Thought of the Week
Let us Return to Egypt?
Have you ever watched human behaviour? It actually can be very entertaining. It seems, all to often, we are creatures of habit.
I know that I am the kind of person who orders the same thing at most restaurants. When I have been asked why I don’t try something else, I respond with ‘I know how it will taste’. I like what is familar. It can be comforting.
We are the same way spiritually.
During Passover, we talked about deliverance from Egypt and Pharaoh. We talked about what these things represent for us. Egypt could represent repeated sin, or a habit that results in guilt. Pharaoh could represent fear of our earthly father, or a negative memory of an unpleasant authority. Whatever they represent to you, we all face Pharaohs and we have all been redeemed from a place of slavery; our personal Egypt.
Upon reading the account of Israel’s departure from Egypt and the journey through the wilderness, we see God’s protection and guidance upon them. We read of God using the wilderness as a place of growth for Israel in wisdom and maturity.
I am sure we all face our own wilderness moments. We find ourselves in a place of what appears to be dry, lonely and not much fun. For the believer, just as with Israel, we grow into spiritual maturity through these times. We grow in wisdom, and often discover that God is ‘equipping’ us for greater things! In the wilderness we learn to fully rely upon God. But in the wilderness we can also lose hope and give up! We can get bored; we can grow weary and feel like God has abandaned us. The wilderness is a place where our hearts are revealed and there we often long for that which is familar. Even if it is harmful, and we know that we will seriously regret it; we often still return to it. We return to Egypt and Pharaoh! The very thing from which we wanted freedom. The very thing in which we rejoiced of being free. The very place that was killing us inside. The very thing from which we were redeemed ...we return. We return to that which is familar. We rush back to Habitual sin, repeated abuse, ungodly beliefs, etc because we enjoy the comfort of familiarity that it gives us!
‘As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.’ (Prov 26:11)
In Numbers 14, we discover the Israelites wondering in the wilderness and on their way to the Promised Land. They are in their wilderness, their place of ‘equipping’ and a place to encounter God for all He is. Yet, they are weary, tired, and
And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, ‘Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in the wilderness! And why hath the LORD brought us unto this land to fall by the sword...were it not better for us to return to Egypt?’ And they said one to another, ‘Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.’
(Numbers 14:1-4)
Suddenly, the freedom wasn’t exciting, the emotion of it all wore out, and reality set in.
We do this in our lives, too. No matter what the result will be from that habitual sin, or the visit with people who will mistreat us; we go ahead anyway...all because it we know what to expect and is a temporary comfort, even the shame and guilt the next day!
As we invite the Holy Spirit to search and heal our hearts, let us also examine and search our own hearts. Have we wondered back to our Egypt? Have we been that uncomfortable in the journey to the Promised Land that we longed for Pharaoh?
Be comforted by the Holy Spirit, knowing that He knows the secret places of our hearts and doesn’t shame us for them. He heals our hearts as we open up more to Him and allow him to be Lord of those places.
If you have wondered back to that from which you have been redeemed, or longed for the security of Eqypt; give it to God. He will gladly restore you and give you freedom again.
No matter what life throws at you and no matter what decisons you have made, also remember that YOU HAVE BEEN REDEEMED. No matter where you have wondered; YOU HAVE BEEN REDEEMED! Let Holy Spirit heal you and fill you....let Him restore you and release you from that shame and guilt. He will bring you back to the place where He is and He will guide you into the place He promised you!
Blake Holukoff Friend of St. Paul's
