My Personal Connection to the Children of Israel

1.  The gap between aspirations and reality
2.  The Israelites conflicting desires
3.  Returning to God is a process

When I was a young woman, I participated in a four year program designed to prepare young women for adulthood.  We set goals with the help of advisors to learn about and practice standing for truth and righteousness.  We set our own regular scripture study routine and kept a personal journal.  After I grew up and left home, I went to college in another state.  I saw the values other young people were living and I compared these with my own.  Growing up meant choosing my own path without supervision.  I made some choices I regret that were not aligned with my Christian values.

At the age of 21, I married and my first child was born a year later.  I chose to marry because above all other desires, I wanted to enter marriage and be a mother.  However, the misaligned desires didn’t go away as I embarked on my life’s work.  As Jesus said, "no man can serve two masters."  I have tried to serve two masters.  Recently I arrived at the point where I had to pick one, let the other go, and acknowledge to those in my inner circle my regret at how my choices have affected them.

Moses with the Ten Commandments

In the Bible, the Children of Israel were called out of Egypt to go to the Promised Land.  God called to them through his prophet Moses.  They left Egypt but they didn’t want to follow Moses or worship God.  So God didn’t let Moses lead them to the Promised Land; instead he called to their children.  Their children had never known life in Egypt because they had always lived in the wilderness.  And even though they followed Joshua into the Promised Land they were conflicted by desires that didn’t align with their new religion.  

For hundreds of years, these conflicting desires were manifest in a vacillating loyalty to God and his prophets.  Sometimes the people followed God and sometimes they followed the idolatrous traditions of the surrounding cultures.

I feel a personal connection to the Children of Israel because I, too, have vacillated in my loyalties.  I have done good things while resenting it and dragging my feet.  I have also NOT done many things I know are right.  God called to the Children of Israel to return to him.  He calls to me to return to him through the story of the Children of Israel.

Returning to God is a difficult process because it involves admitting my weaknesses.  I can’t change any behaviors that I won’t admit to doing.  I have to be honest about where I really am in relation to God.  He has provided a way for me to return to him.  That way is through his Son, Jesus Christ.  

I made a video about how Christ is the Redeemer

In this post I'm trying to clarify how I relate to their story