The Long Way Round

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.” –Exodus 13.17-18

In modern western culture few things are valued higher than efficiency – that is, “achieving the desired result with the minimum use of resources, time, and effort” (Encarta Dictionary).

Yet when leading His people out of Egypt God did not elect to guide them along one of the shorter, more established – and therefore, to our minds, optimum – routes across the desert. Instead, though the Land of Promise lay north and east, they traveled sharply south along the inside perimeter of the Sinai Peninsula. Though they eventually headed north and reached their ultimate destination it was not before making numerous circles and zigzags - forty years's worth of 'wandering' in the wilderness.

So often in life we, too, experience what seems to be God leading us ‘the long way round.’ From a commonsense standpoint, we survey our circumstances and conclude that we are nowhere near ‘achieving the desired result.’ Instead, we see what appears to be nothing but waste – wasted resources, wasted time, and wasted effort. We do not dispute – abstractly at least – that God knows best; except in these moments of acutest difficulty when we begin to question whether, perhaps, we know better.

In these times there is also a feeling of confusion, a failure to understand why God is asking us to endure such seemingly futile pain. Why, Lord? we ask, It doesn’t make sense!

Yet a thing may seem – to our limited perception –to defy logic; but this doesn’t (necessarily) make it illogical. I believe it was Pascal who said, “The heart has reasons which reason knows nothing about.” So too does God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,” says the Lord, “nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55.8-9).

God may ask us to endure a set of circumstances we are tempted to call ‘wasteful’ or ‘unnecessary;’ but then we do not know the “desired result” He is in the process of achieving. Nor can we begin to imagine what greater evil He is – this moment – protecting us from. Our God is many things, but He is no profligate; and since all resources, time, and effort belong to Him we have very little business questioning His methods.

Our business – if we can call it that – is to cling fast to His sovereignty; to do as the old hymn says and beg Him, “let Your goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.” No matter how great the distresses or difficulties He brings into our lives, we can trust that they are purposed by Him to accomplish something good on our behalf – His desired result.