Looking Back To Egypt

When the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt, God raised up a leader, a deliverer, Moses to be the vessel He will use to bring his people finally out of bondage, out of slavery. If you remember the story of Moses, he was born to a Hebrew family but raised as an Egyptian prince in Pharaoh’s palace. In Exodus 2:11-15, it states that when Moses became of age, while he went out of the palace to see his people, i.e the Hebrew people or the Israelites, he witnessed an Egyptian and Hebrew fighting, vs 12 states he looked both ways and when he saw no one was paying attention, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand, but word got out later as we continue to read that of what he had done and then he knew his life was in danger and so he fled from Egypt to a foreign land. He ended up in the land of Midian.

Now fast forward to the period in the wilderness after God had now used Moses to deliver the Hebrew people from the hands of Pharaoh and they were heading to the promised land, the land that God had promised Abraham that his seed will have. It got to a point in time that the children of Israel (the Hebrew people) began to turn against God, they complained about everything, from lack of adequate food to no drinking water, to Moses, taking too long to come down from the mountain. See Exodus 15:24, 16:3, 17:2-3 and Numbers 11:4. In your study time, you can take a look at those scripture verses.

It is so sad how we as human beings, God’s children tend to easily forget God’s goodness in our lives. The children of Israel had been enslaved for 430 years according to Exodus 12:40 and had cried out to God in Exodus 2:23 for deliverance from the hands of their slave masters and God heard their prayers and answered by sending Moses and Aaron. These same people because of one discomfort or the other they experienced on their journey through the wilderness, began to complain and desired to return back to where they came from, back to captivity, back to Egypt.

They looked back to Egypt instead of looking ahead, looking forward to the promising future, the Lord had prepared for them and their children. Dwelling on the past can be a great hindrance to our progress and growth. It can be an obstacle to fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.

Looking back has dire consequences as we can very well see in the case of Lot’s wife. It is recorded in Genesis 19:26, that she looked back to Sodom and Gomorrah and became a pillar of salt as a result. Clear instructions were given by God through his angels/messengers not to look back. All she had to do was obey and her life would not have been cut short, probably what happened between Lot and his daughters would never have occurred. Look at what looking back to Egypt and disobedience does to a person’s destiny and also an entire family’s destiny.

Scripture tells us in the book of Isaiah, chapter 43 vs 18-19, that we need to let go of the past and look to the amazing things that the Lord is planning for our lives. He said he will do a new thing and it shall spring forth, meaning it shall arise suddenly in a spectacular way, in a way we never imagined. The Lord also states that He will make a way where there seems to be no way. This is precisely what He wanted to do in the lives of His people when He took them out of Egypt.

God wants us to trust Him completely for our today and our tomorrow. Do not allow your past mistakes, hurts to hold you back. The fact that you are alive today says a lot. He is the owner of your life and knows your end from your beginning. Your being present on this side of eternity means God is not done with you yet, He has a divine plan for your life, a calling that you need to fulfil but He desires for you to hold on to Him, the Rock of Ages, trusting him every step of the way.

In our main text, the Apostle Paul encouraged the believers to let go of past failures and regrets and instead press on toward fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives. Scripture is still telling believers the same thing today: let go of all these things, including dwelling on not just past failures but even past successes and achievements, and look ahead to answering God's calling on their lives, embracing what He has planned for their today and future.