Do Not Go Down to Egypt!

A couple of days ago I read the greatest passage in Isaiah.  I have come back to it so many times this week.  The application of it to myself and my kids has already been profound.  The title of chapter 30 is "Do No Go Down to Egypt".  This is ironic because I joke with my Egyptian friend how I wish I were Egyptian!  I love Egyptian food and I pretend that I speak Arabic whenever I'm around her.  But in this chapter, going down to Egypt is portrayed as not a good thing.  I'll explain....

It begins with, "Ah, stubborn children," declares the Lord, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!"

How do I go down to Egypt?  Do I go down?  Do my children go down?  I believe I do, and so do my kids, without even realizing it half the time.  Whenever my thoughts go in a fearful direction, it's my way of seeking comfort in Egypt.  My own son, who seems to be following in my anxious steps, does the same thing. If he isn't getting his math as quickly as he hopes, his thoughts start to take him down the Egyptian way, and he, too, finds comfort subconsciously by holding on to his anxious thoughts. We don't mean to "seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt", but that is exactly what we are doing when we stay fearful. Instead of carrying out God's plan, shown to us by His Spirit, we instead seek "an alliance" with Egypt and we "set out to go down to Egypt".  We don't ask for His "direction", but instead "take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh".  This only adds "sin to sin".

I had never seen my anxious thoughts as my way of seeking shelter somewhere else, but that is exactly what I'm doing and what my son is doing.  For me, it tends to be anxious thoughts about money and our future.  Though we are in a way better place than we ever were, it is hard for me to break the old patterns of fear because those really dry years were hard for me and I think I'm afraid to go back there.  I listen to my husband as he tries to encourage me.  He is very optimistic.  I am usually the optimistic one, but with our finances, I tend to be discouraged.  Instead of believing his optimism, I question him.  I wonder why I do this?  Just like some people take comfort in being down and depressed all the time and love the attention they get by being martyr-like, I think I am doing that sometimes, too.  This is not a good pattern!  I see it in my son as we encourage him all the time and he is doing great, but instead of moving ahead in confidence, he remains fearful that if he doesn't finish this course in record time with record grades than his whole life will fall apart!  Of course that isn't true, but that is how he adds "sin to sin".  His fear leads from one fear to another.  Oh, how we are so alike!

Isaiah warns those who do this, who seek shelter in Egypt, instead of in God, "Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation......everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace."  I shared this with my son.  What a beautiful time we had together yesterday morning, just the two of us.  I told him how I am just like him and I love my anxious thoughts.  They make me happy!  I think I've believed the lie that if I'm anxious, than I'm doing something about our situation.  It may seem backwards, but I think I must actually believe that sometimes.  I told him that I not only see that in myself, but also in him.  Yet, the opposite, is true, of course.  We both know this, but we're like the Israelites who are described as "stubborn children".

In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian is described as a man carrying his burden around.  But he loves his burden so much, doesn't want to put it down.  Isaiah goes on and says the same thing about the Israelites, "Through a land of trouble and anguish...they carry their riches on their backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.  Egypt's help is worthless and empty."  Wow.  I think we do the same, carrying our burdens, our "treasures", our "riches", all the way to Egypt, thinking that somehow, we can save ourselves from our fears and troubles.  But God says, "No.  Egypt's help is worthless and empty."

Then, in a very interesting phrase, Isaiah says the Isaelites are called, "Rahab who sits still."  I had to think about that for a while.  Rahab.  Who sits still.  What could that mean?  Rahab was not one who sat still at all!  She diligently saved the spies and then later put out a scarlet rope so that her own family could be saved.  Perhaps to be called one who "sits still" is an insult because it would have been like Rahab knowing she could save the spies yet refusing or knowing she could save her family, but instead just hoping everything would work out.  I'm not sure if that's what that phrase actually means, but all I know is that I don't want to be one who "sits still".  Instead, I want to be like Rahab who actively worked out her freedom, who didn't wait around knowing she could do something to save the spies and later her family.  The Israelites seemed to believe they were doing something by going to Egypt, but they were deceiving themselves.  They weren't going to God for their salvation, like Rahab, instead they were off to Egypt.

Isaiah continues with this description of them, "For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, 'Do not see, and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.'"  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, 'Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant...."  As my son was about to start his day of school, I knew he was feeling anxious, as if his whole life hung in the balance, all depending on this one course!  I read this passage to him as well and reminded him to not "trust in oppression" or to "rely on" his anxieties.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  We are like the Israelites who don't actually want to hear truth about our sin and only want to hear what we want to hear.  I'm a good person.  My son is a good person.  Yes, maybe we're a little anxious sometimes, but we're really not that bad.  That's what we tell ourselves.  But the truth is, every anxious thought is sin.  And this "iniquity", that the Bible calls it, shall be "like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse".  How can it help either one of us to stay in that state of fear?

As usual though, God knows us so well and there is always a turning point where He says words of comfort after the major warning, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."  Oh good.  I will do that.  I'll return.  I'll rest.  Oh, no, I almost take off the burden, but then I quickly put it back on again.  I am so used to it.  God knows this, too!  He says, "But you were unwilling, and you said, 'No! We will flee upon horses'; and 'We will ride upon swift steeds;' therefore your pursuers shall be swift."  He tell us to return and rest, but we say, no, I love my horses!  So funny.  We all know what to do.  We all know what our burdens are, the things that keep us in bondage.  I know mine. My son knows his.  But we just cling to our burdens, our "horses".  We love them so much!

One more time, God is patient.  "Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him... He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  As soon as He hears it, He answers you."  This part of the chapter was very interesting.  My son's course is all on-line.  His virtual teacher is super frustrating sometimes.  Because he can't actually see him, all the contact is through email.  My son will send in an assignment or a question and he won't hear back from him for days!  How can he advance in his work if he doesn't know how he's doing?!  This drives my son crazy and certainly does nothing to help his anxiety.  But God, my son's God, is not like that.  Isaiah writes that God is not like his virtual teacher who never responds right away, instead he writes about my son calling out, "As soon as He hears it, He answers you.  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your TEACHER will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your TEACHER.  And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.  Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images.  You will scatter them as unclean things.  You will say to them, 'Be gone!'"  How amazing is that?  God is described as a TEACHER!  A TEACHER who listens, answers his cry right away, shows Himself to my son, speaks to him which way to go and reveals my son's carefully made idols of anxiety and fear.  My son was amazed.  He has a TEACHER who does answer him right away.  He never realized being anxious was a potential idol, but when I read that to him, he saw it.  I told him I was the same.  Anxiety is an idol!  Simple as that.  We both need to "scatter them as unclean things".  We have to say to them, "Be gone!"

Then, we prayed together, mother and son.  We committed to destroying our silly idols of anxiety. He'd never seen it that way before, but he confessed it out loud, as did I, and we started our day like Christian, leaving our burden at the cross.  What a wonderful day we both had!  We both walked around with a lighter feeling, with a feeling of anticipation about our day, not with the same heaviness that we'd been feeling.  Knowing our sin nature and the spiritual attacks that lie ahead, we must stand on guard against the enemy that hates us and seems to know our weaknesses.  He'll probably try to convince us to pick up our burden again.  But God is gracious to us and always shows us such mercy.  How grateful I am for His Word once again that shows me my sin, helps me to guide my own children in the right path and then gives us not only warnings, but encouragements to stay on the path.