Um...Are We Going the Right Way?

I have both received and given this question: “Did we just make a wrong turn?” When my wife and I first moved to Louisville, Kentucky, we asked this question a lot because the city made it so easy to get lost. Thankfully, my wife remained patient with me even when I got it wrong, and we would eventually get back on the correct route. For me, an even worse idea than knowing you’re on the wrong route (cause then you can fix it) is when you know you’re on the right road and even then, you believe you’re lost. Why? Because if this road doesn’t lead where it’s supposed to, what other chance do I have to get there? That occurred when I visited my wife’s family in Arkansas. While searching for her family’s house and correctly following the GPS, I came to a dead end because of a construction project. I frustratingly thought, “What now? This is THE way I’ve got to go!” Thankfully, I got a hold of someone who knew the area and got me back on another route that led me home. 

Something like this happens early in the Bible. In Genesis 12:1-2, God gives the Hebrew patriarch Abram the route for the lives of both Abram and his descendants. Specifically, He tells Abram to pack up his things because he will end up in a land (Canaan - the Promised Land) where he and his offspring will flourish. Move ahead several decades. Abram’s grandson Jacob and his sons are in the Promised Land but are experiencing a famine, so they call an audible - to go to Egypt and get corn from the Egyptian storehouses (Genesis 41:57-42:2). This situation serves up the story with Joseph, Jacob’s long-lost son believed to be dead, revealing his identity as the Egyptian prime minister to his brothers and being reunited with his family (Genesis 42-45). 

Then God throws somewhat of a curveball…He wants Jacob to leave the Promised Land. But wait? Isn’t the Promised Land the place he wants Jacob and the rest of Abram’s/Abraham’s descendants to live? Is God now messing up the GPS and pointing Jacob and his family the wrong way? Of course not. God doesn’t mess up. So, God tells Jacob why He is leading him out of the Promised Land. More specifically, He reassures him through a vision. He visits Jacob and tells him an echo of what he told Abram. “...fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again” (Genesis 46:3-4). God just doesn’t give Jacob the next direction. He gives him the whole map by saying that He will bring Jacob’s family back to the Promised Land. God hasn’t forgotten His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He hasn’t thrown His promises overboard. 

So why then the big move to Egypt? Because it will make God’s people more equipped to serve Him, and it will be better for them. How so? Well, first, God tells Jacob that He will use Egypt to shield his family (known as the Israelites) so that the Israelites can flourish as a people. And they do just that as they settle into the best land that the Egyptians have (Genesis 47:11). Second, God had told Abram that his descendants would be oppressed in a foreign land (Egypt), yet the Israelites still come out of that land with great substance after “plundering the Egyptians” when leaving Egypt under Moses’ guidance (Exodus 12:36). Third, this time in Egypt would keep the Israelites from falling head over heels into the wicked ways of the native people of the Promised Land (Genesis 15:13-16). So even though God takes His people out of the Promised Land, He does so to make them even more spiritually and physically equipped to enjoy Him and that land. 

How about you, my friend? Do you feel at times that you’re trusting God and His promises but feel that He is leading you down the completely wrong path? Do you feel like God just lets His faithfulness fall short? That He’s leading you away from the place that He wants you? Let’s get a little more real. Do you feel like you’ve been witnessing to the same person over and over, but they keep refusing Jesus? Have you been following God and praying what to do after high school but feel like God hasn’t lifted any of the fog? Have you been trusting God for a spouse, but no one shows up? Do you invest in your children, especially in a spiritual sense, but see little to no return? Have you questioned why God seems to punish you with diseases and other physical issues though you’ve been loyal to Him? Though God may not give you many answers now, He knows what’s going on in your life and He fully and completely cares about you. He knows where He wants to take you, which is the best position possible - being like Jesus Christ - and how you need to get there. God hasn’t forgotten His promises and faithfulness to you. In fact, God is using this route to better equip you to love and enjoy Him even more in ways that will be worthy of wholeheartedly praising, rejoicing, and thanking Him. We just can’t fight that truth but rather should embrace it through faith in His character. He’s getting you where He wants you to go. I promise, His “GPS” and caring love for you aren’t broken.