Taking Ground | Week 5
DAY 2
“So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.” -Exodus 13:18
Freedom is exhilarating—until it isn’t.
When the Israelites finally walked out of Egypt, they were doing what generations before them had only dreamed of. The chains were off. The command had been given. Pharaoh had relented. This was the moment when everything should have accelerated.
If we were mapping the journey, the logical next step would have been speed and efficiency. Get them out. Get them in. Minimize obstacles. Maximize momentum.
But that is not what God did.
Scripture tells us something deeply unsettling if we read it carefully: God intentionally avoided the shortest route. He chose a longer, more complicated path—one that Scripture itself describes as roundabout.
That word matters.
Roundabout suggests inefficiency. It implies unnecessary turns. It feels like lost time. And for people who had already waited centuries for freedom, it must have felt frustrating, confusing, and maybe even cruel.
Yet God was not improvising.
Exodus 13 tells us exactly why God chose this route: “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” God knew something about His people that they didn’t yet know about themselves. They were free—but not yet fearless. Delivered—but not yet developed. Saved—but still shaped by slavery.
God’s decision was not about distance. It was about readiness.
The shortest route would have taken them straight into Philistine territory—a hostile, battle-ready people who despised Israel. God knew the Israelites could not yet withstand that conflict. And more than that, He knew fear could drive them backward faster than oppression ever did.
So God rerouted them—not because He was uncertain, but because He was protective.
This forces us to confront how we interpret our own detours.
When life doesn’t unfold the way we planned, we assume something has gone wrong. We say things like:
“This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“God must be closing doors.”
“This feels like opposition.”
But Scripture introduces another category: intentional delay.
What if God is not blocking you—but buffering you?
What if He is not withholding—but preparing?
What if the season that feels slow is actually shielding you from something you’re not yet ready to face?
The Israelites were not lost. They were led.
And sometimes God’s leadership feels like an inconvenience because we mistake speed for success. We assume faster is better, easier is God, and resistance is failure. But God measures progress differently. He is more concerned with formation than arrival.
The wilderness was not a mistake. It was a classroom.
The long road was not punishment. It was protection.
If you are in a place you never expected to be—doing work you didn’t anticipate, carrying responsibility you didn’t plan for, waiting longer than you imagined—it may not mean you missed God. It may mean He trusted you enough to lead you carefully.
God does not accidentally position His people.
He does not misjudge timing.
And He does not waste seasons.
Even the roundabout ones.
