Many will be celebrating Independence Day this weekend. I find it interesting that this week the story broke about the Russian Spy scandal in the United States. If you are not familiar the government has just uncovered a group of Russian spies living in America. Exactly what they were planning is unclear, however what is clear is that they are not loyal to America. They are here enjoying the freedoms of living in our country, but are in no way thankful for those freedoms.
Similarly, the children of Israel were in danger of falling victim to the same mentality. God had raised up Moses to escort the people out of Eygpt to the land of Canaan. However they had to go through the wilderness first. Why? Deuteronomy 8:2 says, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
After going through the wilderness for 40 yrs, the people were entering into the promise land and God had one message for them. (v.11) Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. God knew that when times are difficult, then many will turn to the Lord, because you have no where else to go. But when times are good it is easy to forget the Lord and become self-sufficient. When this happens we begin to take things for granted.
This Independence Day lets make sure that we are not taking for granted the fact that we live in a country that provides us with certain freedoms that others don’t enjoy. But more importantly we must understand, that no freedom is as worthy of praise as the freedom that we receive through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins so that we can be free from the penalty and bondage of sin!