In Want + Plenty by Meredith McDanielSample

Day Five

Moment by Moment

Scripture: Exodus 13:17–18, 21–22; Psalm 32:8; Isaiah 55:8–9

As the Israelites left Egypt, a straight shot through Philistine country would have made sense, but God led them out into the desert. “For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea” (Exodus 13:17–18).

After witnessing everything that had just happened back in Egypt and seeing the power God demonstrated by sending the plagues and shifting pharaoh’s heart, I would have expected God to take his people directly to Canaan. He is God, after all, and has the ability and power to protect. He could have arranged some ancient form of a red-eye flight—quick and easy and no one gets hurt along the way—especially after the Israelites had trusted him. The human mind always assumes God will meet our expectations our way. 

Over a million displaced people wandered in the wilderness with high hopes of returning to their homeland—fast. They had plundered their Egyptian captors, were told to leave with pharaoh’s blessing, and had hope for better days ahead. It was by God’s hand that they experienced freedom in the first place, not by their own strength. Yet the Israelites already had their eyes fixed on the horizon of what they didn’t have. They so easily forgot the fact that they were free. 

Yet even in the desert, God meets us and guides us moment by moment, breath by breath. 

As the Israelites were taking bigger strides deeper into the desert, they began to surrender to the reality that they were going to be taking a longer route than planned. This is when the Lord first appears in a tangible way in front of his doubting people. The Bible says, “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or by night” (Exodus 13:21–22). 

This verse says the Lord went ahead of them. He didn’t expect them to find their own way in the desert alone. He was with them, guiding them along every step of their journey.

Describe a time when God has taken you on a longer journey than you expected. How did he guide you during that time?