So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” Numbers 14: 1-3, NKJV.
Dear God, be merciful to us sinners! Please open our eyes as we enter the study of Your Word. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hello my dearly beloved and faithful, web family and friends! It is good to be back breaking bread together with you. I hope you had a blessed and peaceful time of rest and reflection in the Lord! Today we begin our devotionals anew! In a timely manner, I will go back and fill in the blank spaces on our website. I pray that we will be blessed as we look into God’s Word together.
It is possible that we have looked at some aspect of this Scripture in the past. I am confident that God will show us “something new,” out of His spring of living waters today! Because His Words are life, we can rest assured that some new spiritual fruit will be discovered, as together, we go in search of what was sown thousands of years ago, with us in mind, by the Holy Spirit of God – “for such a time as this” (Esther 4: 15)!
It is amazing how our minds function. We can come out of the most excruciating circumstances all bruised and bleeding; praising God for setting us free. And yet, in a moment of suffering, we can look back at those days, and gloss them over with beautiful rosy tones; the darkness all forgotten, or remembered, as “not so bad after all!” Perhaps what the Israelites were experiencing is what many of us experience. It is known as, “Retrospective falsification: memory becomes unintentionally (unconsciously) distorted by being filtered through a person’s present emotional, cognitive, and experiential state” (Clinical Psychiatry, 4th ed., pg. 33).
Nonetheless, Egypt is Egypt! Bondage is bondage! No matter what level of security one feels while in bondage, it is still bondage, and is not God’s plan for His children. When Jesus went into the synagogue to declare His mission to the world, He read these words from the prophet Isaiah: “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (Luke 4: 18,19: Isaiah 61: 1, 2). He is a Liberator! He died in order to purchase our freedom!
It is interesting that although the rebellious Israelites were willing to return to Egypt, they could not find a leader among them to do the job! Getting us out of Egypt is God’s job, with our cooperation. God is able, but we must be willing! He will encourage us to leave, but He will not force us! Nothing but slavery, and eventually death, awaits us in Egypt. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that we were better off in Egypt. Remember when the Egyptians realized that Israel had escaped, the spirit in which they went after them? Let us read about it:
“Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him” (Exodus 14: 5, 6, emphasis provided). They were not going after the Israelites to take them back and be kind to them. Their intention was to take them back into bondage! A run away slave is usually dealt with more harshly than the others, in order to teach him or her a lesson: “You cannot escape from the Master!” So returning to E g y p t is never a good idea!
Had Pharaoh allowed his heart to be softened by the LORD, this story would most likely have had quite a different ending. Remember that it was God who had taken Israel into Egypt in the first place. While Israel was in Egypt the Pharaoh that had welcomed them died; and the new Pharaoh, caused God’s people much grief. The Pharaoh they wanted to return to, had no good intentions for them. Therefore, God delivered them, once, and for all time!
Today, God is still delivering His people out of Egyptian bondage. He knows Pharaoh better than you and I do. Trust Him not only to deliver you, but to set you free, indeed! Remember, returning to Egypt is never a good idea!