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When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language (Psalm 114:1, ESV).
Psalm 114 was written just after the Israelites, on their second attempt, entered the Promised Land. The phrase “out from Egypt” has a rich meaning because many times during their wilderness travels, the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt.
The people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at” (Numbers 11:4b-6).
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:3-4).
The Bible lists 14 times that the Israelites rebelled against God in the wilderness, often threatening to go back to Egypt. How quickly they forgot the torture of slavery because of the endurance needed to traverse their current wilderness. And we see in Psalm 114 that God continued to guide them and discipline them, until they entered the Promised Land.
Because of God’s grace, there is hope for us today as well.
In the “preacher world” where I lived for 49 years, I’d often hear a sermon, read a book, or listen to a podcast about Christians who, having been set free from sin, now wanted to go back to Egypt. The Apostle Peter talks about it, too …
When people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud” (2 Peter 2:20-22, NLT).
What about these present trials that give us a desire to return to the past, a past in which we were miserable – freedom back to addiction, loving relationships back to abusive relationships, and losing weight then gaining weight? Perhaps having been promised freedom by the preacher, we find the temptation of fleshly desires, consternation of friends, challenges to our materialism, and the difficulty of forgiving too great a burden.
Has “Let’s go back to Egypt,’’ become our motto? We all face a wilderness after our calling to follow Christ, and on that path, we find horror in seeing our grotesque true self, as being in the presence of God reveals our wickedness. For some, it’s easier to find an excuse, something to complain about, or criticize the hypocrisy in others, and either as an excuse or simply due to weariness, turn around and go back to Egypt.
But others, often only a few, see true freedom and holiness, in the death of everything that we cling to and are willing to endure God’s severe mercy, severe because of the discipline, mercy because God allows it for our good, to dispense with everything that hinders the joy of the Lord.
And in this joy, like a rock immovable, we find eternal peace. Psalm 114 concludes …
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water (vv. 7-8a).
Amen. Peace out!
There’s a song by Steffany Gretzinger that reminds me of your words today. I’ll send it.