The devil you know: Why Israel thought it was better off in Egypt
What history presents as certainties are lived as question marks.
Would you rather be:
(a) A slave, in Egypt, under a ruler who blames your people for its troubles?
(b) Free, but uncomfortable, as God prepares you a home?
Ask that question of the Israelites, in the 40 years between Egypt and the homeland, and they would’ve voted A, in great numbers.
When we read the Exodus story, it’s easy to judge the Israelites for their lack of faith. As if they were wrong to ask “are we there yet?” on a 40-year road trip, and as if we wouldn’t.
The people wandering that desert had no written book. They couldn’t flip ahead in the story, and be sure things would work out OK. Israel could not “zoom out.” All they had was reality. And reality sucked.
On a hard journey of uncertain end, is it any wonder some people said they were better off in Egypt? Life was tough, but predictable, in the way a nomadic existence could not be. Pharaoh was the devil they knew.
What history presents as certainties are lived as question marks.
Faced with the unknowns of the desert, Pharaoh seemed like a bargain.
On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick quit a half-mile before making history.
Chadwick wanted to be the first person to swim the Catalina Channel, off the coast of California.
But it was foggy that day. After about 15 hours, Chadwick said she couldn’t make it, and called off the attempt.
It turned out she was only a mile from the island when she stopped. But she could not see her destination through the fog. So she could not believe she would get there.
Chadwick’s failure wasn’t physical, it was mental.
The next time Chadwick attempted the route, the coast was clear, the shoreline was visible, and she completed the swim.
70 years later, people are still writing about her. We relate more with Chadwick’s need to see the shoreline than her need to rewrite history books.
The swim we admire. But the struggle, we get.
Imagine swimming for 15 hours and still not seeing the shoreline. For all you know it’s another 15 hours away. Who wouldn’t quit?
You could call that a lack of faith, not hanging in there. But is it, really?
Faith is not something you believe in, it’s something to believe in. Florence Chadwick could swim all day. But without knowing how close we are to our goal, we can’t know how deep into our reserves we must dig.
Our minds are not designed for limitlessness. Doubt creeps in. Then you tap out.
Even when you believe God is walking with you, the “You Are Here” diagram needs to be accurate.
Not for you though, right? We believe our faith would make up for the unseen. To which I’d ask: For how long? 40 years?
I say the Florence Chadwick within us needs more than that.
Much like the children of Israel, until the Promised Land is close enough to see, feel, touch, or taste, it seems impossibly far away, in the thick of the fog.