…Exodus…
Prince of Egypt. Yes. That was the title of the movie. The story was about Israel people escaping from Egypt being lead by Moses.
There are two sides of the story. First, it tells us how great and mighty God is. With His power, He made the sea split leaving it dry for some moments to give the Israel time for crossing forward. Then when the Egypt troops came to chase them, the water came back and filled the dry parts. The water killed the troops. That was a miracle. God is able to do the impossible!
The other side of the story, to me, is even more inspiring. It took several days for the Israel people to get out from Egypt’s slavery. But It took forty years for them to get rid of the slave mentality. And the most crazy part is that only two men out of millions people could step out from slaves mentality into free men mentality. So sad!
Why did God let them go around and around like forever in dessert? That’s because He wanted to upgrade His people mentality. He had a plan, a better future, a better position, a better life for his people. But first, they need to let go and wash away the old slaves mentality. It just won’t fit to the new situation.
The people many times gave complains about how easy things were before. When they didn’t get food, no water, in war, they brought their complains to Moses. They wanted everything to go as they had gotten used to. They were happy to become slaves. Meaning: they didn’t want to change.
It is interesting how God divides the two sides of the story. At one side, He did His part. Taking the Israel people out from the slavery using His mighty power. On the other side, He was willing to teach the people to let go of the old mentality and install the new one. The mentality of free men. He is willing to spend day by day and wait patiently for forty years. And what was His reward? How many millions people could enter the Promised Land? Not even a thousand. Not even a hundred. Not even ten. Only TWO people. That was crazy!
At the first time, God was fighting for the Israel people. After they escaped from Egypt and came to the dessert, yet God was still with them. But they must fight for themselves. Meaning: they must take action!
Do we want to spend 40 years to change our mentality? Why don’t we do it now? Is change is too painful to bare for us? Or would it be more painful if we always stay the same? Why don’t we want to climb and meet new better standard? Do we want to be part of the millions or the two people?
Just a side topic. One situation which makes me sad is the fact that some Christians focus only to God’s miracle part. I was one of them. They don’t even realize that they need to take some actions too in order to reach what God has planned for them. Do the prayer, and wait until one day they get rich. Take part of church activities and hope that God will bond their families with love and warmth. Go to church every Sunday and hope God will point at one of the pretty girls and whisper: that’s your woman. (and so they live happily ever after…). Isn’t that the same with growing an apple tree and expecting to reap some oranges? If they go to church, their heart may become tender and filled with love. But it doesn’t mean they become instantly ready to get married and grow a family. If they consistently preaching in churches, it is true that by time they become better on delivering God’s message. But it does not mean by doing that their family at home will become full of love and warmth. That is not a substitute for spending time and giving love to their families. It is completely a different subject. It is just like raising a cow and expecting a rabbit baby born from that cow! Isn’t that the logic? People need to do their parts in order to get into what God has planned for their lives. God’s miracle and mighty power is one side of the coin. Our willingness to take actions is the other side.
