A Longing for Egypt

Posted by anointedplace on October 14, 2010 · 18 Comments 

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Numbers 11: 18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ‘ “

In the Christian’s life there are valleys, hills and mountains that we climb. Sometimes, we are not allowed to go over them we must go through to reach the other side. In fact, suffering is promised because of the nature of being a Christian. Of course that is not very attractive during evangelism but it is a constant in the followers of Christ. I have heard people promise beautiful days to non believers if they just believe in Jesus as their Savior. When the good days don’t come, people complain and even to the point that they say “I was better off as a sinner without Christ”. Not only do those who were promised blessings but long time Christians at times find themselves going down memory lane. Remembering when they had this or that, remembering how things use to be before they came to the point where they are now. Christians can be funny like that. It’s like when a child does good then its “that’s my child, he/she is just like me”. When the child does bad then its “you’re just like your daddy/mommy”. When things are bad we come to God asking Him why have you done this to me. We think back to when we didn’t have to deal with certain things. We find a point in time when we were far from God and compare it to now when we are closer. We think that back then we had fewer trials and tribulations. We begin to long for Egypt.

Numbers 14:1-3

1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

When Israel found themselves in the wilderness or without food, they first blamed Moses then God. Its like they blame Moses for leading them and for listening to God. They blame God for not doing anything about it. They grumbled and complained. They thought about how in Egypt they had things and reasoned to themselves that even with being slaves its better than freedom. During the era of the Civil War in American history, the house slaves saw no reason to leave master. They thought that the slaves in the field were crazy for waiting freedom. When the times of the plantations ended, times did get hard and the south suffered. It lead to men forming hate groups because they longed for Egypt no matter how evil it was. Because comfort makes sin invisible. Acceptance and tolerance makes sin seem insignificant. If the majority is doing it then holiness can’t be that important to God? Really? We feel that way because of a lack of understanding of how God works. We lack this knowledge because we don’t take it seriously. It’s like getting a degree in Chemical Engineering and then dig ditches for the rest of your life.

So what happens when sin is accepted and correction is frown upon? What happens when holiness becomes a bitter word? What happens when sinners appear to be rewarded for how sinful they are? What happens when value, security, and life is based on those treasures that rust or moths eat away? What happens to the heart when the eyes are darken with lust, covetousness and idolatry? What happens is contentment disappears, faith becomes something else and God leaves us. We become that child who’s favorite word is “not fair”. We fall into works based faith, justified by works, self righteousness and the Gospel becomes foolishness to us. Salvation has lost its meaning to us and we can’t see how Christ connects all things together. So now when someone says the Gospel is the answer to all problems, we think that they are crazy. Our perception lies to us and we are fooled by our view and Satan knows it. So he starts to whisper in our ears and presents to us a man who preaches that we can have what we want. This man gives us a different Gospel, the message of the calf who agrees with Egypt. It tells you that what Egypt has belongs to you. It tells you to go take it, leave the path that you have been brought to and abandon Moses and his burning bush.

Psalm 73:2-4

2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;

I had nearly lost my foothold.

3 For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 They have no struggles;

their bodies are healthy and strong. [a]

See, for so long we have been watching the world saying why I can’t have that? Saying why do I do good things and get nothing for it? Why does it seem like that they can live like that and have blessings? We say “when I was apart of the world life was good to me”.

Romans 1:21-26, 28-32

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

So think about this…. Those that deny God and live wicked lives, God has given them over to their sin. That is a form of God’s wrath. They live a life devoid of God and the salvation of Christ. They prosper for a season and reap the things of a fallen world. They believe that nothing is wrong because in the eyes of the world, they are living the dream. They do all the things that are sinful in the sight of the Lord and because they have money they think that they are blessed. They turn their backs on God and because they have no worldly cares they think God is for them. Some twist the word of God and get others to follow because they promise wealth. Yet, when a fornicator contracts a deadly disease they are shocked and cry out. When a drug dealer is gunned down, their friends are in disbelief, and this happens over and over. “Christians” either don’t see it or they are so blinded by riches that they choose not to see it. Our struggles are not always caused by Satan. As if we are doing so much for the glory of God that it warrants the special attention of Satan himself… Really? Yes, we do suffer for the name of Christ but we are disciplined by our heavenly Father as well. The number one reason for discipline from God is pride. Pride will slowly remove you from Christ. It is pride in self that says, when I was in Egypt I had this… It is pride that says look at what I have achieved by my hard work, well thought out planning and my own determination.

Romans 2:4-6 (New International Version)

4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”[a]

Christ is not our bread of life and we find no value in His resurrection because we live like He isn’t coming back. We live like we will not be judged. We live like the Gospel is a lie and God is not here. We think that the Lord Jehovah is far away but we can’t run from Him. We are nothing without Christ, we were running our lives in the ground hiding to hell. People always talk about being a good stewards of out earthly treasures. They use scripture to push management of earthly things to the forefront. They say if you manage those things that God will bless you with more. They say this to cater to our worldly lust for money and things. But pounder this, we have been given gifts from God before we have even received any other thing from God. We have been given salvation, justification, redemption, atonement, love, grace, mercy, peace, joy, Christ’s righteousness, and faith. Basically, we have been given the Gospel to be stewards over and what have we done with that? While you think about that, think about Matthew 6:28-34. Those who we covet over and envy are heading to hell, where God will pour out His wrath on them for eternity. We thirst and hunger after what they have for only a season.

James 4
4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?[a] 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”[b]

7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Luke 12: 20″But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21″This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Are we really this blinded by riches? Has it really come to this? God is trying to get through to us before we destroy our very souls. We are having our hearts tested as individuals as well as a nation. We look about on presidents past and long for Egypt. We look on decades long gone and we long for Egypt. We look back to our college days and long for Egypt. We look at our times of being single and long for Egypt. We look at our times behind us longing for Egypt as we try to walk with Christ. But no man is fit for the kingdom who puts his hand to the plow and look back (Luke 9:61-62). So what good is a pillar of salt to God?

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

1 Peter 1:3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Because we can’t handle this brokenness, we run from God and to those who tickle our ears. And together the lost long for Egypt every Sunday (1 Timothy 1:9-11, 1 Timothy 6:2-4, 2 Timothy 4:2-4).

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