Exodus 13:17-18 (NKJV)
the Way - the War - the Wilderness
April 30, 2023
I have observed a parallel, a congruency between the Jewish Hebrew Slave and the American Black Slave and I have come this morning with a few questions that deserve an answer. What if history does not have to repeat itself like the world often tells us? A philosopher once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” What if we not only remember our history but also learn from it, and begin to change our minds and actions today, so that our tomorrow will not mirror our yesterday?
Let us consider the year 1446 BC, the time of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, Africa. Pharoah said, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us..." Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. The Bible says the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew! So, the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in all manner of service in the field. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. Does that sound familiar with the history of American Slavery in 1619 AD? The Bible says that Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive." The tactics of oppression have remained the same, “Kill the boys of color and oppress the girls of color.” History teaches that God miraculously protected one Hebrew baby boy, when his sister Miriam, hid him in a small basket pitched with tar and placed it in the Nile River and followed it. As Pharoah’s daughter was bathing, she saw the baby and feeling sorry for him, she drew him out of the water and called him Moses. After 400 years of slavery now there was a Hebrew being raised and educated in the House of Pharoah to be a Prince in Egypt. God used Moses to be a deliverer for his people and through 10 great and terrible plagues “it came to pass, that Pharaoh had to let God’s people go.” The Bible says, “that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt." So, God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them by way of example, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Therefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
I. Observe the Way - So let us take heed to the WAY the Children of God came out of bondage! Why leave Egypt? Why not just call for change in the Egyptian government for the better of all its citizens? Why not just call for change in the Egyptian society to tolerate and eventually appreciate its once enslaved people? A call for change does not work, we MUST be the instruments of change! After 400 years of oppression Egypt became more than a country to the Hebrews but most significantly it became a slave mindset for the people of God. Reverend Adam Clark said, “Their long slavery had so degraded their minds that they were incapable of any great or noble exertions; and it is only on the ground of this mental degradation, the infallible consequence of slavery, that we can account for their many dastardly acts, complaints, and second thoughts after their escape from Egypt.” I call this warped mindset the “Egypt Experience.”
What is the Egypt Experience? The Egypt Experience is any bondage or oppression that when looking back, it deceptively seems better than what is happening in the present. We educated, successful and accomplished Christians have been conditioned to tell our children about the good old days. How we could leave our doors unlocked at night and we could borrow sugar, butter or eggs from any neighbor and how our children could be disciplined by any teacher at any time. The reason why some Christians get hoodwinked into political scams is because they remembered yesterday and were deceived that somehow it used to be better than this for them in the past and all we need to do is go back to the way it was. How we get out of this Old Mindset of the Egypt Experience is to develop a New Mindset that the entire experience, no matter how long it is, was designed to be TEMPORARY! The Hebrews time in slavery in Egypt was long but ALWAYS temporary, because Egypt is not the Promised Land.
• Egypt is the place where you are SOLD, like Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers. Being sold on the market is oppression! Debt is our Egypt Experience, but if we understand that this is temporary, we can be like Joseph and persevere to power.
• Egypt is the place where you are SEPARATED, like Benjamin who was separated from his brothers in Egypt. Being separated from community is oppression! Division is our Egypt Experience, but if we understand that this is temporary, we can be like Benjamin and be part of a larger plan to preserve the family.
• Egypt is the place where you are BORN, like Moses who was born into poverty in Egypt. Being born without generational wealth is oppression! Poverty is our Egypt Experience, but if we understand that this is temporary, we can be like Moses and rise to power by using the institutions of Egypt to advance our cause.
• Egypt is the place where you are HIDDEN, like the baby Jesus who was hidden by Mary and Joseph in Egypt from King Herod who sought to kill all baby boys for the exact same reason Pharoah in Egypt sought to kill the baby boys at the time of Moses. No matter what century we are in, the experience of oppression remains the same! Being forced to hide our hair, hide our voice, hide our culture is oppression! Fear is our Egypt Experience, but if we understand that this is temporary, we can be like Jesus and know that the time has now come for the healing of a nation. For God said, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”
II. Observe the War - God did not lead them by the way of the Philistines lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So, before the freed slaves were ready for WAR they had to be proved, beginning at the Red Sea! You see the Philistine-Israelite struggle began only after they crossed the Red Sea, after they wandered in the wilderness and after they came into the promised land. If history is to teach us a lesson it is that they were not ready for war so soon after freedom from slavery. Not because they were not strong enough but because they still had a slave mentality. And God said, I’m going to lead you the long way to the promised land because if you see war with a slave mentality you are going to desire to go back to your former masters. So why didn’t God just kill off the enemy and lead the Israelites on a short path to the promise? The history of the Judges of Israel in chapter 3 tells us that it was to prove them, “That He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.” The enemy that remains with us even today is simply a test from our God. Because only when our mindset has changed, then we are ready to be used by our God. An African Proverb says, “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside cannot harm us.”
III. Observe the Wilderness - But God led the people out, through the way of the wilderness. The wilderness is not fun. The wilderness is not easy. The purpose of the wilderness is not to punish you! The purpose of the wilderness is to prepare you! You see, it was not long after they came to the wilderness before they argued to go back to slavery in Egypt. The children of Israel were ready to go back from the freedom they enjoyed to the hopeless bondage of Egypt. Because a life with liberty is difficult. How did they suppose they were going to get back? Did they think that the same God who opened the Red Sea and allowed them to cross over on dry land, would open it again for them to go back?
It has been a call from powerful voices over the last century for the American Negro to go back to Africa. From white abolitionists and slaveholders who formed the American Colonization Society to Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association to Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, all, called for Black people to go back to Africa. History has proven that going back is not an option! We cannot go back, because this is our promise, this is for our people, this is because of our progeny. Let’s not be afraid of the hardship of the Wilderness of Preparation that comes before the Promised Land! God uses the Wilderness of Preparation to let old thinking die-off, old ways die-off, old habits die-off! Everyone who had the mindset of a slave, God caused to be buried in the forty years of wondering in the wilderness! Only those who had left the old mindset behind could receive the promise of a future. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Rev. Dr. King said in his last speech on April 3, 1968, “Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” On April 4, the very next day he was assassinated. As we close out the last Sunday of April, let us remember what Pastor King shared with us that stormy night in Memphis, Tennessee. “We’ve got some difficult days ahead… but we as a people, will get to the promised land.” His last public words were, “And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man!” I believe Pastor King was speaking prophetically as he quoted, Battle Hymn of the Republic. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” The Hebrew writer said, "For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven."
There is a Promised Land that is neither Israel nor America. It is a holy city called new Jerusalem and there will be no more tears, and no more death and no more sorrow and no more pain. And there is no need for a Sun to light the city because the light of the city is the glory of God. And there are 12 gates to the city and 12 angels at the gates and the street of the city is pure gold. There is no temple in the holy city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. And in this Promised Land there is a pure river of the waters of everlasting life that proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Who is this Lamb that sits upon the Throne of God? It is Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first and the last! Place your trust in Jesus today and you will get to the Promised Land!
