Preaching Series: Detours (Divine Shortcut)

Here is a four part series based on my most recent message at Hope Missionary Church, where I serve as Pastor of Engagement and Young Adults.

This is part 2/4.

If you are interested, you can watch the message HERE.

The text was Exodus 13:17 - 14:31.

Detours: Dealing with Dead-Ends

DETOUR 1 - DIVINE SHORTCUT

Exodus 13:17-18

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter (emphasis mine). For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.”

In other words, He took them the long way.

I call this the divine shortcut.

How many of us are always looking for the shorter route? We want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. When I leave the church I work at, I can take one of two ways home. I can either turn right out of the church parking lot and head out to the state road where I can go north to home. Or I can go left out of the parking lot towards the nearest county road and head north to home. Just last Sunday, I pulled out my phone and timed my distance to home taking the backroads. Monday morning, the very next day, I pulled out my phone and timed my distance to church taking the state road. Turns out, they are practically the same time and it doesn’t even matter which way I go.

I was looking for the shortcut.

I mentioned the conversation with Margo in my last post. Well, can I confess something to you? In that season of discernment, I was looking for the shortcut. Oh, I masked it in all the right things. I’m called to be the provider for my family. I wanted to pick a destination not just because I was eager to get to the field, but because the quicker we had a destination chosen, the sooner we could get to support raising bootcamp, which then meant the sooner we could start inviting people to partner with us in this journey, which then meant the sooner we could get to 50% of our monthly need, which then meant the sooner we could begin receiving a stipend, which then meant the sooner we could purchase plane tickets, which then meant the sooner we could leave for our destination and begin receiving health insurance. Don’t get me wrong. These are good things to keep in mind as we discern big changes in life. But they are the wrong things to be solely motivated by.

And in that season, I neglected some of the main priorities in life. Rather than finding some shortcut, all I did was rush my family through a process that for some people can take years. I didn’t love my wife in ways she needed in that season. I saw her need to process the real emotions of what this move would mean for our family as hindrances to our destination.

When we look for the shortcuts, we often neglect some of the more important matters in life.

Oftentimes, our short-cuts lead to disaster. Had God allowed Moses to simply lead the Israelites out his own way, disaster would have struck. Moses would have simply taken the most logical route. He would have taken the route that all travelers took in and out of Egypt. The route that would have provided the most amount of resources. The route that would have led them to the Promised Land the quickest. The route that, in his mind, would have taken the least amount of effort for the people.

Except…

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”

And thank God! Because…

Divine shortcuts often look like the long route to us. But this is only because God has something theologians like to call omniscience. In other words, God can see everything. He has all knowledge. And as God was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, God saw something the Israelites did not.

We read it earlier: “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

God knew what lay ahead. Not only that. God had other plans for their journey that Moses, nor any of the Israelites, would have predicted.

Stay tuned for part 3 in the series…