When the Bible uses a word or phrase many times, it’s an invitation to sit up and take notice. One of the phrases used a lot in our Old Testament is “out of the land of Egypt.”
It is used only twice (Exodus 6:13; 7:4) before the Exodus, but then occurs over seventy more times, often in reminders to Israel about how God had rescued them. For example. . .
Exodus 12:17 “And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.”
Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Leviticus 11:45 “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Leviticus 19:36 “You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
Leviticus 23:43 “. . . that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 6:12 “. . . then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Deuteronomy 29:25 “Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.'”
1 Kings 8:21 “And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
Psalm 81:10 “I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Jeremiah 31:32 “. . . not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”
God obviously wanted Israel to remember the reality of their salvation, which meant remembering both their pre-Exodus plight AND the One who rescued them.
In the same way, He wants us to remember that from which we have been saved: sin, guilt, hell, rebellion, confusion, hopelessness, despair, cynicism, and the like. Just as it was important for Israel, it is important for us as well. Let’s take some time today to remember what it was like before Jesus came into our lives, shall we?
“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Ephesians 2:12, 13