The Big Picture

At my monthly seminary in-service, we talked about "The Big Picture" of the Old Testament. Perhaps, in all my other readings of the Old Testament, I missed the big picture. The big picture is that the story is not only about those people way back then, but it is about me, right now.

The story starts with a good guy named Abraham. God covenants with Abraham to give him three things: family, priesthood, and land. Not only these things, but ETERNAL family, EVERLASTING priesthood, and the PROMISED land, or exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom. Pretty amazing things.

Isaac, Abraham's son, gets married in the covenant. Again, celestial marriage. Jacob has 12 sons, 12 sons = 12 apostles = church government. Joseph (of whom most of us descend through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh) is sold into Egypt.

Egypt. Anciently it was the hub of all the activities of the world. Knowledge, medical advancement, mathematics all centered there. It's worldly and represents the world. The children of Israel are put into bondage for 400 years. Because they are slaves, Egyptians don't intermarry with the Hebrews and because they are slaves, the Hebrews form a solid identity as a people. They become a holy nation.

Moses arrives and with power that can only be attributable to the Living God, he frees the Israelites from Egypt (or the World) and takes them into the wilderness. Six months later, he goes up to Mount Sinai to converse with Jehovah. Jehovah wants to reveal himself to the people, but they are not ready. They are still whining about having to leave Egypt.

God commands that the people wander for 40 years--40, meaning a really long time and the number of spies that went to Canaan. The old whiners die off and the new generation of Israelite fed exclusively on manna from the Lord are allowed into the promised land by Joshua, a derivation on the name of Jesus.

This story is about me. It's about my life.

God wants to lead me to the promised land. He can do it. Sometimes, I feel like I am still stuck in Egypt trying to figure out who I am. Sometimes, I feel like I am wandering and although I know God is leading me, I just feel lost.

Right now, I feel like I am one of the spies sent to promised land. I look out on the land flowing with milk and honey and feel inadequate to be there. I wish I were like Joshua or Caleb, faith-filled, wanting to be in the promised land, knowing that the Lord will make a way. But, as I stand with my binoculars I wonder,

How is it done?