Exodus 12:31-33, 36, and 14:5 – During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians … When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!”
The story of the release of the Israelites from their slavery and oppression is one that is familiar to almost everyone. To review, though, Moses, appointed by God Himself, appealed to Pharaoh over and over to “Let my people go,” but despite devastating consequences, the king’s mind just wouldn’t be changed. Then, after the death angel passed through the land, killing off the eldest male everywhere from the lowest to the highest – including Pharaoh’s own son – the Israelites were at last given their freedom and told to go, plundering what remained of the beaten Egyptians without ever having fired a shot, so to speak. But the story didn’t end for Egypt until after they’d decided they wanted back what they once had. They had so quickly forgotten what put them in that position to begin with! It was then God delivered the final and fatal blow.
Normally, people point out how God will defend His own if we just watch and wait, but there is also an underlying message that reaches out to born again Christians: When we give up our former life to become brothers and sisters in Christ, we sometimes want to turn back to the time before, a time we recall as having it so good, a time without the persecution and suffering that seems to attack us as the faithful. But were those really the “good ol’ days?” I would posit that they weren’t. Our memories of times past are very selective. We choose to remember some things and gloss over or even forget others altogether. Those “happy days” had their own plagues of sorts, and if we’re being honest, many were downright distasteful, scary, offensive … well, you see where I’m going. My point is that once we have been led away from torment, we must completely turn our backs on it or the consequences will mean total destruction (Genesis 19:26). Will the Christian life be a bed of roses? Hardly, for Jesus told us that the world would persecute us because it first persecuted Him (John 15:17-21). But we are never facing any trial alone when we follow the teachings of Christ (Matthew 28:20).
If you are fretting, if you’re bothered, if you’re haunted, if you are being bombarded on all sides at once, perhaps you’re facing the wrong direction. Don’t turn around. Instead, look up.
