Authority

Four hundred years under the brutal and self-inflated regime of Pharaoh left God's people broken, distrustful and disgusted with anyone or anything that might claim the title of "e;Authority."e; In a mighty act of deliverance and salvation, God in his mighty power put an end to the false rule of Pharaoh and his legions, and began a restorative journey to rehabilitate his people, and bring them into a Promised Land. In the often-overlooked Book of Numbers in Scripture, the reader finds that God's people had a bit of a problem once God freed them. They had learned authorities only to be malicious, hateful, and destructive to their best interests. Learning to trust God's good intentions toward them as their new leader was almost impossible for them to bear. God's story in rehabilitating Israel is the story of all of humanity. We have all become slaves in some form or fashion under the hands of brutal sins, thoughts, habits and practices, temptations, powers, and even principalities that only seek to destroy us. We have surrendered willingly to things that we believe will make us happy and free, and we label as a threat anything we believe will endanger our freedom. When God delivers us, and claims that he is "e;LORD of lords and KING of kings,"e; and he claims to be the only one with whom we can find true liberty, we are faced with one question; "e;will we trust him to lead?"e;Join God's people in their journey through the Book of Numbers and experience the tendency of all of humanity to think and live like slaves under their own power and the influence of imperfect rulers. The only remedy to heal us and bring us to freedom is NOT for us to reject authority altogether, but to surrender to the leadership of a perfect ruler-Jesus is the only one that claims such a title!!