Remember That You Were Slaves in Egypt

by

Dr. Karl D. Coke

God's Shavuot message for every believer is this: "Remember that you were slaves to sin and labor to bring others into the harvest of freedom. Don't appear before me emptyhanded."

There is much said and written today about the Church reaping a large end-time harvest. Interest in missionary activity is high within Christian groups other than just the evangelicals. Even mainline churches have launched soul-winning efforts. What has caused this current trend toward evangelism? Is the concern for harvesting lost souls coming from something prophetic about the approaching year 2000? Is current Church evangelism motivated by an imminent return of the Messiah? What has caused the affluent, self-serving Western Church to turn from ordering new expensive stained-glass windows to hiring staff evangelists? Something is happening! Something is in the air! Something is moving churches toward their original mandate–going into the whole world to preach the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Yes, many churches are evangelizing. In the Third World 3,500 new churches are started each week. But, is every church moving into evangelism correctly motivated? Is the motive behind current church evangelism free of self-interest? One may ask, "Why is the motive for evangelizing important?" Because, in the end, we will all discover that winning the lost had nothing to do with increasing local church statistics to get noticed. We will find that evangelism had nothing to do with men adding to "their" church. Additionally, we will discover that local churches should not have entered into "competition" with one another. Our real enemy is Satan. Why fight with each other? Churches should join efforts, not compete. Has not history proven that growth in numbers may not necessarily be the only and best measure of what is going on in a local congregation? In contrast, all properly-motivated evangelists should remember that evangelizing has to do with adding to Jesus’ Church. It has everything to do with God’s will to fill the earth with His glory. As members of His Church, we should only be motivated to carry out His will.

What does God say should ‘motivate’ our efforts to harvest souls? Here is one possible answer. As today’s Church moves into reaping fields white unto harvest, it should consider a verse found in the context of Leviticus 23:15-22. This passage deals with the Lord’s Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) commonly called Pentecost. Leviticus 23:22 is a key verse within this context. It says, "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God." This verse is codified as law number 210 under the 365 Prohibition Laws (negative laws) under the subheading "Agriculture." This idea is repeated in laws 211 through 213 recorded in Leviticus 19:9-10 which says, "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God." It is law 214 of this section that really makes clear God’s motive to harvest. Law 214 is found in Deuteronomy 24:19-22 which says, "When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do no go back and get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. This is why I command you to do this."

These laws teach us that the proper motivation for reaping comes out of remembering that we were once slaves in Egypt. We must remember how life was when we were held in sin’s bondage before we begin to harvest. The only pure motive for evangelism is birthed when we remember that we were once lost in sin. Paul gives this clarity when he describes our condition before we were saved. In Ephesians 2:1-4 he says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."

Remember, we "born-again" Gentiles are the aliens mentioned in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. We are the ones who benefited from Israelis not harvesting to the very edge of their fields! We are the ones who have found food in Israel through Messiah Jesus! Paul further says to us, "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are called Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)–remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:11-12). We were lost but then Jesus Christ found us. Ephesians 2:13 says, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." Blessed be He! Once we were lost in sin (Egypt), but now we are saved through the blood of Messiah! This is precisely the condition of millions of lost souls in today’s world. They need to be saved without even knowing they are lost.

The Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) is a feast about harvesting. It marks the end of the barley (Jewish) harvest and the beginning of the wheat (Gentile) harvest. Two loaves are waved before the Lord. Both Jew and Gentile are to be harvested. God was in Christ making one new man out of the two. Therefore, Paul told us not to allow conceit to play a role in the harvest. In Romans 11:25-32 he says, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all

Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all."

As the Church strategically plans her evangelistic efforts, she should be as the Biblical Israeli farmers who did not know who nor how many might glean from their fields. For the Church, it is enough to evangelize. No concern should be placed over numbers of converts or "additions" to a particular congregation. We are not adding members to "our" church! We should just preach Jesus and Him crucified. Let Him produce the results. He will win the lost–both Jew and Gentile. Isaiah 49:6 says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

To repeat for emphasis, memory of what it was like to be in bondage should motivate every believer to harvest souls. The key word here is "every" believer. The work of harvesting should involve every believer. Shavuot is not just for the talented and burdened. Consider Deuteronomy 16:16-17. It tells all harvesters participating in Shavuot that, "No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you." This indicates that all men should participate in the harvest in direct proportion to the manner in which the Lord has blessed. All Israeli men were held in Egypt: rich or poor. All Israeli men have been set free. Therefore, all Israeli men should participate in the Feast of Harvesting.

Even Jesus appeared in Jerusalem on Shavuot. He was manifested as the Holy Spirit (see John 14:18) as recorded in Acts 2:1-4. He did not come "empty-handed." Acts 2:41 says, "Three-thousand were added to their number that day." Why three-thousand souls in this harvest? Because three-thousand Jews were lost at the first Feast of Weeks (Exodus 32:28). This was the day Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Law. The Israelis had given up on Moses returning from Mt. Sinai and had forged a golden calf (an Egyptian god). They had forgotten the bondage of Egypt and forsaken the Lord. Yet the Lord could not destroy them. The Lord's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob caused Him to forgive their sin. Therefore, what had been lost at Mt. Sinai was now redeemed at Mt. Zion!

With the barley harvest over for a season, the wheat harvest began in earnest from Acts 2:41 onward. As the result, today, millions of believers have been set free from Egypt (bondage). For every alien harvested there stands a "someone" who stands before God who did not come to Him "empty-handed." Praise be His Name for ever and ever; Amen. To my Gentile parents who taught me God's Word, to Rev. J. Herman Alexander who preached the sermon the night I gave my life to Christ, and, to Mr. Noble Hankins, the one who led me into confessing that Jesus is Lord and affirming my heart’s belief that God raised Him from the dead, I say, "You did not go into His presence ‘empty-handed.’ " Each of you had the proper motive. You remembered your bondage in Egypt and how Christ set you free. You then told me of my need to have Christ deliver me from Egypt. He has set me free! With that burning memory, I now turn to the harvest properly motivated and plead, "Lord, may I not come into your presence ‘empty-handed.’ "

Dr. Karl D. Coke is a Hebrew teacher whose understanding of the original languages, the history, and the culture of the peoples of Holy Scripture causes the Bible to come alive for his audiences and readers. He is president of Redirection, a ministry that establishes the home as the center for spiritual development among Christian communions. Karl, his wife Karen, and their daughter Kristin live in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he also pastors Family Restoration Fellowship.

Guestbook | Table of Contents | Restore! Magazine | Restoration Foundation Home