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| Gayle, Anne, Nathaniel, Will and Abby |
Recently Anne and I were sitting in an adult Sunday school
class.
The pastor was talking about how
the Israelites when leaving Egypt, (a place of slavery for them) were up against
the Red Sea. (Exodus 14) The Pharaoh’s chariots were swiftly on their trail when
Moses used his staff to part the Red Sea as God had instructed him to do, which
allowed passage for the Israelites to go across safely.
Soon after, the Pharaoh’s chariots followed,
but were swallowed up in the sea as it closed up behind the fleeing Israelites.
God made a way for his children to pass
through the Red Sea, unharmed without even getting wet.
Later, when the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised
Land, (Number 13:17) they first sent out spies into the land that God had given
them.
10 spies came back and said that
the land possessed giants and it would be impossible to conquer.
On the other hand, 2 other spies returned and
said that with God, the land was theirs for the taking, and with that, these
two spies praised God for this gift.
God’s people on the hand chose to believe the 10 spies rather than
the two (Caleb and Joshua).
The
Israelites then wanted to return to the land of Egypt.
They remembered getting 3 meals a day with a
roof over their heads.
They saw the
Promised Land as a death trap, which would be impossible to conquer.
In God’s anger he allowed them to wander for
a whole generation in the desert, and for that unbelieving generation, to die
in their disbelief.
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| Will by the water. |
During this point of the lesson my wife Anne spoke up.
“Do you know, in looking at your map pastor,
the Israelites would not have been able to go back to Egypt even if they wanted
to.
The Red Sea would have prevented
them from crossing into Egypt.”
That thought never had crossed my mind in all the times
reading this before. Anne was right;
they could not have crossed. Then it
dawned on me, “How many times do we as Christians see insurmountable odds in
front of us, and we too want to go back to Egypt?” This simple lesson was such a revelation to
me. In looking at different times in my
life, I as well wanted to go back to Egypt, rather than believe and face my
giants.
God many times brings these giants into our lives with a hope that we, as Paul calls it, “A time to get off of milk as an infant
Christian, and get going in eating meat as a growing Christian.”
(Hebrews 5:12) I can look at myself and see
that many times I chose to see the challenge as a problem rather than as a
gift.
My eyes were focused on heading
back to Egypt in my feelings of defeat, rather than looking to our Lord for his
strength and insight.
As a growing Christian, God brings challenges into our lives
not with the intent of causing us to stumble, but only to grow and trust in him
more, and not only these things, but to bless us as well. Caleb and Joshua’s eyes were on the promise
that God would give them the victory, and eventually give them the land of
“milk and honey”. Their eyes were not
focused on the problem, and on their own lack of strength and where with all,
but on God alone. They knew that in
themselves they could not receive what God had already given them, if they were
focused only on the challenge, rather than God.
I am realizing that for myself to grow as a Christian, I need to focus
on Jesus rather than wanting to go back to Egypt (my past life of sin and
walking in my strength alone). Each day
we are given the chance to see what is before us as a gift in growth and trust,
or to turn and live in disbelief.
Where is your faith today?
Do you want to return to Egypt?
We can’t cross back over the Red Sea even if we wanted to.
God’s peace is found not in the absence of
challenges and problems, it is found when we focus our eyes on our creator
instead.
Are you wandering in the desert of unbelief and lack of trust
in God?
We each are faced with giants in
our lives, we can chose to look at our Savior for strength, guidance and
growth, or chose to remain in the desert where we will never find peace.
God has given us the choice, the decision is
ours to make.
Chose today to trust in
God, he will lead you through to the Promised Land, and his peace will surround
you on your journey with him. (Philippians 4:7)
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