Exodus 13:18 So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
The Bible is packed with the mysteries of God. He works in mysterious ways and if our mind is far away from Him we will never understand His ways. It is impossible to understand God’s mind and unpack God’s mysteries with the human brain. God’s creation cannot understand the Creator unless He reveals Himself to us. However, the Holy Spirit who resides in our spirit reveals God’s mind to us. Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). We will be able to understand the current events or the crisis only through the Holy Spirit and from the Holy Scriptures. Unpacking the mysteries of the Bible will reveal the mysteries of God.
The Lord God led the Hebrew slaves in a roundabout way and hemmed them between the Red Sea and the pursuing Pharaoh’s army. God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby; for God said, “The people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war” (Exodus 12:17). The Lord God did not choose the straight or the shortest route to the destination. The GPS of God saw the hazards ahead of them and rerouted them through an alternative roundabout way. The generation that left Egypt had been slaves for almost 4 generations, hence, had no military skills or emotional strength. They needed rehab from the emotional trauma of slavery and ill-treatment. Their minds had to be regenerated from submissive ‘slave mentality’ to courageous ‘master morality’. They were not ready for war both physically as well as emotionally.
A delay in God’s mysterious leading is not to deprive us, but to prepare us for the blessings. The divine delay is the ‘wilderness experience’ and ‘God’s training grounds’ to morph our slave mentality to a soldier mindset.
The mysteries of roundabouts:
1. Hinder: God stops the straight and the shortest route and takes us through a roundabout path to prepare us for the blessing. The breakthrough will become a burden and crush us if we are not emotionally and spiritually ready. The Lord hinders or delays to protect and prepare us.
2. Hemmed: God will hem us in a ‘job’, ‘relationship’ or a ‘health challenge’ not to ruin us, but to reform our thinking. There was no worship recorded until the Israelites experienced the Red Sea splitting and witnessed their enemies drowning (Exodus 15). Hemming between a rock and a hard place will bring worship and singing from the depths of our soul.
3. Hidden: Crying, lamenting and mourning during a crisis will not reveal God’s mystery. Worship, praise and prayer with confidence that His hand will take us through victoriously will reveal the deep secrets of His mysteries.
Don’t become miserable; unpeel the mysteries of God during difficulties and delays.
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Prayer: Dear Jesus, help me to see beyond the problem and unveil your mysteries in the delays. Amen.
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