When God Leads You the Long Route On Purpose

Sometimes, God knows the shortcut but He knows the long way through the desert is what will secure our freedom. And that’s worth it to Him every time. As I’m personally seeing a thousand evidences that God is putting me on the long route (on purpose!), I’m trusting that He still knows what He’s doing. (I’m also trusting that He knows where we are going!)

When I was studying how the Israelites left Egypt, I backed up and got more details about the whole ordeal. This passage from Exodus 13 struck me as if I’d never read it before:

When Pharaoh let the people go, 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.”  So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

Exodus 13:17-18

Several things jump off the page!

The Long Way on Purpose!

First, God KNEW there was a shorter route! And yet, He led His people the long way through the desert. This one is hard for me. Because usually my goal is to get to my destination fast as possible.

When I punch in the address in the GPS, I’m almost always looking for the quickest way to get there. When you have to drive through a big city like Denver, sometimes the quickest way to get there is the longest route around the city to avoid the accidents and traffic.

I have driven from my folks house to mine on I-25 through Denver and it’s taken an hour and a half in record timing. I’ve also driven through Denver and it’s taken well over 4 hours!

But there is a hack. If you take the E470 tollway around the city, you can avoid all that chaos in the thick of town. E470 is the longer route. It’s more mileage by quite a lot and it’s more pricey with the tolls. But I will say. The peace. The wide open spaces. This reminds me that the long route God sends us on is worth the cost and possibly is even saving us more time in the big picture.

He’s Protecting Us.

Secondly, when I read that passage, I’m struck that in His grace, God explained WHY He wasn’t going to lead them on the shorter route. We often just grumble and complain thinking God doesn’t know what He’s doing because He picked the meandering longer route. BUT! He did it first to protect the people. Knowing that the short route might set them up for failure:

For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

Egypt is a symbol for bondage, oppression, slavery. And when God just worked that hard to deliver His people, He doesn’t want to risk us running back to those old ways of oppression.

God knows that people who are weary have no fight left in them. I have so many questions about when it says, “The Israelites left Egypt ready for battle.” Maybe they were keyed up and trying to be prepared to fight, and God knew they just needed a supernatural breakthrough at that point. He knew that warfare would do them in and they’d just give up the fight in their weariness and fear and return to their former bondage in Egypt.

But God was preparing a show of glory that we cannot even comprehend! And when the waters parted and the enemy was swallowed up, God set His people free! And freedom is what He’s always wanted for us. Even if it takes more steps and more time to get there.

The Worse it Looks, the More Glory we See.

So let’s choose to be patient in our desert places. And let’s repent for our complaining for how long it’s taking. I won’t diminish how hard desert places are. I won’t pretend it’s easy to feel like we’re wandering in the desert. But that’s exactly what God wants the enemy to think… they’re just wandering and lost. But their obedience “to wander” set the stage for one of the greatest wonders of all time.

Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

Exodus 14:1-4

If you don’t understand why God is asking you to do something or go somewhere, trust Him and go anyways. Sometimes what we perceive as aimless wandering is God positioning us like an arrow with perfect aim. His aim keeps trajectory and timing and distance in mind on a level we cannot see or fathom, yet we can trust it. Another example of how the longer path gets you right on target.