Life’s a bit too short to take the long way around the barn.”
–James Leonard (The Neglected)
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
–1 John 5:12 (NKJV)
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Boy howdy, was there a mistake on yesterday’s Echo! I don’t know how, or why, but I do apologize for my error. It aggravates me to the core when I do something like that. The quotation by Cliff Hudgins should have been: “The real strength is in depth.” For some reason the Bible verse I used at the beginning of the writing ended up as Hudgin’s quotation. Now onto the thought of the day.
Perhaps one of the saddest stories in the Bible is found in Numbers 14. “And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in the wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.'” (14:2-4, NKJV) Be careful–the Israelites would get their wish!
Remember that Egypt is symbolic of the world system. John tells us “do not love the world [Egypt] or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NKJV) Abraham went out looking for a city, he understood that he was but a pilgrim in this world, but in Numbers we see that the people are so attached to the world that they would rather die in it. They savored the leeks of Egypt more than the manna from God. Paul deals with this concept in Romans, we are free from the bondage of sin, from the power of “Egypt.” Why then do we want to go back to that bondage? The people of Israel shouted when they left Egypt, but now they are moaning and wanting to return. It sounds crazy, but many believers do the same thing. See when people who are free in God still seek the pleasures of sin, God will send them into the wilderness, and, sadly to say, many will die there.
We are free! No longer are we bound to the chains of sin. No longer should we want anything to do with the lifestyle back in Egypt. The words by Margaret J. Harris come to my mind:
I followed close beside Him, and the land soon found
I did not halt or tremble, for Canaan I was bound;
My Guide I fully trusted, and He led me in,
I shouted hallelujah, my heart is free from sin.
The place where we walk is supposed to be holy ground, not the sand of Egypt. Listen, and I’ll tell you straight, don’t look for me way down in Egypt’s land.
You need not look for me, down in Egypt’s sand,
For I have pitched my tent far up in Beulah land.
It should not be our lifestyle to boast of things of the world. We should live close to the Lord, do away with foolish and evil ways. Egypt get behind me! Onward and upward I will go.
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(Some of the thoughts are from my new book: “New Trails Through the Old Hymns”)