Choosing to Leave Egypt

Christ at the Pool of Bethesda, Carl Bloch

Maybe it is just the fact that it is springtime with temperatures in the 80s and flowers appearing, but this was a really good week.  Of course it didn't exactly start that way when my car battery died when I was at the airport picking up my roommate at 11:00 pm Sunday night, but it got much better after I returned home around 1 am Monday morning.  (Honestly I think there is some sort of curse on me when it comes to DFW airport...) I got to teach about Moses and the Passover today, which was awesome.  And my dissertation adviser liked the rough draft of the chapter I submitted.  So it was a good week.

As I was preparing my lesson for Gospel Doctrine this week, I was struck by a verse in Exodus 12.  As the Lord instructed Moses and Israel about the Passover, he told them, "And thus shall yet eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover" (Exodus 12:11).

This is an interesting commandment.  On the night of the passover, the children of Israel were to partake of the lamb that they had sacrificed and with whose blood they had marked their homes for protection.  But this was not just any meal.  They weren't supposed to be casual about it.  This wasn't the kind of family meal where you take your shoes off and get comfortable, ready for a good nap after the meal.  They were to keep their shoes on, their loins girded, and have their staff in their hand.  In short, it wasn't enough for them to just be protected that night by the blood of the lamb, they were supposed to be ready to leave at a moment's notice in the morning.

After a long period of bondage, you would think that the chance to leave Egypt would be a relatively simple matter.  You'd certainly think that there wouldn't be any fond memories of the place, or at least of their captivity there.  But before the children of Israel had even made it out of Egypt, before they had even crossed the Red Sea, they were telling Moses, "Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?  For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:11-12).

We read those statements and think to ourselves, "Could you have possibly said anything more ridiculous?  What in the world is the matter with you?"  But in our own way, we all do the same thing.  Ridiculous as it sounds, we often willingly perpetuate the very problems that we complain about and pray for help out of.  In doing so, we are like the man at the pool of Bethesda, who when the Savior asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" answered "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool" (John 5:6-7).  This man was looking at the very source of the healing he desired, but he didn't recognize either Him or His invitation to be healed.  Still, the Savior said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk" (John 5:8) immediately healing the man.  What happened next was so illogical that it would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.  Jewish leaders approached this man and said, "It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed" (John 5:10).  The man then blamed Jesus, who upon seeing him again said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14).  Knowing that the Jewish leaders were seeking to persecute Jesus, the man then went "and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole" (John 5:15), leading to further persecution of the Savior.

Like the children of Israel, this man had been given a gift.  But he wanted to fit in with the great ones of his day.  He wanted to be recognized, and didn't want to be seen as someone who rocked the boat.  The children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt.  This man had been healed from his afflictions that left him lame.  And both were offered the opportunity to truly be freed from their greater malady by following the Savior, which was the true gift.

May we not be like the children of Israel and the man at Bethesda's pool.  May we be healed, not only from the visible outward afflictions, but also from the worldly desires that keep us in Egypt and prevent us from leaving all to follow the Savior.

Brett