I question Ev-er-y-thing... Just ask my sisters or any teacher I've ever had.
I thirst for knowledge, and to know what will happen next.
In fact, sometimes I find myself fearing the unknown.
Do I really trust God with my future?
Time and time again, Daddy God's plan has trumped my own. Head knowledge tells me that His plans, not my own, should be where I place my hope and my future.
But..... sometimes I feel like the Israelites.
Scholars can debate about it all day but, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for at least 200 years, living there for over 400. When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh to deliver the "Let my people go" message from God, one of the first things Pharaoh did was require them to make the same progress in their work without providing one of the major ingredients -- the straw for the bricks. (Exodus 5) Clearly this is not a situation you want to work under, right? Back-breaking work, unrealistic expectations... and oh yeah.... let's kill your babies too so you don't raise up and take over our kingdom.
Now, fast forward through the plagues and the passover where the firstborn died in every house that wasn't marked as the Lord had commanded. With the death of his son, Pharaoh finally comes to a place where he is willing to let the Israelites go, and they book it out of there. God leads them day and night and when it looks like they are going to be trapped by a major waterway, He gives Moses the power to part the sea so they can walk straight across, but the Egyptians are wiped out when the waters are released. (Exodus 14)
Now, when the Israelites felt trapped at the edge of the water, they said to Moses "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14: 11-12)
God provided a way when when they doubted if freedom had been the right choice.
As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. Clearly God was watching out for His chosen people. How quickly though do we forget this truth?
In Exodus 16, the story continues:
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
As I read these passages yesterday, I was so disappointed in the Israelites. Only 5 or 6 weeks earlier, God had shown up in a HUGE way. He had pulled them out of slavery, parted the sea so they could walk across dry ground, and in Exodus 15, He provided the needed water and shade in the desert. When we read here, it's so clear God's got their back, and yet they want to go back to slavery, picking the known pain over the unknown plans in the hands of Daddy God.
How often is that me, playing the scared Israelite who would rather be enslaved than walk in freedom and protection into the unknown?
This next week, I challenge you to consider these thoughts with me:
- Do I REALLY trust God?
- In what areas of my life am I choosing stability over walking in faith?
- What "chains" do I need to stop running back to because God's got better?
- How is the Holy Spirit leading me to move?
Be Bold. Be Courage. Be All In. <3
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