GOD LEADS
Exodus 13:17-22

God alone is the Leading Leader who will not fail or abandon His own children in our time of challenging journey. God is the way and the truth that places those who go by His way on a right footing. When God leads, there is no shortcut or cutting short, but the journey can be shorter than expected when there is no rebellion and/or an act complaint. The children of Israel, coming out of bondage of over four hundred years, could not make their long journey short because of their rebellious act of complaint. Exodus 13:17, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” No matter how long a journey is or how challenging such journey can be, when you let God take the lead, the journey will eventually turn out to be like the shortest journey that has ever been made. When God decides to take you through a journey, any attempt to take a shortcut will eventually cause the one on the journey to be cut off short. That is to say: avoid a shortcut so that you will not end up being cut short and not get to the expected end. He that created the whole world that inhabits different ways and locations surely knows the way to avoid and the ways not to avoid. Why worry about how long the way ahead is going to be or worry about why you have been in the journey for what seems to be such a long way? Here with the children of Israel, God deliberately choose to lead the children of Israel in the way of life and not of war. No one among the children of Israel, not even Moses, could have seen the better way than the Only One who is called the Leading Leader and the Almighty God who never fails. When God took the leadership role concerning which way the children of Israel were to go, it was the longer road not the shorter one. It was a way that was to keep them from losing their mind by what they saw. God avoided the land of the Philistines that was near, “So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:18) God knows what He is doing concerning the journey you are in and concerning the challenges that seem to have no end in your life. Just because you know that He knows, you can consider your way safe and secure. Today, if you will learn from the children of Israel who left Egypt, you will know not to be rebellious in the way He is leading you or else you will be cut short from getting to the expected end just like those who left Egypt. Be content trusting God on your journey because it is well in the Name of Jesus.