ROUND TRIP TICKET TO EGYPT

Hello Fellow Free People. SO...how's your SOjournings? Do ya feel like turning around and going back to the place where you first started. Did you have it better before you became a follower of Jesus. Did someone talk you into being a Christian with a line like..."Come to Jesus and all your troubles will disappear."?

Don't feel like you're alone. There were a group of people in Egypt...who were groaning from release of the bondage they were experiencing...only to get into a perseverating rut...and casting an eye back to the good old days...when the were slaves. At least they had good eats back in Egypt.

When you read the Exodus Experience...in the Book of Exodus...you encounter a people...who at one point experienced freedom and prestige...with their brother (Joseph) being in charge. Once he died...so did their influence. The sons of Israel...still were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land (Egypt) was filled with them. (Exodus 1:7)

Enter a new king. This king did not know their connection...Joseph. The new king's perspective was that the sons of Israel are more and mightier than they were (Exodus 1:8,9)

The solution to the problem...deal wisely with them. If you don't deal wisely with them...they will multiply...and in the event of a war, they will join in those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land. (Exodus 1:9,10)

The response to this reasoning was BONDAGE...SLAVERY....FORCED LABOR. They appointed TASKMASTERS over them to AFFLICT them with HARD LABOR. They were forced to build for the Pharaoh storage cities (Pithom and Raamses) (Exodus 1:11). The problem for the MASTERS...the more they afflicted them...the MORE THEY MULTIPLIED...and the more they SPREAD OUT. (Exodus 1:12) The cause and effect was that they were IN DREAD of the sons of Israel. (Exodus 1:12). They had to pull an Emeril on them...and TAKE IT UP A NOTCH...BAMMMMM! The EGYPTIANS...compelled the SONS OF ISRAEL...to LABOR RIGOROUSLY....made their lives bitter with HARD LABOR in mortar, bricks and all kinds of labor in the field. The sons of Israel...needed a deliverer. God was already setting that into motion...but more on that later.

In comparison....we as the human race were originally free...but because of disobedience of one man...we all became slaves (Romans 5:12) We needed a deliverer....and that was already prophesied in the beginning (Genesis 3:15). We were bound by sin...with the devil, satan, the liar, the deceiver, the accuser of the brethren, the stealer, the killer, the destroyer...being a type of PHARAOH...and his taskmasters the little demonic forces.

Over the course of time...of many days of bondage...that the king of Egypt died. At that time...the sons of Israel sighed/groaned...BECAUSE OF THE BONDAGE...and they CRIED OUT. Their CRY FOR HELP...because of their BONDAGE...ROSE UP TO GOD. (Exodus 2:23)

God heard their GROANING...and as a result of their GROANING...GOD REMEMBERED HIS COVENANT with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God SAW the sons of Israel...and God TOOK NOTICE of them. (Exodus 1:24,25).

NOTE: I have to believe that over their period of slavery...they had sighed and groaned before...but this time...something clicked with their groaning and with God. I think it may be...like me...before I became a Christian...I would moan and groan about the condition I was in...and with all of the consequences of my actions...BUT...one day...I CAME TO A PLACE...where my moaning and groaning....was a SINCERE CRY FOR HELP...and God knew I was serious.

God already had a plan in motion for their deliverance with a baby named Moses being born...and He already had a plan for our deliverance with Jesus entering planet Earth as a baby born to a virgin in a small land, in a small city with no fanfare.

God called on Moses....who had been through the process of being placed in Egypt's royalty...and then ran off to the desert for 40 years in the real preparation for a stuttering shepherd to walk back into Egypt...and demand...LET MY PEOPLE GO. Wh..ho...ho...should he said sent him? I AM THAT I AM. (Exodus chapters 3-4)

Moses and Aaron...came in and said to Pharaoh...."Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel...LET MY PEOPLE GO...that they may CELEBRATE a feast to Me in the WILDERNESS." (Exodus 5:1) Eventually after the various plagues....PHARAOH relinquished...and LET THE PEOPLE GO. (Exodus 5-13)

After the Pharaoh....wised up...and let them go...he began mulling over what he had done. "What is this we have done, that we have LET ISRAEL GO FROM SERVING US?" So...he sent his army after them...to RECAPTURE THEM....ENSLAVE THEM AGAIN. God provided the EXODUS ROUTE....with a miracle through the Red Sea....or as some theologians spin it...the REED SEA. They say the REED sea...was a little trickle of water....that was not deep at all...some say ankle deep. Hmmmm...that would make it even a bigger miracle as the armies of Egypt died in a bathtub instead of a sea.

NOTE: Once you become a follower of Jesus and are set free from you bondage of sin...even though there is a great peace and joy that comes into your life...and what once held you captive was now released and you were FREE...the devil....does not GIVE UP on you. He pursues....he attacks...he schemes...with well orchestrated plans and armies against you. (Ephesians 6). If you are not careful...you will let your FREEDOM...turn into an OPPORTUNITY for the FLESH....and be RE-SLAVED again. (Galatians 5:1,13,16,17-26)

When God set them free by HIS POWERFUL HAND...AND BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT (Exodus 13:16)...He led them...not by the shortcut...or the WAY THAT WAS NEAR... but led them the long way..."lest the people (ex-slaves)...CHANGE THEIR MINDS...when they see ware...and THEY RETURN TO EGYPT." (Exodus 13:17) God led them AROUND BY THE WAY OF THE WILDERNESS to the RED SEA...and the SONS OF ISRAEL went up in MARTIAL ARRAY from the land of Egypt.

So many times....since 1970...I have experienced warfare on the journey...and in 1972...I returned to EGYPT...a slave again. I thought I was missing out on something...and it appeared to be easier than this thing called CHRISTIANITY.

The cause and effect for the children of Israel...was that a 12 day journey...turned into a 40 year fiasco. They even got to the point of speaking out against God...and God's man, Moses.
"Why have you brought us up out of EGYPT to DIE IN THE WILDERNESS? For there is NO FOOD....and NO WATER, and we LOATHE THIS MISERABLE FOOD. (Numbers 21:5)

NOTE: I thought they said there was no food...they must have meant...no food that WE LIKE.

They already had the grumbling mindset...with their minds set on there stomachs..."...who will give us meat to eat? We REMEMBER the fish which we used to eat FREE IN EGYPT (they were not free but apparently the fish were)...the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic...but NOW...our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to LOOK AT...except this MANNA."(Numbers 11:4-6)

This entire scenario...was but a blip on the time-space continuum...but still speaks loudly to me in 2008. The things that they went through were EXAMPLES to us followers of Jesus...as a warning not to get LAID LOW/CUT OFF IN THE WILDERNESS.
(I Corinthians 10:6,11)

They (1) craved evil things (2) were idolaters (3) they partied...ate, drank, stood up and played (4) they acted immorally (5) they tried/tested the Lord (6) the were grumblers (against God and their leader). The cause and effect is THEY WERE DESTROYED BY THE DESTROYER. (I Corinthians 10:5-10) They OPENED THE DOOR...by REMEMBER...THINKING... and RUMINATING...on EGYPT.

The same thing will KEEP US from enjoying the PROMISED LAND....as we plow this field....and we take our hands off of the plow...and we look back...to where we were...instead of keeping our eyes on where we are going. In my new job...at Gentiva Home Health...I have found the secret of getting the allotted amount of patients that I need to see...by KEEP ON MOVING. Don't look back...keep the FOCUS.

Jesus did this on his JOURNEY here on earth for 33 years...and what we are called to do...as we WALK OUT THIS LIFE.

"Therefore...since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us...(former saints in Hebrews 11)...let us also LAY ASIDE EVERY ENCUMBRANCE, and the SIN which so EASILY ENTANGLES/BESETS us...and let us RUN with ENDURANCE the race that is set before us...FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS...the author and perfecter/finisher of faith...who for the JOY SET BEFORE HIM...endured the CROSS, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

If you hung in there through this long Rambling (some would say longer than a 40 year journey)...thanks. I have real empathy...for those who start out great guns...released from sin...only to be bound again...BECAUSE...I was one of those. This one thing I do know...that THE WORK THAT WAS STARTED IN YOU WILL BE FINISHED...and together...we cross the finish line...in Jesus. Don't look back...and don't give up...KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!!!!!!

Love and Egypt Free Kisses
Rodney "The Sojourner" Boyd