Prodigal Son, Egypt, and the Gospel.
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“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who
trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their
horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the
LORD.” Isaiah 31:8
I am returning home from Egypt. Finally. I am returning home
broken and empty handed with nothing to offer my Father. Sounds oddly familiar
to the prodigal son, eh? So what does the Father do? He accepts me with open arms
that were shed on my behalf. This, friends, is the beautiful Gospel.
I am returning home from Egypt. Okay maybe not physically,
but metaphorically. I have departed from my all-knowing, perfect, and loving
Father and have ran to Egypt. This realization is painful to me. Mainly because
I had no idea I was even in Egypt. I had no idea that I was going to other
places for help and reliance instead of my Father. That is a scary thing people,
to not even know where and to whom your heart is ultimately trusting in. “Prone
to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love” is the story of my
life. I didn’t even know I was deviating from His heart. I didn’t know until I
was already there. Until I felt the lack and void caused by departing from His
presence. In that moment my mind jumps to “Lord, where are you? Why can’t I
feel you? Where have YOU gone?” I lean into believing the lies of the enemy
telling me that the God of the universe has left me. This inevitably leads me
to trying to blame God for feeling distant, when it is I who has been finding my
help in Egypt, chariots, and horsemen. So what does this reveal about myself
and about the God I love?
Myself: I am a broken sinner living in a fallen creation and am in desperate need of Jesus and the gospel, daily.
“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken
me, the fountain of living waters, and heaved out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
I spend my days at the wrong well. I spend my days heaving out broken cisterns that I believe
will fulfill and sustain me. Broken cisterns that inevitably lead me to a dry
thirst for the fountain of living waters. I have forsaken the living God and
ran only to find myself with a thirst that only He can fill.
God: By us running to Egypt, to other places to find help
and refuge, we discover that God is constant. God does not abandon us in difficult
seasons. Good days or bad days, close days or distant days, filled days or
empty days, joyful days or sad days; God has not abandoned you. How amazing
does that make our God? Matt Chandler puts it this way: “That even in our
hypocrisy He is long suffering with us. Even in our inability to live out all
that He would call us to, he continues to lavish upon us His grace.” That is
humbling to my soul, that even when I wander He is with me.
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Isaiah
30:15
So I return, with nothing to offer Him, I return home. I
return home sad that I missed out on feeling His companionship, having Him as
my substantial help, seeking Him as my everlasting refuge. But honored that I
am still counted worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, not because of anything that
I have done, but everything He has done. Solely and only I get Him. That is the
gospel: that we get God. We get Him. We get Him, and that’s enough. We can stop
wandering and filling ourselves with pointless things, we get HIM and that is
enough and better than anything we could ever imagine or fathom.
Let me be reminded of that daily, Father. Let me rest in
Your quietness and trust in Your ways above my own.