Pearls of the Word

(Back to Index)

So that they may serve Me

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

"And you shall say to Pharaoh, The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve [abad] Me in the wilderness" (Exodus 7:16).

The Hebrew verb abad means 'to serve', 'to serve God'. 'To serve God' is to offer Him a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips, that is to worship Him. The purpose of the redemption of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt was to serve God. The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew verb abad is latreuo which is translated as 'to serve' and 'to worship'.

Through the redemption of Jesus-Christ we are delivered from the hand of the enemy of our souls, Satan, to serve God without fear (Luke 1:74). Then we can worship Him in the Spirit (Philippians 3:3), our conscience having been cleansed from dead works (those we used to serve before our redemption) by the blood of Christ (Hebrew 9:14).