For many people life is good, they’re just cruising along in life and then a conversation takes place and everything changes. It rocks their world. Maybe it’s a call in the middle of the night that your Dad has just had a heart attack and you need to get home as soon as possible. Your loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and now there’s a long road of chemo and radiation therapy. You get to work and find out your position has been eliminated and you are no longer needed. Everything changes. Nothing is the same.
Maybe you’re in a place that you would rather not be.
You’re stuck there. You can either run from it, except it or deal with it. You’re in uncharted territory, a place you’ve never been before and can’t get out of. You’re not where you want to be, you’re not where you used to be, but you’re somewhere in between. How do you navigate this new terrain? We are either in the land of in between now or we will be. None of us can escape hard times. There are up no exemptions to suffering for any of us.
Millennia ago Moses asked the Pharaoh, “To let my people go!” The situation was absolutely intolerable and the Hebrew slaves were utterly exhausted. I’m guessing you’ve felt the same way at one time? Through a series of traumatic plagues the Pharaoh finally lets the Hebrews go. Now free at last, but now what? God leads them out of Egypt towards a land ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ but God said nothing about the time in between before they would arrive.
Things are not always as they seem or at least not what we had hoped for.
After the Hebrews experienced their miraculous deliverance they were on their way toward a much better place. A time to celebrate and dance to the music! And so they did (Ex.15).
Ah yes, on the way to the Promised. Yet, now more than ever, things were radically different. They were no longer in Egypt, no longer in slavery. Not where they used to be, not where they want to be, but somewhere ‘in between.’
Much like the Hebrews’ Exodus journey we’re also trying to navigate this new terrain of the land of in between. The distance from the land of Goshen along the Mediterranean coast to the southern part of Palestine (today’s Gaza strip) is about 250 miles which is about a month’s journey on foot. Yet, God led them to a much longer route.
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said,“If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. Exodus 13:17
In the Hebrews’ case the longer way was God’s way, but God never intended the journey to take them forty years. There’s something for us to learn here.
Like the Hebrews, sometimes the longest and more difficult journey is the best and surest way for us. It might not be the more comfortable road that we would choose, but this is the road God has chosen for us.
In their hearts humans plan their ways, but the Lord directs their steps. Proverbs 16:9
Maybe you’re in a place where you don’t want to be, but God wants to meet you there for His purposes. Join us next time as we discover what those purposes are.
