...to be bound

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art;

Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

---Charles Wesley, 1744

I always worry a little that songs and stories of Israel in bondage don’t resonate with us. Time and again, Israel is taken captive, enslaved, bound by nations and peoples more powerful than they. The flame of hope in them flickers and falters, faint and nearly cold.  We sit here, free, rich (relatively), beholden to no one, and try to put ourselves in the place of those Israelites who longed to be freed from their oppression. We hear the songs of their longing, but can we really connect with them?

Then I look again at the text for today. “From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.” Surely we all know what it is to be held captive by sin, to be in servitude to our fears, to yearn for rest and comfort. Imprisoned by a dark past that won't let us go, or one that we can't let go of. Terrified of stepping onto a shadowy path where the footing is uncertain. We know what it's like to be bound.  We know what it’s like to need setting free.

Come, thou long-expected Jesus.