life. It is faith that delivers you, and our faith is our own. We cannot borrow from anyone else. We are called to leave it all behind and come out with him.
Why unleavened bread?
Why bitter herbs?
Slavery is bitter, but so is leaving slavery. Slavery is a hard journey to leave behind, especially when the new journey is somewhat shrouded in mists of uncertainty. Unleavened bread...
God wants our lives unleavened. Do we not leaven the bread with our "thinking"? The list of "what ifs" that our mind conjures up is endless. The list of "I can'ts" stretches from the past through the present to the future! These are all the leavening of Egypt, big time.
He says take what I instruct and do what I instruct...not more, not less! Don't add to or take away anything from my instructions.
Have faith in my words...my provision. I've got your back covered...and I've got your front covered, too!
Joshua and Caleb displayed a different spirit..."we are well able to do this thing...they are bread for us..." Truly, they had been delivered out of their souls and the spirits of their former life in Egypt, and they could see a new life in the covenant and promises of their God, truly in a land flowing---in the physical, soul, and spirit---with milk and honey. And they could say (fore-shouting the "traveling music" of the late Jackie Gleason) "How sweet it is!"
And a true deliverance by a Deliverer God makes possible the 3rd stage of the Passover journey: Redemption. Stay tuned!
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