Leave Your Egypt Behind

In the second book of the Bible, Exodus, there’s a story that is foundational to everything else that comes after it. You might know it from the classic movie, “The Ten Commandments,” or the more recent “Prince of Egypt.” It’s the story of God using Moses to rescue his people from slavery in Egypt.

God uses plagues, then the parting of the Red Sea, to get his people away from the land that had enslaved them for 400 years. But it doesn’t take long for the people to question whether following Moses into the desert was the right move. When food runs low, and water is hard to find, the people talk about turning around and heading back into slavery. At least when they were slaves they had leeks, onions, and garlic.

The desire to return to Egypt didn’t die with that generation. It became an on-going thorn in the side of God’s people, as generation after generation were tempted to turn to Egypt when life got hard (here, here, and here for examples).

If we look close enough, we’ll find the desire to return to Egypt still infects us too.

Your Egypt Is the Thing You Think You Need

Egypt was familiar to Israel. They knew what life there looked like. Even after God miraculously freed them from slavery, they kept looking backward.

The future God promised was unknown. Egypt was known.

Centuries after God’s rescue through Moses, the same temptation was still there. Prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah warned God’s people about going “to Egypt for help” instead of looking to God. Egypt had become more than a place. It represented security apart from God.

That’s what Egypt looks like in our lives today.

Your Egypt doesn’t have to be obviously evil. It might actually be good. Egypt protected Moses as a baby. It became the place where Joseph rose to power and helped save his family. Centuries later, Mary and Joseph fled there with Jesus when Herod threatened his life.

Good things can still become things we depend on more than God.

Your Egypt might be a job. A relationship. Control. A group of friends. A habit. Your reputation. The way you parent. The way you spend your time. It’s whatever makes you think, I can’t imagine my life without this.

That’s exactly why it can be so hard to leave.

You Can’t Reach the Promised Land While Clinging to Egypt

The story of Israel points toward Jesus in a striking way.

Israel went into Egypt as slaves until God called them out. Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea and entered the wilderness for 40 years. Again and again, Israel struggled to remain faithful. They longed for Egypt.

Jesus went into Egypt as a baby, escaping the plans of a murderous king. God called him out. He passed through the waters of baptism and entered the wilderness for 40 days. But where Israel repeatedly failed, Jesus remained faithful.

Jesus went to Egypt, but unlike the ancient Israelites, he never wanted to return. He showed what trusting God actually looked like.

There’s uncertainty in trust—and that’s the point.

You don’t leave Egypt because you have every detail of the Promised Land mapped out. You leave because God is calling you forward.

That’s faith in action. Taking the step, even when the path forward isn’t clear.

Following Jesus Means Dying to Yourself

Leaving Egypt eventually comes down to one issue: what are you willing to lose in order to follow Jesus?

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die every day.” Jesus makes the invitation even clearer in Luke 9:23-24: anyone who wants to follow him must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow.

The cross wasn’t originally a nice piece of jewelry or wall art. It was an instrument of death. Jesus was telling his followers that leaving Egypt behind, and going all in on him, would require surrender.

Sometimes that means surrendering money. Sometimes it means admitting you were wrong and asking for forgiveness. Sometimes it means releasing your reputation, your position, your plans, or the future you thought you understood. And sometimes you discover there are deeper layers of yourself still left to die.

Jesus says something that turns our instincts upside down: whoever tries to save their life will lose it, while whoever loses their life for his sake will save it (Matthew 16:25). He goes on to explain that even a seed has to fall to the ground, and die, before it can produce new life (John 12:24). The same is true for us.

The thing keeping many of us from a more potent life with God isn’t that God has nothing more for us. It’s that we’re unwilling to put something down to find out.

Egypt will always pull at us because Egypt is familiar. But God is trustworthy even when the territory ahead isn’t.

So name your Egypt. What’s the thing you’re convinced you could never give up? What are you preserving at all costs? What familiar thing are you clinging to because you’re afraid of what life might look like without it?

God calls his people out of Egypt. Not because he enjoys taking good things away, but because he wants our dependence on Him—and because he can see the promised land when we can’t.

Following Jesus means trusting that what God has ahead is worth releasing what he’s asking us to leave behind.

It’s time to leave Egypt behind. Surrender, and trust, is the way forward.