freedom, slavery and the Incarnation

One more on Christmas-- from Janie Cheaney in World-- on the Incarnation...

In Egypt God's people were hatched, and later enslaved. And to Egypt God went to fetch them out...Enslavement is easy; liberation is hard....Freedom was literally inconceivable; not even a word....Their limits had dissolved, the four walls blown; the light blurred all boundaries and they would not deal with it very successfully.

The face of slavery hasn't changed much....Even in free societies, thousands volunteer for bondage to chemical substances or ancient grievances, abusive relationships or bad habits. Chains can look like freedom....

If the exodus was a dramatic showdown with the gods, the Incarnation was a match-up with the devil. But not just the devil. What keeps us enslaved, ultimately, is what Paul called the flesh: a jungle of conflicting desires and relentless self-aggrandizement. That's our Egypt...That's the territory the Lord invades...