THE LAST SAFE HOUSE.
When the Israelites came to the
Red Sea, they looked behind and saw the hosts of Pharaoh pursuing them. In that
moment of fear and anxiety, they forgot where they had come from. In that face
of abject annihilation they forgot all the pain they had endured in Egypt. At
the face of extinction, they forgot the glories of their deliverance from
Egypt. When they opened their mouths, this is what they said.
Exodus 14
11"Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away
to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of
Egypt?
12 "Is this not the word
that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the
Egyptians?' For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than
that we should die in the wilderness."
They had completely forgotten how
they had cried to God at the lash of their taskmasters’ whip. They had
forgotten how difficult their days of slavery had been in those days when they
cried out to God. For four hundred and thirty years they had been enslaved by
the Egyptians to serve in their fields and brick making. At some point Pharaoh
ordered the execution of their infants. However, as they stood there faced by
the Red Sea before them, the wilderness on the right and the left and Pharaohs
ruthless army, the cry of their children as they fell to the sword of their taskmasters
seemed to be drowned by the immediate threat.
They saw Moses as threatening
their very existence by taking them from their slavery. At that moment, when
they were faced by certain death, their errantly reasoned that it would have
been better to serve their masters than to die in the wilderness. As the waves
of the Red Sea beat upon the coast it brought to their minds ripples of fear
and destruction. The gaze to the wilderness around them burned through their
minds so that they lost all memory of the pain they had gone through in Egypt.
How could they forget their
scourged backs? How could they forget the whip of the lash in the scorching sun
of Egypt as they toiled day in for four hundred and thirty years? How could
they forget the scars that they bore on their backs? How could they not just
look at their hands and see the disfiguration from the toils of brick and
mortar? How could they ever long for the place they buried their innocent
children whose only crime had been being born? How could they say it would have
been better to never taste freedom?
Nonetheless, as they reasoned
then; how was it any better to be rescued from their slavery only to die in the
wilderness? As they stood there stranded, they forgot the victories God had
given them in Egypt just before they left. The plagues that God had struck
Egypt with on their account evaporated from their minds. All they could picture
was their end. They seemed to forget how God had brought darkness on all Egypt
for three days yet giving them light in their households throughout. They seemed
to forget how God had made distinction between His people and the Egyptians
during the ten plagues. Who could blame them? None of those victories and
deliverances could make sense to a dying man.
Only that they were not dying.
No, at least not on that day. Unknown to them, God was preparing for them their
greatest victory over Egypt yet. That would be last day they would lay eyes on
their taskmasters. The armies of Pharaoh were not pursuing the extinction of
the Israelites but their own. What they did not know in that time of their misplaced
longing was that the greatest trials yield the greatest triumph and the
greatest pain, the greatest gain. God saw their unbelief and how quick they
were to lose hope and trust in Him and decided to do something that has not
been replicated to date, that they may know He is Lord. He parted the seas and
provided dry passage for them. They would understand later that what threatens
man does not even move God. God made a way for them right in the middle of what
was threatening them.
As I ponder on the events that
took place that day by the Red Sea, I can only compare it to our lives today. I
would not be so quick to condemn the cowering of the Egyptians and their longing
for bondage because I have also been there.
You see, when we are going
through so much pain or experiencing too much uncertainty, we forget all the
past pains and long for the last safe house. What do I mean? The last safe
house does not necessarily mean that you were safer there. Not at all. It only
means that it is the last place or time you experienced certainty. For
instance, Israel wasn’t safer or happier in Egypt but they had some certainty
there. While they were yet in Egypt they had food, they knew where the wells of
water were, and they knew what to do to avoid dying. However, in the wilderness
they were not sure what would kill them first; whether the thirst, the hunger,
the sea, the heat or pharaoh’s army.
The human mind longs for and finds
safety in certainty. You feel safer if you are in control. For example, you may
not be screaming for fear when you drive yourself at a hundred and sixty
kilometres per hour. If someone else is stepping on the accelerator and the
speedometer starts nearing the same speed, you start panicking. You forget that
when you were driving you were faced by the same dangers. When the mind starts
registering chances of death or the uncertainty of life, past pains, traumas
and victories alike are forgotten. It is then that we begin casting a longing
eye on the last safe house.
We may not always be in control
and most definitely there will come times that we are uncertain of the future.
A failed relationship or marriage is a time of uncertainty. It is no wonder
that in those times some people will begin wandering in their minds to their
last safe house. The mind begins straying to the last relationship where you
were certain. You may find yourself longing for a previous lover, completely
oblivious of the pains that made you quit the relationship. You start
forgetting how abusive the person was and start longing for that time that you
at least had someone to come home to. When painful moments crop up in a
relationship, the mind starts to wander to the past, finding safety in the
sweet memories of previous relationship while obscuring the horrors of the
same. It is like the Egyptians longing for the Melons of Egypt (their land of
bondage). Yes indeed, there were melons and garlics and cucumbers in Egypt but
it was also a place of intolerable horrors.
Have you ever found yourself
there? In that place where at the face of uncertainty you start looking for
safety in the past? Are you there right now? In that place where the only safe
place you know is the past? I am writing to call your memory to attention. Your
last safe house wasn’t safe at all. When you yet lived in it you wished out.
You dreaded another day there and that was why you left in the first place.
There are, of course, those who feel that their last safe house was indeed safe.
The last relationship, job, and so on was not infested with horrors and that it
was just misunderstandings that caused them to leave. The truth is that if you
go back you will find that the place has changed a lot. Do not cast a longing
eye at the last man who treated you right. He may be married already and your
last safe house under new management. It was safe then but right now it will
only cause you pain. Listen to me. Your bed in the last safe house has been
occupied by another person. It is no longer safe.
Do not look for safety in the
past. Even if it was safe then, you cannot live in the past. The last safe
house is state of confusion in loneliness where the soul is living in the past,
the body in the present and the mind in the future. Such a state will only
disintegrate you. It will ruin, not heal you. As it was on that day when Israel
stood at the shores of the Red sea oblivious of what God was doing in the
background, so it is for you. You may be seeing only the certain failure and
uncertainty ahead of you, the threats behind you and the hopelessness around
you but I guarantee you that God is preparing for your best miracle yet. In due
time God will lay out a red carpet for you right in the middle of what is
threatening you. Fear not for you are not alone. Have you made the Lord your
redeemer and saviour? He will save you and rescue you from the perceived
extinction.
Don’t camp in the past. Hope in
God.... (Watch out for Part II)
