So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the red Sea. Exodus 13:18a
The God of the Bible sees, hears and delivers His own. But not always quite the way you’d imagine.
It had been 400 years. Four-hundred years of backbreaking slavery and the Israelite people were crying out! God said, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land” (Exodus 3:7-8a).
Enter the man who God would use to deliver them. He was a murderer and an outcast who repeatedly pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else” (Exodus 4:13). You can find the entire story in the Bible book of Exodus. When it finally came down to the day that the Pharoah let the nation of 600,000 leave Egypt, God did not choose a direct route. Here’s the story:
“When Pharoah 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…” (Exodus 13:17).
Sometimes in our lives it seems that God has chosen a “roundabout way.” We may complain and doubt God’s goodness and care for us when the roads He takes us on are fraught with curves, all uphill or shrouded in fog. But like the Israelites, God knows where He’s taking us, He knows what would completely discourage us and He knows the best way to get there.
Sometimes God chooses the roundabout way.
