When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, "If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle. - Exodus 13: 17-18 (NLT)
God sees everything. God sees all time. God sees what would happen in any given situation and always chooses the path that will result in what is best for us and what will be glorifying to Him. We on the other hand do not always understand these truths. Sure we know them. We comprehend them. We even tell others about them. But applying them in our situation is an entirely different story. All we see in our situation is"well"our situation. But God has specifically recorded the events of the Israelite people to leave us an example of how He operates.
A history lesson will show that Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob, who had his name changed by God to Israel. Israel was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham that his descendents would number more than the stars in the sky and that they would become a great nation. God always keeps His promises.
For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory. -- 1Corinthians 1: 20 (NLT)
But God knew there was a severe famine coming that would threaten to annihilate many nations. He chose Joseph as the vehicle through which He would deliver and protect His chosen people. Joseph would serve 80 years as the Prime Minister of Egypt, where the Israelites had to settle in order to survive. But eventually the generation of Joseph died and everyone who knew that he had saved the Egyptian people as well. A new Pharaoh would see the Israelite as a threat and he would enslave them.
So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. -- Exodus 1: 11-14 (NLT)
Oppressed by brutal slave drivers who sought to wear them down with crushing labor. Working them with no mercy to make their lives bitter by their ruthless demands. Correct theology uses these verses to describe the condition we are in before we are saved by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. But I want to go deeper today and realize that this is the description for anything in our lives that is not of God. We need to be honest with each other and realize that while salvation sets us free, we do not always walk in that freedom. We do not always walk in the freedom Christ appropriated for us on Calvary. If we did, Paul would not have had a need to write this:
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. -- Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
