When God delivered Lot and his family from destruction in Sodom, the angel instructed him to flee to a particular mountain. Lot thought otherwise, and chose a city nearby. Conditions of the city became appalling to him, and he eventually moved to the mountain where God initially signalled. If Israel had a choice of which route to take when they were delivered from Egyptian bondage, they would have gone by the way of the Philistines which was shorter. However, God took them through the Red Sea, knowing fully well that they would have been intimidated by the war machine of the Philistines if they had gone that route. Here, we understand that with God safety is more important than speed.

Recently, we spoke of the Global Positioning System. It takes you to your destination when you input your address. With God, things are different. God has the prerogative to tell us where to go and how to get there. We don’t choose our way and ask God to follow on. Rather, He goes ahead of us as the Lord of Hosts, and we simply follow. Our text shows God’s provision to lead us to the place that He has “prepared”. As humans, we have a limited understanding of the end of each cause, but God sees the end from the beginning. That is why we must defer to His wisdom. On a final consideration, determining our course of action and telling God to come along may be reducing Him to a piece of equipment!