Can We Go Back?

Can We Go Back?

Thirty-five degrees is really cold for sitting outside, even when you are bundled up from head to toe. It’s even colder when you know you aren’t the one getting to shoot the first deer, since it’s your big brother’s birthday hunt. It isn’t a formula for quiet patience in the deer stand. At eleven years of age, this was a challenge for Cooper. After about forty minutes, he asked, “Can I go back?” Of course we said, “No!”

Going back is a reference to longing for comfort. When we get to difficult places in our lives, we often long to go back to the way things used to be. When we think like this, we oversimplify how good yesterday was because today seems pretty harsh. Discomfort leads to discontent, and all we can think about is what we left to arrive here.

This happened to the children of Israel after they cried out for deliverance from the Egyptians. The Lord had heard their cry and sent them a team of deliverers, Moses and Aaron. As these men led the Israelites out of Egypt, the people saw God do the miraculous. But I am struck by how quickly they forgot the way that God delivered them and what they were delivered from when the day in front of them seemed so difficult. The Israelites asked, “‘Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?’ Then they plotted among themselves, ‘Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!’” (Numbers 14:3-4).

When I get to this point in the story, I want to throw it to the guys at ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown for a quick “C’mon, man!” How quickly we forget all the Lord has done for us yesterday when what is before us today seems so difficult! When you ask the question, “Can we go back?” quickly tell yourself, “No,” and keep moving forward, trusting the Lord.

“Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

Numbers 14:3-4