3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’
It seems as though every time Pharaoh starts thinking, he makes the wrong choice. He has led the Egyptians through a series of disasters. Every one of them could have been avoided if he had just listened to Moses, and by extension listened to the Lord. But instead, Pharaoh has listened to himself. He keeps making decisions in isolation. He has advisors, but even many of his advisors know that opposing the Lord is a bad thing. It will only lead to further disaster. The Israelites have begun their journey out of Egypt. They don’t go by the shortest route. This is because the Lord knows there will be tough times ahead. And if they realized that it was only a few days journey back to the familiar surroundings of Egypt, they would return too quickly. So instead, the Lord leads them by the desert road, far from anyone or anything. Remember, this is before GPS and before accurate maps. They had no atlas of the Middle East to pull out and see it was only a couple hundred miles. But the Lord has a purpose in having Pharaoh follow them. He wants to deal one last blow to the power of Egypt. Do we ever get our thinking and planning out of sync with the Lord’s plan? Does our imagination ever get the best of us and lead us down the wrong path? Do we ever think we can handle it without the Lord, that you don’t want to worry the Lord with such a small thing? Take a moment and think back on those times when you thought you could handle it by yourself. I bet you see many disasters and bumps in the road. Trying to do life on autopilot will not work. We need God’s direct direction and guidance or we will end up like Pharaoh, always heading for the next disaster.