Born to Set Thy People Free Day 5

By Henry Rouse

Have you ever watched an athlete performing at the highest level or a singer on the big stage performing in a way that takes your breath away? You look at them doing things only they could, and say, “Wow, you were born for this!” 

Exodus tells us the remarkable story of Moses, a man who was born to do what he did. The child of a Hebrew slave, adopted into Pharaoh’s family and educated and raised in the Egyptian palace. Moses was born for greatness. But life turns, and Moses found himself in the desert as a nomadic shepherd. Then God appeared and told Moses that it was time to do what he was born to do. God had heard the cry of His people in slavery, and He was sending Moses to set His people free (Exodus 3:1–17). Despite Moses’s reluctance and the Hebrew’s doubts, God was faithful and kept His promise to deliver, redeem, be their God, and bring them to the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 6:2–11).

Like Moses, Jesus also was born to do what only He could do. Not to set the Jewish people free from Roman rule and tyranny, as many in Israel expected, but to bring a greater freedom. Jesus said to those “who had believed Him….You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). The freedom Jesus spoke about was not freedom from human slavery and oppression, but from slavery to sin.

Since Adam and Eve first sinned in the garden, our story is one of sin attempting to take control over humanity (Genesis 3, 4:7). Then Jesus was born, born to do what only He can do—to free broken and oppressed humanity from slavery to sin. And Jesus said it is the truth that will set us free. The truth about who He is. The truth of what He has done. As the sinless Son of God, and through His death and resurrection on our behalf, Jesus defeated sin and proclaimed freedom to all who believed. Rather than being a slave, serving the master that is sin, you and I are invited to become sons in the household of God (Hebrews 3:1–6). And “if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” (John 8:36).

Jesus was born to set His people free, which is exactly what He did. But what were you born to do? You were born again to enjoy freedom in His house! “Christ has liberated us to be free,” so the apostle’s plea is “don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Live in the freedom of knowing that you are a beloved child of God. It’s what you were born to do!