It was an early morning, the night before had not been as restful as I'd hoped and I was up a little before 5am to prepare for my seminary in-service meeting. I was too tired to roll out of bed and say my prayers, I would need a shower to help wake me up first. When I was more awake I took the opportunity to pray to my Father in Heaven and to let Him know what I had going on today. I would need His help if I was to get everything done today, some divine intervention would be necessary. I shared my concerns and desires, it turned out to be a pretty good prayer. I felt better knowing that I could rely on the Lord to be there for me, to lift me when I was ready to stop. I once again expressed my gratitude for Him and then I was off to tackle the day!
Exodus 13
There are times in the scriptures when you have to decide whether something is meant only as a symbol of something else or is it a literal event. I have always hoped that the events in Exodus 13:21-22 were of a literal nature.
"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."
How nice would it be to have a visual representation of God with you all day and all night leading you? That's what the Israelites had! They knew exactly where to go because the Lord was there guiding them through the pillar of a cloud and the pillar of fire. It seems like it would make life so much easier, you just needed to follow Him.
Then I went back and looked at verses 17-18 again looking for where the Lord was leading them:
"...God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near..." (Ex 13:17)
God didn't take them the easy way, He led them "through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea..." (Ex 13:18), a much more challenging path to take.
The choice to follow Him may have been more difficult for the Israelites than I had originally thought. I could just see the people following the pillars with excitement at first, but when they realized that the Lord was taking them on a much more difficult journey they might have had second thoughts. The choice to stay and follow would not be as easy to make under these circumstances.
Of course the Lord had His reasons for choosing that route:
"...for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt." (Ex13:17).
He needed to prepare the Israelites, they would need to learn to be a people out of slavery and to rely on the Lord. The Lord had delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, but the greater challenge would be getting Egypt out of the children of Israel. In His wisdom He knew what would need to be done and led them in the appropriate direction.
That got me thinking: Would I have stayed and taken the hard way? How many times have I been excited to follow the Lord until the circumstances became too difficult?
I often have to remind myself: Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you're not willing to move your feet!
I do not have the benefit of a visible 'pillar' to follow like the children of Israel, but I do have the Holy Ghost as a guide and I know that the Lord is active in my life putting the people and situations before me that will most benefit me. It is my choice to be willing to be led and sometimes that is a hard decision to make. I forget that the Lord is preparing me and trying to teach me to rely on Him more. I need to be more willing to follow Him and be ready to move my feet!
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