
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
Hebrews 11:27,28
Sometimes it takes a great big failure to get our attention. We’ve started out ignoring the first little warning signs. We did this for a while, just turning away from the minor inconveniences we were feeling. And then they got more annoying. More painful. Eventually, we just couldn’t stand it anymore. Something had to give, and it was us. We ran for our lives.
For Moses, it took the police chasing him for a murder charge to get him to leave. When Moses left Egypt, he was finally leaving his past behind. He wasn’t just leaving all the money, power, fame, and everything that goes along with being grandson to Pharaoh. He was abandoning the way he lived and how he thought of himself.
Moses wasn’t just walking away, he was running. Running for his life. Running away from everything that would hold him back. He didn’t sit around and think about it. He didn’t pack up like he was going on a cruise.
Have you ever run for your life? Was there a time that you just had to get out? Get away? Was the pressure just so awful that you couldn’t stand it for another second? It was so bad that you made a snap decision and ran? I have.
I was co-founder of an internet startup, and we had our first customer. We delivered software based on what we understood. And then everything fell apart. I won’t bore you with the details but there were plenty of problems. They were verbally abusive, yelling and cursing on every call, refusing to take responsibility for anything.
Very early one morning I was on the phone, and they were screaming. I tried my best to calm them down, but nothing worked. All of a sudden, I calmly said, “I quit.” Silence. “What do you mean you quit?” I said that it was obvious that I could not help them, so I was resigning from the company. After explaining that someone would be in touch with them about next steps, I quietly hung up.
Over the next couple of hours, I called the key people involved and explained that I was resigning. They all tried to talk me out of it. Some even offered creative solutions. But I had come to that point of leaving, and I was gone.
I had never done anything like this in my life. I wasn’t a quitter. I was a fighter. I was successful. I had received promotion after promotion. My career looked like a big mountain, and I was on top of the world.
Like Moses, I needed to be knocked down. I needed to be humbled. I needed a quick and painful fall that would put my tail between my legs. I needed a great big failure that would push me out of my comfortable life. And like Moses, I ran.
If that was the end of the story, no one would have heard of Moses. But it wasn’t anywhere close to being the final chapter. Yes, Moses ran. He left everything he knew and wound up in a place that no one had ever heard of. A place that wasn’t famous for anyone or anything. And what he did was a new beginning for him.
Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
Exodus 2:15
After all the pain of leaving, and being exhausted from running, Moses sat down by a well. In the desert of Midian, no one knows who he is or what he’s done. He finally can stop looking over his shoulder for the people that want to destroy him. In the middle of that dry and empty place, he stops where he can rest and get a refreshing drink of water.
Everyone, and I mean everyone eventually needs to stop running. Moses needed it. I needed it. We all need it. There is a place and time that we need to come to the end of ourselves. No more pride. No more thinking that we’re smart enough. No more reading all our social media posts about how everyone likes us and everything we do.
There’s only one solution. And it’s not a list of things to do. It’s not an app on our phone. It’s not joining a club. It’s not a new supplement that you take three times a day with water. It’s not a what, but a who.
Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
John 7:37
I can’t think of anyone else in the history of the world that said anything close to this. Jesus says that he is the one we can run to. He’s the one that can refresh us. He’s the only one who’s the solution to our deepest pain and problems.
But we have to come. And then we have to drink. God’s not going to force us to take his solution. We have to receive it. Funny thing about receiving, there’s no work on our part. Our job is to see that we’re in terrible need and then receive God’s solution in Jesus. Now that’s good news.
Noodling Questions
How has pain recently come into your life? Describe.
Describe a time when pain drove you to run away from someone or something.
How did Jesus refreshing your thirsty soul change everything? Explain.
תגובות