Exodus 13:17 & 18 say something amazing. The passage starts out…
“When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them on the road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land…”
God sometimes does not allow us to travel the most direct route to our destination – physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
Verse 18 then says:
“… So God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.”
Traveling through Philistine territory might have been difficult, but crossing an entire sea was impossible. Nevertheless, God chose the impossible over the difficult for His children.
The Exodus story has a happy ending. God parted the Red Sea and the Israelites walked across it as though it were dry land.
I don’t know how some of the situations in my life will turn out. But I do know that God sometimes hands me the impossible instead of the merely difficult. Like Moses, all I can do is listen for God’s direction, obey in faith if God speaks, and hope to eventually find myself on the other side.
It’s often a scary road. But I remember that Jesus asked “will you also go away”, and the disciples answered, “where else would we go?” Choose: the God of grace, or the empty cold world. We’ve got to stay the course.