When God Lets the Arrow Fly

Monday, May 8, 2023

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land.  God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”  So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.  Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.  Exodus 13:17-18

When God directed Moses to lead his children out of bondage in Egypt, it would have been so easy to march them directly to Canaanland, and let the party begin!  That would have been the way I would have planned the trip.  

It’s about 775 miles from Egypt to Israel, so they could have walked straight there in two months.  But they didn’t cross the Jordan river for 40 years.  Evidently there was a lot more to Israel becoming God’s people, than just 10 plagues and a visit by the death angel, before they would be ready for the prosperity of the Promised Land.

There is much I do not understand about how the sovereignty of God, intersects with the free-will of human beings.  However, the Israelite forty-year layover in the desert[1] is a great teacher of how we can navigate being free-will beings created by a sovereign God.  It all comes down to using the free-will we’ve been gifted, to cooperate with the sovereignty of God’s plans, rather than just do what pleases us.  After all, it is God’s sandbox, and we are visitors, whom God wants to adopt as family.  It pays to be on one’s best behavior!

When it comes to how that behavior shapes our relationship with God, I have this image of an archer with a bow, pointed at a target…the arrow flies, released by the archer.  God is the archer; we are the arrows.  The target to which God points each of us, is the place closest to God’s heart.  He wants us to hit the bullseye (so to speak), and lodge there.  The purpose is blessing.  God wants us close to the source of the universe’s wealth of wisdom and well-being.  He wants what’s best for us.  The problem for we arrows, having been released from the bow string, is we have freedom to be blown about by gusts of winds, or objects (all kinds of sins against hitting the target). 

While God’s eye is never off the arrows he releases, our free will is a type of sovereignty over the moments we are granted to live.  We are pointed at the right target; we have free will to choose how we respond to the direction we’re given. That direction is clearly stated in the prophecy of Micah 6:8:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. 

The arrow God releases into this vastness of free will invariably chooses to do what is wrong, love power, and walk arrogantly and selfishly, despising God.  And God allows that.  (Full Stop)

The full weight of sovereignty of humankind over their destination is a gift of God to His loved creation.  But the weight of that gift’s incredible value is the corresponding accountability of consequence for corrupting the gift against the holiness of God.  (Again – Full Stop)  We despise God’s sovereignty with our free will, and the result is spiritual Chernobyl.

For You Today 

You have freedom; choose wisely how to cooperate with God today.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   An Uncertain Path  and  Cloud by Day - Fire by Night   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] Read all of the Exodus story, from Moses at the burning bush, to the miraculous rescue of God’s people at the Red Sea, and provision of God through 40 years of wandering in the desert.

An Uncertain Path

[1]

Thursday, September 14, 2017

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land.  God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”  So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.  Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.  Exodus 13:17-18^(NLT)

After 400 years of being slaves in Egypt, the descendants of Abraham had faith in God, but faith to follow Moses was tenuous at best.  During the unnerving contest between Moses’ miracles and Pharaoh’s pride the people questioned whether God had really sent Moses as their liberator, or if he was leading them into catastrophe.

When you’re in the middle of a life-changing event it is sometimes the hardest time of all to recognize the “why” of that which is happening.  You do not see clearly in a dust storm!  But Moses records for us God’s reason for leading them through the wilderness instead of the shortest route through Philistia – their shaky faith! 

And certainly it is that way with us all; fledgling faith sometimes is not ready for a battle.  Sometimes, because of God’s wisdom and kindness, He leads us in a roundabout way through the wilderness.  We, on the other hand, want quick solutions, and instant, easy results.  We get in a hurry, come up against an army of problems, and get blown away in the first skirmish.  God wants us in the battle, but only in His timing.  He knows when our faith is mature enough to handle the enemy.

Thinking back over the past four decades as Elizabeth and I struggled with the mountain of where, why, how, who, and what questions surrounding our calling to serve God, I can see with hindsight much more clearly now, and with more understanding.  God sometimes put up what seemed like roadblocks, and other times launched us into battles that seemed way above our pay grade.  All of it was tied to the conditions of the development of our faith, and His kindness.

When I compare my own uncertain path with that of Israel’s release from bondage, it is no surprise why God has led us the way He chose.  I wrestled with God for years over the details, but finally gave in and left a 10-year career in business.  It was like being set-free from the chains.  I felt like I was perched on a mountaintop, headed for seminary and the Promised Land was just over the hill.  Boy, did I have some things to learn!

In retrospect, had God led me right into a fight with the Philistines it would have been a short war.  I would have run back to my Egypt, the business world full of leeks and onions.

For You Today

Are you following God through what seems an uncertain path?  Good!  You’re right where He wants you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

---

[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com