God Provides When We Cannot Prepare
By Deidre Braley
Bible Reading:
During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. - Exodus 12:31-39
Our family recently traveled 300 miles north to spend the holidays at home, where my husband and I both grew up. Though we had planned for an extended stay, we did not sleep well on the first or second night, and on the following morning, my husband woke with a terrible bout of food poisoning. Exhausted, exasperated, and with a terribly achy back, I couldn’t imagine being away from home for even another moment.
Before the sun had even risen, I announced, “That’s it. We need to leave—today.”
In a rush, I threw apples and slippers and dog food into any spare bag I could find. I stuffed dirty clothes back into suitcases and rummaged in the fridge for anything that could qualify as breakfast for the kids. I promised myself we’d all brush our teeth later. And then, with our odds and ends shoved into every spare crevice of the car, we sped off, not even stopping to say goodbye to our family on the way out of town.
All day, I felt unsettled. Our luggage was disorganized, we were subsisting on a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans, and, as I discovered later, two out of our three kids weren’t even wearing socks! Our careful routines—and my sense of any control—had gone out the window. And it was deeply uncomfortable.
It made me sympathize with the Israelites, who were pushed out of Egypt in such a hurry that they weren’t even finished making the dough for their bread; they swept it up onto their shoulders and lugged it off into the great unknown. They did not have time to prepare provisions for themselves.
But their journey was more than just one long day down the interstate. It was forty years of wandering. Forty years of being unsettled. Forty years of not being in control. Forty years of having to depend on Someone Else to provide for them.
I think their rapid departure from Egypt was an intentional move on God’s part. I believe he wanted to make sure they did not have time to prepare—not because he wanted them to feel uncomfortable, but because he wanted to show them that he would provide everything they needed. He wanted to show them what it meant to be the people of the One True Living God. He wanted to position them to understand that they were not slaves any longer: they were his children, and they could trust him to take care of them.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
There are times in our lives that we simply cannot prepare for. A loss of a job. The death of someone we love. Or maybe just a husband waking up with food poisoning. Though we might despise the situation and wish to cling to control with everything we’ve got (which are very natural and human responses!), in moments of disquiet, may we find the courage to look at God and ask him what he wishes to show us about his character in these times. When he puts us in positions of total abandon—where our illusions of control and carefully measured procedures have been stripped away—may we learn to pray:
God,
Show me your goodness. I have nothing. You are in control. I need you. Please provide. Amen.
Further Reading:
Throughout the Bible, people find themselves in situations where their only hope is to trust God to provide. Consider:
- Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of his dream (Daniel 2)
- Joshua’s army marching around the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6)
- Mary learning that she will give birth to Jesus (Luke 1)
How did today’s devotional speak to you? Share your thoughts in the Crosswalk Devotional discussion.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Suwaree Tangbovornpichet
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