"We Want to Go Back To Egypt"

Numbers 14: 1-4

1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" 4 And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

PAINTING PICTURES OF EGYPT - SARA GROVES
Uploaded by rosichichi

It's funny how things come together in your life.  I've been pondering a post about Comfort, Creativity and Crisis--how this is a time in our lives when some want to go forward and some want to go back.  I've written several drafts but never posted on it.  I've just been waiting until today when our pastor preached on the above passage and mentioned this Sara Groves song.  

If you haven't already, play the video and listen to the words.  They are powerful.  

We all long for a simpler existence, one that is free from problems and challenges.  But that isn't reality.  The children of Israel had just seen the Lord do mighty things for them by rescuing them out of Egypt-but they were hestitant to enter the Land that God had promised them.  They wanted to go back to Egypt.

How many times have you heard in recent days, "oh if we could just go back to..

• the days of Clinton--the days of prosperity
  
• the days of peace--when we weren't involved in wars
  
• the days of prosperity--when there were enough jobs to go around
  
• the days of youth--when all of our lives were open books--ready to be written.
  
• the days of past history--the grand and glorious days--(which by the way weren't so grand and glorious then

You see, as Sara Groves says in her song, we seem to leave out the bad stuff of the past.  I do it too.  I long sometimes for the simpler days of my own life--when life seemed to be slower and sweeter. But there were hard times then too.

So, what will it be in these days.  Will it be comfort or creativity to see what the future holds? In reading a book the other day the author stated that by holding on to the past we forfeit the ability to enjoy the present or plan for the future.  I don't want to hold on to the past for, as the song says, it can't hold on the treasures that the present has taught me.

What do you think?  Do we really want comfort or creative solutions for our problems today?