Little By Little

And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out (your enemies) from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. Exodus 23:28-30

I like to see change take place, but I also like it to happen at a decent pace. I understand that some things take time and you have to be respectful of the process. I just get genuinely excited about the potential of the future and want to see things happen. It's a good thing God is wiser than me in these moments. 

While I am praying for newness and working hard to make it happen, God makes sure His timeline is the one that takes precedence. Much like the Israelites, God knows what I am capable of handling and He sees layers of complexity that I couldn't imagine. God tells me the same thing He shared back then, "I could give it to you all at once but you couldn't handle it." 

The step-by-step, patient path isn't the easiest to follow, but it's the best one. I'm going to keep trusting His timing and plan over mine. After all, He's got the advantage in perspective.

Shifting Allegiance

Then he (Moses) took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24:7

That sounds like a group of fairly committed people. In fact, I think they believed the intent of their own words and didn't plan on falling short. In that moment the people of Israel wanted to follow God and stay under his authority. Sadly, history tells us that less than 40 days later they had failed miserably and suffered the consequences of their decisions. 

On the surface it seems hard to believe that an entire group of people could shift their allegiance so quickly. Before we decide to judge the Hebrews too harshly perhaps we should examine our own life patterns first. How quickly we walk away from our commitments? How often do we make bold statements about our convictions and then abandon them in a matter of days? What life changing resolutions have we written down and then ignored once the shine of their newness wore off? 

If we want to make positive declarations about what we will (or won't) do, we've got to have a corresponding action plan to make it stick or we're just making a lot of noise.

What Now?

Can you imagine what the Israelites were thinking when they fled from Egypt? They had been set free and given treasures, livestock, and food. They were told that they no longer had to be slaves and could go live their own lives. Imagine their terror when they realized the Egyptian army was now bearing down on them. The Israelites were not an army-they were a community of families moving towards a future home. I'm sure that panic set in as they ran from the hordes chasing them. Their forward momentum was halted by the Red Sea. What doubts set in people's minds as they felt the fury of the pursuing enemy and the immovable object of the sea?

What do we do when we find ourselves against a wall of water with the enemy close behind us? Do we turn back to the enemy and beg for mercy? In our haste do we throw ourselves recklessly into the sea in front of us and end up drowning? If we truly believe in God's infinite mercy and have confidence in His sovereignty, we will wait. God has a habit of showing up at the exact moment of need and not a minute early or late. If we trust in His ability to intervene at just the right moment we have the incredible opportunity to witness a miracle.

God Remembers

In the book of Exodus, God's people are being oppressed by the Egyptians and life has become unbearable. It tells us that the people cried out to God, He heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with their ancestors. It was their faithfulness in turning to Him that brought Him to step into action.

What do we do when our lives seem unbearable? Do we complain about how unfairly we are being treated? Do we point fingers at other people and try to place blame on anyone who enters our radar? How much energy do we waste writing vitriolic posts online? None of these things actually make the situation better. We'd be much better off genuinely & desperately seeking God and allowing Him to do what He sees is best. I can say with authority that God hasn't forgotten His people, but perhaps it's time for us to call on Him with more passion.

If You Say So

In Exodus 19:8, the Israelites tell Moses, "Everything God says, we will do." We know from reading the rest of the Bible that this statement is not consistently fulfilled, but it doesn't change the heart behind it. It reveals the desire of God's people to place their ultimate, unwavering trust in Him. It requires obedience in searching out His direction through prayer, studying the Bible, worship, and engaging in life with others. It means that we have a fear of life without God and a reverential fear of life with Him.

I don't know that I have enough faith to make the same bold statement the Hebrews of the Old Testament did. Moving beyond the repetition of the words to actively living them out is a difficult transition, but God doesn't expect us to always get that right either. He intends for us to make it the desire of our heart so that His Holy Spirit can have access to our motives, ambitions, and actions.

Making that verse a mantra for our lives and churches will start a chain reaction that will create greater impact than we can currently imagine. The change in our own attitudes, thoughts, and actions will be evident and the reformation in our communities will be powerful. We will start to see barriers between people knocked down, forgiveness freely given & received, physical & spiritual needs met, our reputation become one of grace & mercy, and for hope to replace hopelessness as the currency of broken people.

The powerful simplicity of this statement reinforces the desire of God to work in the willing obedience of His people. We will not perfect it, but there is no other choice before us if we truly desire to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven.

Freedom

As I continue to read through Exodus, I see where the Israelites did not understand what God was coming to do for them by freeing them. They were convinced that where they were was the best place, and were unable to gain a glimpse of the better plan that God had for them.

Isn't the same true for us? It is easy to become wrapped up in our moment and the comfortable nature of what we know and become too timid to trust God and follow Him into the unknown. We think that there is no way that we could leave where we are now and might even be afraid of where this "new place" might be.

Thank God that His plan is always better and that what seems frightening can actually bring about a freedom that is greater than we imagined. When we choose to let Him bring us out of our own Egypt we can finally develop into the people that He has called us to be. Hopefully I won't be as whiny as the Israelites along the way.