In the modern world, liberation from sin, or rather the whole liberation process, can be called the way, which is analogous to how the Israelites were led out of Egypt. The Israelites found themselves in Egypt for their future redemption. As we can see, they weren’t there by accident, but rather in the whole history of salvation, God takes lead in accordance with the Israelites, and as far as the people were ready to walk in the way of God, He carried them further along the way. God worked through the hatred of the brothers of Joseph, in the old testament, throughout this whole process. The Israeli people in Egypt were descendants not all that perfect in regard to the spiritual life of the brothers of Joseph. After many years, only then was this nation ready to become more purified and worthy of the works God had planned for them. Their falls along the way of the journey through the desert over many years to the promised land is a good comparison to our falls, caused by sin, on our daily journey to the Kingdom of God. We can try to plan out our life over many years in a way that essentially would avoid mistakes committed by the Israelites who followed Moses.
Reading the bible, or even watching the film titled, “Moses,” shows us the mistakes that the Israelites made, but we often do not understand their stubborn conduct against the recommendations of their guide. Still, we do not realize that our life is similar to their misconduct, but we do not see our sins because they are somewhat hidden, as we can read about in Scripture in the chapter Mat. 7.3. We see the splinter in the eye of our brother, while the beams in our own eye we do not perceive. This is because we often do not respond to the remarks of our spiritual advisors – the priests who sometimes preach their homilies in a way that we do not understand. At times, we are more focused on what is happening around us and we get distracted from the present moment. We can see an example in the gospel of Luke 8.4-8 in the parable about the sower who sows the seed.
Thus, we can discuss the negative experiences that come enter our hearts through out senses from the times of our youth. The senses tend to play an enormous role here. For instance, we can consider the sense of taste, as we consume food excessively, simply for our own pleasure. Can we not change something here? Satisfying our hunger is essential, yet gluttony us just pleasurable, but overindulging further can harm our health causing not only weight gain but also significant health problems stemming from obesity. In this case, prudence and carefulness are needed during a meal as to determine where pleasure begins to ensure that greed does not take over and cause sin. This does not yet touch on fasting, which Jesus highly recommends for our spiritual growth. The sense of touch could also have positive or negative effects. A sense of sexual implications can likewise be disorderly, excessive, or can foreshadow immoral action. Let us also consider the sense of smell, could only a positive sense of smell have a negative effect? As far as our sense of hearing, or even our sense of sight, we can be blessed with a ton of good streaming from these two senses but also a significant amount of evil. Richness – in regard to the senses – allows us to understand another human being in a way that grants us the ability to distinguish them and then choose to utilize these senses in positive or negative deeds.
Joanna M. Maj
