When God was leading His people out of Egypt to the promised land- the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates river, he graciously took them ‘the long-way home’.
I don’t know about you but sometimes when I’m on the long route home, I doubt Gods gracious approach, even if the long way has beauty in it, provision in it. I question his judgment in the ‘how’. I question ‘why’ He chooses to take me a certain way instead of trusting His providence. The ‘long way’ was at the edge of the wilderness and my fear is abundant at the edge of the wilderness.
I’m not quick to forget the ‘long way’ home took 40 years for the Israelite’s. I am certain they weren’t banking on that adjustment to their travel plans. I’ve been on ‘that’ family vacation where one parent wants to stop the whole way and the other just wants to get from point A to point B.
Pharaoh finally let Gods people go and before there is opportunity to celebrate their new-found freedom, they find themselves eating manna at the edge of the wilderness, prone to complaint. Who of us hasn’t had the whining from the back of the SUV, “Are we there yet”? But can you imagine the cries of those complaints after 40 years in that SUV? I don’t care how much you like vacation, you’d question if your parents were in their right mind.
#hollymandarich
Make no mistake, God took them the long way home to divert them from battles that would ultimately tempt them to return to slavery. God says in Exodus 17, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt”. Might. God took them on a 40-year detour on a ‘might’, on a ‘maybe’. God knows the hearts and minds of his people. He knows we’re prone to wander, prone to doubt, prone to fear at the edge of the wilderness, and unfortunately prone to complaint.
We are prone to return enslavement when He promises salvation.
Some of us are living enslaved because we don’t know how to live in the promise. We’re enslaved to the ‘might’, the ‘maybe’. We fumble onto doubt and we stay there, complaining, in the midst of our provision. We focus on the edge of the wilderness, what may be lurking just beyond our border. And we think what is out there must be so much better than the provision He’s offered in the safe space, the land between. Or worse, we think what is just beyond the border, must be feared, so we tremble, manna in hand, hearts full flutter. WE ARE TERRIFIED.
I think we do this because ultimately, if we are honest with ourselves, we think we will never leave the ‘land between’ to reach the promised land. We doubt the hope of our future. We don’t want to admit that we ARE the Israelite’s in Gods provided safety until we reach the promised land of heaven. So…we scurry around lodging complaints. We don’t realize the land between was the kinder route; that God could have taken us to the battlefield where our minds could be changed and our focus could be altered. He purposely kept us from a battle that could wage war and takes us instead to a land between, where He knows returning to enslavement is not an option. It’s not the land flowing with milk and honey but it is a land where Gods provision is abundant and His message is clear.
I am a God who protects.
I am a God who provides.
I am God who loves…
Enough to take you on a 40-year vacation in a cramped SUV.
Some of us just made it out of slavery and into complaint.
Some of us are fussing at Gods provision in the cramped travel arrangements not realizing this was the kinder route on the long detour to freedom.
And some of us are on our 40th year. We are just beginning to envision the hope of what’s beyond the walls of our humanity. The hope that lies beyond the edge of the wilderness. The ones who receive the reality of the promise.
We must break beyond our limited thinking. We MUST change the way we think and ultimately trust His goodness may not always meet our expected outcome but He is always good and His plans are always better than anything we could have imagined or hoped for. We must trust Him with our yesterdays, our today’s and our futures.
God is good.
All the time.
My Walk To Joy 