When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.
Exodus 13:17-18
The Israelites were slaves for the Egyptians. Slaves. Not indentured servants working towards freedom. Not equals sharing in the responsibilities of the community. Slaves. As one plague after another attacked the Egyptians because Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, I can’t imagine they were hated any more. And then he let them go. After the worst of the plagues…after every single firstborn around was found to be dead, Pharaoh and all of the Egyptians begged them to go. In the leaving, the Bible says they plundered the Egyptians, taking silver, gold, and clothing, whatever they asked for, the Egyptians gave them. (Exodus 12: 36) So they not only walked out free from decades of slavery, they walked out in great wealth. God rescued them.
But He knew they would need more.
It says towards the end of the thirteenth chapter of Exodus that when they left, “when Pharaoh let them go, God did not lead them through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
He knew they would need more.
Allowing them a front row seat to plague after plague attacking their enemies on their behalf leading to a culminating victory parade out of town, He knew that if He sent them towards the Philistines the fear of war would be too much. He knew they’d be running back to the Egyptians because slavery might have been awful, but it was better than war.
Some interesting circumstances in high school landed me in a new school, in a new county in the middle of my junior year. It meant new friends, new classes, and a whole new home life in the middle of what was an already awkward time. {Hello high school and sixteen and a back brace.} Honestly, I hated it. To me, even 16 year old me, stability was life. I craved routine and structure. (There’s that Enneagram 1!) I’ve been a planner for as long as I can remember and when God threw a curveball into my December and wrecked my plan for junior year, I was undone. I was angry, I was afraid and I was lost.
And He knew I would need more.
As He lead the Israelites through the desert, towards the Red Sea, they had to have been wondering, what on earth are we doing?! As they stood at the water’s edge and heard the Egyptians coming after them, they had to have second guessed Moses and God. But imagine how big their eyes must have been as they saw the waters part. Imagine how shaky those first steps into the now dry Red Sea must’ve been. Then think about the relief and the wonder when they watched the waters pour back down over the Egyptian army as they stood safely on the other shore. The relief.
I feel that relief now as I think back on my 16 year old self and a terribly hard season in which God led me the down the long path, not the WRONG path, just not the short path. It wasn’t the path I had planned to take. I wouldn’t have picked that path in my wildest dreams. But as I sit here more than 20 years later, I can’t help but thank Him for knowing that I would need more.
In that terribly hard season of things being completely out of my control, God did not lead me down the shorter path. He knew the shorter path would have me running back to all that I had come from, because I believed that it was better. Better than the pain of what lay ahead. Better than His plan. Instead, much like the Israelites, He led me down a longer path. A path right to the edge of the Red Sea. Crossing that sea God showed me a new life. He changed nearly every relationship in my sixteen year old world and opened my eyes to a new way. It made no sense to me then, but now I see it. It was on that path that I learned to lean on Him.
As hard as it may seem, embrace the path you’re on, dear one. God has you. He sees you and He knows your plans, your dreams. Jeremiah tells us He has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (29:11) And I can honestly tell you that His plans are better than anything you could ever imagine.
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