Exodus is a great story. Before we read it, though, most Americans need to erase the vision of Charleton Heston in Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments from our minds eye. There are some similarities -- but there are many differences too.
For instance, do you remember that God told Moses to ask for a 3 day leave of absence? The familiar refrain is "Let my people go!" But the end of that phrase is "...so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness. (Ex 5:1) God had said to Moses. "...go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wildrenesss to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.'" (Ex. 3:18) The reason for a three-day journey was so that they could get far enough away from the Egyptians' settlements so that their sacrifices wouldn't stink up the city. The people, when they left, thought they were going on a road trip -- a vacation -- not a life-long journey!
How many times has this happened; you think you're going to live a simple, well-planned life, and then something happens: illness, accident, death of a loved one -- these circumstances can take us on a life-long journey that we never intended to embark upon.
God protects those who get where they're going in the time that they think they are going there, as well as those who travel down detours, whether they are of their own making or whether they are forced upon them. The challenge is for those who get to finish their trip according to plan to realize that those who don't get to their destination often didn't veer off the road because they wanted to -- it's just the way it turned out.
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