Painting Pictures of Egypt

How many of you have ever gotten frustrated reading about the exodus and seeing how ungrateful and impatient these awful Israelites are. They are whiners, unfaithful, hard of hearing, even harder-headed, obstinate, ornery, and forgetful. 45 days from the amazing miraculous exodus and the people are complaining about being hungry. Have they not learned? The Lord has done remarkable things, but they are afraid that he will not provide for their hunger. They even accuse Moses of leading them out to the desert to kill them,

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.’

(Exodus 16:2-3). What a ridiculous group of people!

There’s only one problem I have with my criticism of the Israelites. I am just like them. God does something amazing in my life and everything is marvelous, but then a few weeks later I have forgotten what an amazing God I serve and I complain about my circumstances or difficulties doubting that God will come through again. 45 days doesn’t seem that long, but it can be a world of difference in our life circumstances and outlook. When things aren’t going like I want them to, I can glorify the past as if everything was perfect then. The Israelites quickly forgot all the oppression they cried out against and unaccurately remembered having life easy in Egypt.

I am amazed at how much of a reflection that the biblical culture is of our culture. Sometimes we stand back and criticize biblical characters, because we know the end of the story, but if we put ourselves in the same situation, we are the exact same way. We forget what the Lord has done in our lives and we only see the obstacle and difficulty in our way. With the manna, they were warned to not collect too much, but some didn’t listen. They collected too much afraid the Lord would only provide once. They learned by the smell the next morning how wrong they were. Those who listened had enough for their needs. The Lord will provide.

When things get tough or scary we can start painting pictures of Egypt as a culture and as a church. We will take the past and glorify it as if it was a terrific time where everything was wonderful. It’s never been wonderful. Life has always been a struggle. The truth is our memories are most often not accurate. I have noticed that people have always been sinful, its just that the popular and accepted sins change. We live in a more promiscuous culture and the divorce rate has skyrocketed in the last 40 years. But we seem to forget the government sanctioned racism in the first half of the 20th century. Sure the 50s were great, unless you were black. The sin we struggle with may change, but sin is still sin. Racism is not nearly as much of an issue with younger generations. The next generation will have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Regardless of what the past was like, we only have now. We absolutely need to learn from the past, but we cannot live there. God is still leading and taking care of us. He will provide and lead us to the promised land. It wasn’t in Egypt, and it isn’t in the desert, but we have to go through it to get there. The Lord will provide for our journey. The only glory days are ahead of us when we can be with the Father.

I borrowed the title of this post from a Sara Groves song which illustrates our human tendancies beautifully. We need to keep pressing on toward the goal. We are not there yet.

Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sara Groves (from the Conversations album)
I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me
Either way
And the places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling out to me
Like a long lost friend

It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
And the place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
And it wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,
Leaving out what it lacks
The future feels so hard,
And I wanna go back!
But the places that used to fit me,
Cannot hold the things I've learned
Those roads were closed off to me
While my back was turned!

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy
To discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
I am caught between the Promise
And the things I know

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,
Leaving out what it lacks
The future feels so hard,
And I wanna go back!
But the places that used to fit me,
Cannot hold the things I've learned
Those roads were closed off to me
While my back was turned!


If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
And if it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

-written to the Khrusty Brothers, which is a Don Chaffer of Waterdeep side project. It is really starting to grow on me