Let me Go

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

LET ME GO

1 Kings 11:14-22

 

14 Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. 18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking men from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food. 19 Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh's own children. 21 While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Let me go, that I may return to my own country." 22 "What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?" Pharaoh asked. "Nothing," Hadad replied, "but do let me go!"

NIV

We learn about this adversary, Hadad, the Edomite, although we are not told at this point how he became this adversary. However, he had to hate the Israelites, as they were the ones who killed all the men of Edom while he was just a young boy, and he was able to escape to Egypt. But what can we learn from this story? From what we are told, Hadad had a really good life in Egypt. He was given the queen's own sister, and his son was raised just like a Pharaoh's child. Life was good, but he wanted to go back to his own land. Hadad was asked what he lacked in Egypt and why he wanted to leave all that behind to return to his own land. We were born in this land, but we made our escape to the kingdom of God. Within the kingdom of God, we are being raised as one of his own children. We have been given a home and all we need. In fact, we have been given life and life abundantly. Why would we ever want to return to our own land, which in our case would be our old life, the way we lived in the world when we were an adversary of God? Of course, the world would like to raise us up as one of its own. However, we have already left it behind and escaped to the kingdom of God.  This is in the spiritual realm, while in the physical, we still live within this world, but someday, we will say, “Let me go” I want to go to my land, the kingdom of God. Someday, we will leave this place physically and go to our real home, the place Jesus prepared for us. Because we desire to be with our Lord, we tell this world, “Let me go.”