Egypt in the Bible was a place of bitter bondage for the Israelites. (Exodus 1:14) They groaned to God because of their painful oppression and He sent them Moses to deliver them and take them to their Promised Land. (Exodus 3:8-10)
However the Israelites took 40 years to move from their Bondage Land to their Promised Land, a journey which could have taken them 11 days. (Deuteronomy 1:2)
The travails they experienced as they traveled through their wilderness to their Promised Land can teach us several lessons as we move from our Egypt which represents a stressful situation filled with suffering.
Travel Travails Lesson 1: Once you leave your Bondage Land you may have to go through a Wilderness Land before you enter your Promised LandOne of the Travel Travails lessons that the Israelites can teach us is that we often must go through a Wilderness Land when God delivers us from our Bondage Land before we can enter our Promised Land.
For example if God sends a Moses in the form of a Christian counselor or Pastor to deliver you from a Bondage Land of addiction to alcohol, drugs, pornography or any other substance or habit, understand that you will have to go through a Wilderness Land when you will experience problems like withdrawal symptoms before you can get to your Promised Land where you are free from the oppression of addiction.
Travel Travails Lesson 2: There will be different problems in the Wilderness LandAnother lesson we can learn is that the problems of the Wilderness Land will be different problems from those of the Bondage Land.
For example we can see that in the Wilderness Land the Israelites did not have meat to eat and they cried out saying, "Who will provide us with meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." (Numbers 11:4-5)
This lack of meat was in contrast to the abundance of fish they ate in Egypt while they were suffering under the cruel oppression that made them cry out to God to deliver them.
Therefore if you are in a Wilderness Land do not compare those Wilderness problems with the ones you experienced in your Bondage Land. Learn the lessons that the problems in the Wilderness Land are teaching you so that you can move through it quickly.
For example if in your Wilderness Land you are facing financial problems and you cannot buy meat to eat as often as you would like, instead of reminiscing about the "good, old times" when you were suffering or living in sin but you had money to buy meat as often as you wanted, strengthen your faith muscles by deciding to believe that God can provide meat for you in your Wilderness Land even if it seems impossible because With God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)
Remind yourself that God did give the Israelites meat in the form of birds (Numbers 11:31) that flew from the sea when Moses had been wondering if they would have to slaughter all their cattle or fish all the fish from the sea to get meat to feed those 600,000 men in the wilderness with their families. (Numbers 11:21-22)
Therefore face your Wilderness Land problems with a good attitude knowing that they are to teach you something or develop something good in you. These problems may also be used by God to break old patterns in your psyche and teach you new ones. For instance the meat shortage could have been to break the Israelite's dependence on the Egyptians and teach them to trust God for all their needs.
Travel Travails Lesson 3: Leave your Bondage Land physically, mentally, spiritually and verballyA second lesson we can learn from the Travel Travails of the Israelites is that when you leave a Bondage Land physically, you also must leave it mentally, spiritually and verbally.
We can see that the Israelites had physically left Egypt, but they had not left it mentally and verbally because when they encountered problems in the wilderness, they thought and talked about Egypt.
A good example of this is seen above when they said, "We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." (Numbers 11:4-5).
In addition, when they were told that there were giants in their Promised Land they also talked about Egypt and said, "Let us choose a leader and return to Egypt". (Numbers 14:4)
This looking back made them unable to focus on moving forward because they still considered Egypt an option in their lives. It also made God very angry and He declared that they would not enter the Promised Land. (Numbers 14:23)
Therefore once your leave your Bondage Land physically, ensure that you also leave it mentally, spiritually and verbally. Focus on being free of the addictive substance and spend your energy thinking of how to overcome the problems you are facing instead of surrendering to the problems and thinking of returning to your Bondage Land.
Make up your mind that you will enter and enjoy your Promised Land even if you have been told that there are problems waiting for you there like loneliness since all your friends have abandoned you once you stopped engaging in the addictive behaviors with them or money problems if your livelihood was linked to your addiction.
Decide right now that going back to Egypt is not an option and set your mind on entering your addiction free Promised Land. To do this remind yourself each day of your goal of entering your addiction-free Promised Land because if the Israelites had set their minds on entering their Promised Land, they would not have considered choosing a leader to take them back to bondage in Egypt regardless of the size and number of giants in their Promised Land.
Keeping your mind set on your addiction-free Promised Land will also help you spend your time and energy praying and strategerizing how you will defeat the gigantic problems in their Promised Land instead of planning how you will retreat and go back to your Egypt.
In addition to keeping your mind set on entering your Promised Land, you should also set your mouth on enjoying your Promised Land by using Bible verses as affirmations any time you are tempted to say something about Egypt.
For example you can confess Psalm 27:13 and say I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living any time your Wilderness Land problems try to take you back to Egypt.
Moving to Your Promised Land: Part 1
Moving to Your Promised Land: Part 2
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