1. In the Exodus, we see over and over again that God cannot stop thinking about his people. Not only that, God has a vision that even the people do not have--escape from slavery--and moves mountains to see that vision come to pass. In fact, we get a rare insight to God's thoughts in Exodus 13:17a--"God thought, If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt." For the Israelites, returning to Egypt is frequently running through their minds, especially later in their journey. We forget that we, like the Israelites, often fear the future in the wilderness and lack trust in the unseen God. We would rather go where we have physical and earthly security than to trust in God and the vision that he has in our world. We forget that God, since his love for us is infinite, is constantly working in this world to provide for us, because he can't get us out of his mind.
Have you ever loved someone deeply? Unconditionally, or as close as we can get to that in this life? This love pales in comparison to God's love for you, for each of us. What would you do for someone you loved deeply? Would you support them and give them all you had? Would you grieve with them when they were hurt and suffering? This is how God feels on a galactic, divine scale. But no matter how much you love and support someone, what if that person does not receive your love and support? Does it not make your heart cringe? Listen to the Israelites in 16:3--"If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread". Wow...the Israelites wanted death more than God's vision? Sounds like...what most humans choose each and every day. I don't have children yet, but if I had children who would rather die than allow me to provide for them, I would be crushed and disheartened beyond understanding.
2. While God can't stop thinking about his people, his people can't stop thinking about...Egypt. They want to return to their land of Egypt where they are comfortable and eat their fill of food, despite their slavery. (Did you remember, as you were reading Exodus, that the Israelites not once ask God for deliverance from their slavery?!) Egypt for the Israelites was earthly security, and the wilderness was a journey where they had to rely solely upon God. Relying upon God requires faith in God's hands working around us, and since God is invisible, and Egypt is visible, they had much more faith in Egypt. But if we think of Egypt not as a place in the ancient Middle East, but rather a motif for worldliness, we see that people today are no different from the Israelites.
Egypt for us today is the world, a place where human desires are fulfilled and God's will is forgotten or used purely to gain comfort. For us today, Egypt is relying upon ourselves to fulfull our destiny, our own salvation--plenty of choice food, excellent education, hefty income and trips to exotic vacations in fancy automobiles. Egypt represents all that we desire for ourselves--security, and plenty of it. Egypt has it all!! In the ancient world, Egypt is the bread basket of the region, which means plenty of wealth and power, and the political security that was unmatched by any other nation. Egypt is a place where we can worship whatever gods we choose, even ourselves, so long as we also worship the leaders of the government (the Pharaoh in the case of the Exodus time period). But Egypt comes with a cost--slavery to the forces of this world, the principalities which bring sin and death, all sorts of evil.
3. God is willing to understand the Israelites' lack of faith and forgive them their sins, but he is interested in delivering them from the slavery they don't even want to escape. In exchange for this deliverance from slavery, God wants the Israelites to change their culture, to make a difference in the way they live their lives, away from worldliness and into holiness. But this holiness stuff is a completely new way of life. They must not praise other gods, just the LORD. They aren't supposed to murder or forsake their parents. And there are plenty of other directives, such as observing the Passover. God is intentional that in order for the Israelites to live into holiness, they must make it part of their everyday lives to live not in accordance with the practices of this world, but in faith be set apart so that the world knows that the LORD is God, and their God. This agreement between the Israelites and God is known as a covenant.
As we enter and live into God's covenant with us through Jesus Christ, the same type of expectations are held on our end. We are expected to love our neighbors as ourselves, not just in mind or heart but also in action; we are expected to stop judging one another; we are called to tell the world about our God and how good he really is. Now of course, God is always faithful on his end of the bargain, despite our many mishaps--but that doesn't negate the fact that we have our side of the bargain to work on!! As Christians it is vital that we seek to live according to God's precepts, as Jesus Christ has demonstrated and lived out, if we are going to be God's people. That just might mean that we lay down our investments in Egypt, and instead bet on God's will, which will carry us through much more treacherous terrain--the wilderness!!
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The time has come for us as Christians to recognize that in our sin, we are beckoning back to Egypt. When we seek comfort for ourselves while our neighbors go without, we are living our lives as we did back in Egypt. When we do not tithe our church because we feel we've worked hard to earn our money and we won't have enough to go around without it, we are living like we did back in Egypt. When we face difficult situations in life with a defeated attitude, assuming that failure is inevitable and that we will forever be victims of this world, we are living like we did in Egypt. When we refuse to take time to read Scripture, attend regular worship services, volunteer at church to our ability or tell our friends and family about this awesome God who loves us, we are right back in Egypt.
But when we go out on a limb and give up our comforts to provide for others, we are walking with God in the wilderness. When we tithe despite our financial hardship (or in most of our cases, despite having to forego going out to eat, or cutting the vacation short by one day), and give extra as often as absolutely possible, we are walking with God in the wilderness. When we see failure but know that we are loved, and know that we have a future worth living for, we are in the wilderness. When we spend our time and effort to do the work of the church, by fulfilling the mission of God to bring healing to our community, we are in the wilderness. And when we tell others about our experience with God, we are living by faith in the perilous wilderness that God has lain before us.
I can't wait to live my life more and more into that wilderness...because I know that, even though I won't always have my fill, I will eternally be satisfied by God's abundant love and provision.
