What? Jesus is suggesting I am not truly free?

WALKING IN THE TRUTH

Today's scripture:  "To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to My teaching you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone. How can You say that we shall be set free?'" John 8:31-33

Devotional thoughts:  In Thursday's devotional the focus was on v. 32, where Jesus said, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Today we add some context.

Jesus was speaking to some Jews who HAD believed in Him. Apparently some HAD been following and listening to Him. Apparently they had WANTED to be His disciples, but something had changed. 

And so He challenges them. "If you HOLD to My teaching, then you are really My disciples."

They reveal what's really in their hearts and minds when they reply in shock, What? How can You say, Jesus, that we shall be set free by YOUR truth? After all,

• We're Abraham's descendants!
• We've never been slaves of anyone!

Oops. They've conveniently forgotten a few facts.

• The people of Israel had been slaves of the Egyptians for approximately 400 years before God sent Moses to lead them out of slavery & into the Promised Land. * That's a part of their treasured legacy! (The Exodus, not the slavery.)
• It was only a few hundreds years before the current time that God's People had been delivered from exile & returned to a small sliver of that original Promised Land. That's a time most of them probably would have liked to forget.
• Even as Jesus was speaking to them, the Jewish people were under the political & military domination of the hated Roman Empire.

Whose truth is at stake here? Whose credibility is in question here? Lest you & I become a little too smug, one more truth will soon be revealed. These people are victims of a much more serious slavery . . . and so are we!

Prayer thought:  Give thanks that in Jesus, who has searched for us when we don't know how or where to search for Him, truth & freedom can be found.

* The first 12 chapters of the 2nd book of the Bible, Exodus, are a fascinating historical account (also God's inspired Word}, which describe how the Hebrews (Israelites) had been enslaved & how God raised up a great prophet--Moses--among them & steered Moses through a course of events that led to the delivery--the "exodus"--of God's people out of Egypt & toward the Promised Land.