As bad as the political repudiation of liberty for security and benefits is, the spiritual trade-off is even more deplorable. As Christians, like ancient Israel, we are part of a glorious exodus, thanks to the wonderful grace of God. We were miraculously delivered from sin, self and death, yet too many believers seem to wanna go back to Egypt. We want to return to bondage. This can take various forms. One common form is to simply want to go back to our old way of life. 

Folks often talk about how they enjoy being free, but in reality they seem to prefer living in servitude. They are willing to trade away liberty for various perceived benefits. While many folks would go along with the state motto of New Hampshire, “Live Free or Die,” too many others have no real desire for freedom at all.

Lots of folks in the West today seem quite happy to see their basic freedoms taken away from them by the state if they can just get various goods. We are seeing this more and more of this sense of living in an age of entitlement being played out in the West.

But this is actually nothing new. Way back in Old Testament times we saw this clearly being played out. Consider for example what we find in Numbers 11:4-6:

“Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Recall the context. Israel has been miraculously rescued and set free from cruel Egyptian slavery by Moses not all that long ago. After ten miraculous plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, they were heading toward the Promised Land to live as a new people in a new place.

But before long they were grumbling and complaining. They actually wanted to go back to their lives as slaves under Pharaoh. ‘Hey, at least we had free stuff there!’ Keith Green of course made this the theme of his hit 1980 album and one of its songs: “So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1PCIBo12KI

Let me look at two aspects of this flight from freedom – one political and one spiritual.

Political

Life is about trade-offs. Some people are willing to trade away freedom for what they perceive to be safety and security. The Covid lockdown mania was a good case in point. Millions of people were quite willing to hand their fundamental liberties over to the state in exchange for promises of protection from a virus. It really was frightening to see so many folks being so very eager and willing to surrender basic human rights and freedoms to the expansionist state.

Moreover, we are increasingly finding Western nations characterised by two main groups: those who work long and hard to provide for their families, and those who don’t, who are happy to live off of state benefits and entitlements, paid for by those hardworking tax-payers.

Elections more and more seem to break down between these two groups. The former group will vote for parties that reward hard work, responsibility, success and entrepreneurship. The latter group will vote in the party that promises them a lot of free stuff. Too may folks simply want to see Santa Claus elected so they can keep getting all the free goodies.

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