The Journey from Financial Slavery
Life is a journey and we all have the choice as to how we choose to travel and where we choose to travel in this lifetime. The journey of the Children of Israel, from slavery in Egypt through the backside of the desert wilderness to the Promised land in Canaan, is a metaphor for the financial journey we all have been invited to travel with the Lord. Israel living in Egypt, as the prototype, represents being financially enslaved to the world system. The Wilderness was the place where Israel lived free from the world system, sustained day-to-day by the miraculous financial provision of God. Finally, the Promised Land was the ultimate goal the Lord had promised where Israel would live in abundance, a place where “the land flows with milk and honey.”
Although there was no record of the exact number of people who left Egypt in the Exodus, a military census recorded in Exodus 38:26, conducted not long after the Exodus indicates that there were 603,550 men over the age of 20 who could go to war. Factoring in women and children, the total population of Israel at that time in history has been estimated to be approximately 2 to 3 million people.
The Wilderness Transition
The paramount lesson in Israel’s Exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land was that the Wilderness was only supposed to be a transition. A transition is defined as movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another. The wilderness was the place of transition for Israel and continues to be the place of transition metaphorically for every believer.
If you map the journey on Google Maps the route from Cairo, Egypt to Jerusalem is about 443 miles (714 kms) through the desert wilderness. And, you can reach Eliat, the southern tip of Israel in just over ½ that distance. However, the shortest and easiest route is not always the best. As the old adage goes, sometimes the long way round is the nearest way home. The Lord did not send children of Israel by the most direct route, He chose a slightly longer route because He knew that if Israel was engaged in battle with the Philistines to soon that they would lose. Yet even this “longer” route should have only taken 3-4 months, not 40 years. It was because of Israel’s unbelief in the power of God and their habit of murmuring and complaining that they wandered so long and forfeited their opportunity to enter the Promised Land, save Joshua, Caleb, and everyone under the age of 20 years old.
Abundance in the Promised Land
There is symbolism in Israel’s journey and our journey in relation to wealth and the provision of God. First, most Christians who become believers never move from the safety of Egypt to the place of freedom in the Promised Land. They remain enslaved to the world system, working for money, and bound to the god of Mammon. Second, the majority of those who do exit Egypt, the world’s system, “wander” for the rest of their life trusting God to meet their daily needs and sustained by financial miracles but never experiencing the abundance of what the Lord promised. Why? Because they make the same mistakes that the Children of Israel did.
- They don’t believe God is greater than the giants they face in their Promised Land.
- They grumble, whine, and complain.
The desert wilderness is the place we receive miraculous provision; manna from heaven, shoes and clothing that never wear out, and supernatural guidance (the cloud by day and the fire by night). Although the desert is beautiful in it’s own way, and a vital place to deepen our relationship with the Lord it is not the destination promised by the Lord.
The Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, is the place the Lord promised that the Israelites would prosper in all that they did, where money would be their servant (“you shall be the head and not the tail, you shall lend to the nations”) and where they were to live as conquerors, multiplying, and giving glory to the Lord.
Caleb and Joshua represent the very small group of mature believers who renew their mind and experience a complete transformation from a “slavery” mindset to a “victor” mindset. The rest of those who entered the Promised Land were young people who were not brainwashed as slaves as their parents, but learned in the wilderness to base their identity on their relationship with a God of covenant. The Lord wanted Israel to stop being dependent on the world’s system, become dependent on the Him and ultimately become interdependent, co-laboring with the Lord and other believers to build cities, places of commerce, businesses, and industries.
Remember, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and he is not supposed to believe that he will receive anything. In other words, he will not prosper. We must be diligent and humble to cross the wilderness efficiently and not spend forty years or our lifetime in the wilderness as the consequence of ignorance, unbelief, or rebellion. As it has been said, it was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of Israel. Israel’s identity was as a slave and it was their core identity, their belief system which hindered their transformation of becoming the conquerors and “overcomers” which God had called them to be.
We have all been called by God and invited to live in the Promise Land. However, we all have the responsibility to renew our minds as part of the journey. When we are “saved” or became believers our entry fee in the race of faith has been paid for, but we must then train and run for the prize, which includes not just a heavenly prize, but rewards in this life also. The over-coming life is not guaranteed with our salvation it is the reward for those who overcome.
Image retrieved from Pixaby and released under Creative Commons CC0
