God of Freedom

They are some of the most famous words in all of Scripture, immortalized in Hollywood and known even to those outside of the faith - Let My people go. 

These are the words Moses spoke to Pharaoh when trying to secure freedom from slavery for the Israelites and a journey into the Promised Land. They are words he repeated more than once. They are words that were ignored, even mocked, by the Egyptian leader. 

But Moses had to say them. At the time, Israel was captive to Egypt. Pharaoh had a powerful say over what the people did or did not do. If they wanted to leave Goshen, if they wanted to journey toward Canaan, if they wanted to travel and not worry about being pursued and killed, if they wanted to leave their lowly position under Pharaoh's heavy thumb, they had to have his permission. He was the boss. 

So it is, we think, with God. 

He is the boss. He's the one in charge. He's got us where He wants us, and if we want to leave without being smitten (smited?), we have to have His permission. We have to get Him to let us go. 

Often, we think we'll just stomp out in obstinance. We'll just throw a finger (a certain finger) in His face and walk out. He can't stop us, right? I mean, He can, but who cares? We're done with this God thing. We're tired of being under His rules. We're ready to go our own way, so come Hell or high water (and God, ironically, has been responsible for both), we're out of here. 

But it doesn't take obstinance. 

God will let us go. 

Unlike Pharaoh, God doesn't have a stake in keeping us here. He'd like us to stay, sure, but His empire doesn't collapse if we walk away. His reputation isn't really on the line here. He's got nothing to lose except, well, us, and as much as He doesn't want to lose us, He doesn't want to keep us by force. That's not the relationship that He wants with us. 

Love, He knows, requires freedom, and freedom means that sometimes, we walk away. And as much as that hurts His heart, He lets us. 

Psalm 81:12 tells us this truth in God's own voice: So I freed them to follow their hard hearts, to do what they thought was best. 

In other words, I let them go. They wanted to go, and I let them go. Because God knows that the only way to truly have us is to have our hearts, and the only way to have our hearts is to let them come back to Him. 

The only way we come back is if we are truly free to walk away. So...He gives us that freedom. 

But He never stops scanning the horizon, like the prodigal's father, for our return.