It is safe to say
that those of us who are Christians can look
back on the time when we first accepted Jesus
Christ as our Lord and Savior and recall the
enthusiasm we had for Him. We were eager, we
wanted more information, we wanted to learn. How
exciting an experience!
Sometimes, as we go
through life – no, most times, as Christians, we
face adversity in many ways. All people
face adversity but the difference between being
a Christian and not being a Christian is that we
have God to lean upon. We know He will never
lead us where we are not supposed to go. Or does
He? There have been many times I can recall when
I had to ask myself (and God), hey, aren't we
supposed to be doing it a different way? Or, hey
Big Guy, this isn't what you wanted, is it?
The Bible is written
for our instruction. It is our “manual for
life.” It is just as relevant today as it
was 2,000 years ago, if not more so. The Old
Testament teaches us many things, as does the
New Testament. But, so many Christians prefer
the New Testament and some even believe the Old
Testament is not for them. How untrue. Every
word is there for a reason.
Exodus 13:17
tells us, “And
it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people
go, that God led them not THROUGH the way of the
land of the Philistines, although that was near;
for God said, lest peradventure the people
repent when they see war, and they return to
Egypt.”
What does this
passage mean? Many of us haven't thought about
the “Exodus” except perhaps that the Hebrews
were released from bondage and they wandered in
the desert for 40 years. Many believe it was
because of their sin. But this is simply not
true. What sin did they commit that they would
right away be led OUT of the way which they were
to go and by God, as the scripture indicates?
God is teaching us
some important lessons here in these passages.
He is revealing Himself to us through the
account of this event. We must learn. I
don't know about those who might be reading
this, but I believe one can tell a great deal
about a person by the way they drive. Some
people can't read a map and get lost and then
won't ask for directions. Some take off on a
journey with no plan, no map and no idea how
they are to get wherever it is they believe they
are going. Be assured, God does none of those
things.
Would God
intentionally lead us through detours and back
roads on our journey to reach His perfect will
for our lives? I say yes. How many times have we
gotten spiritually sidetracked? How easy is it
to find ourselves in a predicament where we are
frustrated? We might be doing EVERYTHING
God has asked us to do but we run out of gas, or
we get lost or we simply run out of road. God
actually leads us to dead ends at times. If it
is so easy for Christians to lose their way,
it's easy to see how the unsaved are lost.
We ask God why these
things are happening. How are we, as Christians,
to react? Let's look at the story of the
Exodus, there we will find some answers.
In Exodus 13:17,
we read “...God led
them...” Understand
those three little words. Pay particular
attention to those words. We are thankful
that God leads us, aren't we? He leads us each
and every day! What would we do without prayer,
without being able to or not knowing how to
trust Him?
Psalm 37:23,
“The steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his
way.”
This
passage is just one of the many promises of God.
He directs our steps. Prayer is so important, it
gets us in step with God. It keeps us walking
daily in His perfect will.
If we are truly
following God, if we are truly trusting in Him,
if we are truly walking with Him and we find
ourselves at a standstill, then we must know HE
LED US TO THAT PLACE. And, you can
believe that He is delighted
we are there.
Sometimes, we might ask, “Father, what ARE you
doing?” Many of us have faced detours and dead
ends in our lives. Perhaps some reading this are
going through these right now. When we read
Exodus 13:18 we see more,
“But God led the people about,
through the way of the wilderness of the Red
sea: and the children of
Israel
went up harnessed (armed) out of the
land
of Egypt.”
As mentioned
earlier, many of us think the Children of Israel
wandered in the wilderness because of
disobedience. And yes, later that was true. But
not when they had just left Egypt! This scripture tells us that
they were “led about”. Moses, under the
direction of God, led them around in circles....
They had done nothing wrong! They had celebrated
the Passover, had followed Moses, and were
obedient. Yet, they were being led around! From
the very beginning, we see that God was leading
them around, and they had to have been asking
themselves, “God WHAT are you doing?” They were
being taken on a divine detour.
Why didn't God take
them the shortest way? The quickest way isn't
always the best way and the shortest way isn't
always the quickest way. Most of the time
spiritually the shortest way isn't the best way.
We read in Genesis 39:1-3, “And
Joseph was brought down to
Egypt; and
Potiphar, and officer of Pharaoh, captain of the
guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of
the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down
thither. And the Lord was with Joseph, and he
was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of
his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that
the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made
all that he did to proper in his hand.”
Joseph was following
God. We see he was prospering because of his
obedience to God. What a wonderful story. Joseph
was doing God's will. Genesis 39:6 tells
us, “And he left all that he had in Joseph's
hand [his master]; and he knew not aught he had,
save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was
a goodly person, and well favoured.”
But we see there is a
problem. In verse 7 we read, “And it
came to pass after these things, that his
master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she
said, Lie with me.” 8. But he refused and
said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master
wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he
hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
9. There is none greater in this house than
I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me
but thee, because thou art his wife: how then
can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God?”
This woman didn't
just “look” at Joseph, she had big plans for him
and Joseph turned her down, despite her strong
pursuit for days. I could see that Joseph
was a good-looking young man, this was a
temptation. But Joseph was firm and did the
right thing. What happened to Joseph? He was
thrown into prison! He did nothing wrong, yet
there he was; not just in prison but in the
lowest part of the prison! Genesis 39:12-14
gives us an account of what the wife
did. The saying goes: there's nothing like a
woman scorned. She claimed that Joseph had raped
her. And so, he was thrown into prison.
How could God let
that happen? Did He let that happen? Joseph's
life had been full of detours but he was
obedient, and how was he rewarded? Is this what
he deserved? Joseph knew his brothers would be
coming and that he must be ready, but he found
himself in prison. This was certainly a
detour from where Joseph knew he had to go. It
was a divine detour. He was headed for the
palace, but he first had to take that detour.
In Exodus 13:17,
we see that God had taken the Children
of Israel
out of Egypt,
but the passage is clear: “...God said, Lest
peradventure the people repent when they see
war, and they return to Egypt.”
God knew that these very people must fight, must
war against the Philistines, who were known to
be very fierce. If they didn't trust Him and
follow His instructions, at the first hint of
trouble, He says here that they would run back
to captivity in Egypt!
These people were not
warriors. They were stone-cutters, craftsmen,
and artists. They would have run straight back
to
Egypt. This was
a divine detour!
We can see that we
are given detours [divine
detours] because we may
not be ready for a task that God has
for us to do. He knows what this will require,
but we do not. It is not for us to determine
when we are ready, that is for God to determine.
We are the
workmanship of God. We keep doing the things we
are called to do and God will bless them because
our steps are ordered by Him. He knows the
timing and He knows when we are ready. We
must trust God all the way!