How did you get where you are today?
Maybe you know exactly how – you can look at the choices you made, the work you put in (or didn’t), the opportunities you seized and the ones you let pass by, and chart a clear path to your current position. Or maybe you’re a bit bewildered by the journey. You thought you made the right choices, put in the work, said yes to good things and no to bad things, and yet you’re somewhere unexpected, maybe even somewhere unpleasant.
I was thinking about this the other day and Hebrews came to mind. Not the book of Hebrews, but the ancient Hebrews who were enslaved in Egypt and longing for deliverance. Then along came Moses with his cry, “Let my people go!” and suddenly they were packed up and headed into the wilderness. Only their route wasn’t what they might have expected.
When Pharaoh finally let the people go, “God did not lead them on the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land… [Instead] God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea (Exodus 13:17-18).
It was God who led them to the Red Sea, to the place where they couldn’t go forward and they couldn’t go back because the Egyptian army was in hot pursuit. They didn’t wind up there by mistake. God had a purpose in bringing them there – “I have planned this so I will receive great glory” (Exodus 14:4). He had a victory in mind that would firmly establish His superiority over the Egyptian gods, a lesson for both the Egyptians and the fledgling nation of Israel. The crossing of the Red Sea became a reminder for generations of God’s power and love exercised on their behalf.
So take heart. God has not brought you to this place to give up on you or throw up His hands and walk away. The obstacles in your way aren’t necessarily because you’ve taken the wrong path, but possibly because you’re on the right path. Perhaps He is positioning you so that He can win a great victory, the kind of victory that only He can achieve. The kind that will put your enemies in their place and strengthen your confidence in Him.
With unfailing love you will lead this people whom you have ransomed. You will guide them in your strength to the place where your holiness dwells. Exodus 15:13