Exodus 19…Time to Mature
From God’s point of view, Egypt was a furnace of affliction for Israel, Deu 4:20 “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day”, but the Jews often saw Egypt as a “nest” where they at least had food, shelter and security.
God delivered them from Egypt because He had something BETTER for them to enjoy and to do, but this meant that they had to “try their wings” and experience growing pains as they moved toward maturity.
When we are maturing in the Lord, life becomes a series of open doors and opportunities that lead to more and more situations for us to grow, mature and be used by God in a greater and more constant capacity.
But if we refuse to let God mature us, life becomes a series of confining iron bars that limit us. A baby is safe and comfortable in the mother’s womb, but at some point the baby must be born and enter a new and demanding world of growth and maturity. From birth to death, the “turning points” of life bring new freedoms that bring with them new privileges and new responsibilities: walking instead of being carried, making friends, getting married, raising children, retiring. At each “turning point”, we lose something as we gain something; and this is the way the maturing process works.
Whenever the children of Israel complained about God’s dealings with them and yearned to go back to Egypt, they were acting like little children, so God had to discipline them.
George Morrison said, “It took one night to take Israel out of Egypt, but forty years to take Egypt out of Israel”
Are you are ‘nestling’ always living in the ‘good old days’ not wanting your life to be disturbed by God or have you flown free of the nest and using the new wings God has planned for you to soar in His power?