'I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of
the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen;
and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you
go upright.'--LEV. xxvi. 13.
The history of Israel is a parable and a prophecy as well as a history.
The great central word of the New Testament has been drawn from it,
viz. 'redemption,' _i.e._ a buying out of bondage.
The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were 'delivered.' The deliverance made them
a nation. God acquired them for Himself, and they became His servants.
The great truths of the gospel are all there.
Henceforth the fact of their deliverance became the basis of all His
appeals to them; the ground of His law; the reason for their obedience.
In the previous context it has shaped the institution of slavery. Here
it is the foundation of a general exhortation to obedience. The
emphatic picture of the men stooping beneath the yoke, and then
straightening themselves up, erect, illustrates the joyful freedom
which Christ gives. That freedom is our subject.