"Step by Step, from Bondage to Abundant Life"

Today’s title is a treasured description from an ageless devotional which simply sings gardening to me! O Shelley, are you getting a little too ga-ga with the garden metaphor?! How is this storyline statement a gesture to gardening?

Pause, and calmly think on the allusive elements composing this phrase. Do you see the Biblical garden tour before you? By now, bondage ought to be synonymous with Egypt in our mind’s eye, pointing to the epic story of the Israelites’ slavery and God’s deliverance.

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm
Exodus 6:6 KJV

“Abundant life” represents the destination of the Israelites’ rescue from Egypt and wandering through the Sinai Desert. God’s people would have plenty in the land God promised to them, a land filled with good things and abundant harvest.

For the LORD God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing
Deuteronomy 8:7-9 NIV

The imagery of the land’s bounty grounds the story in the landscape, the garden. Furthermore, it points to God’s salvation beyond the landscape—to eternal life in Jesus Christ.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 John 5:11 NIV

I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10 NASB

Meanwhile their movement from one place to the other was a deliberate pace, a step-by-step journey, a process guided by God.

God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Psalm 25:8-10 The Message

The expanse of the Bible landscapes is captured in this one catch phrase: Step by step, from bondage to abundant life. To realize this pattern and trust in every oppressive or burdensome situation that the Lord will move us deliberately to a happy, content, and abundant existence makes this storyline statement practical and useful. Dig in to God’s Word with me, seeking the deeper dimension of these keywords, rooting our hope in belief.

Step by Step

You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him… Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set
Psalm 119:1-2, 5 The Message

With each of you we were like a father with his child, holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life.
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 The Message

From Bondage

Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage.
Ezra 9:9 NIV

I’m cutting you free from the ropes of your bondage.
Nahum 1:13 The Message

I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.
Psalm 81:6 NIV

To Abundant Life

Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand
Deuteronomy 30:9 NASB

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB

Knowing these words more securely, what is our response? To take courage, as collage artist Grace Cramm inspires us with Jesus’ command, to move forward whatever we face—

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Matthew 14:27 NIV

—a charge patterned in the Sinai Desert.

Then Moses summoned Joshua. He said to him with all Israel watching, “Be strong. Take courage. You will enter the land with this people, this land that God promised their ancestors that he’d give them. You will make them the proud possessors of it. God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”
Deuteronomy 31:23 The Message