Why didn’t they leave? The famine lasted seven years, Joseph did not die until many years later, why didn’t the people of Israel go back to the land that the Lord had promised to their father Abraham.
One can quite easily dismiss this as the will of God and end all conversation on the topic, and that would be true, but if you look out on peaceful land with no war nearby, there is food and water in abundance, and all your daily needs are being met, why leave? They became comfortable in a land that was not their home, they became comfortable in the world, and as the world always does to those who call the Lord God their God, the world turned on them. “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7)
But they weren’t crying when the grass was green and there was no one forcing them into bondage.
How many people do you know that would love to live somewhere else, but won’t get up and fulfill that dream because this is where their job is, this is where they were born and raised, because they have become comfortable, and have exchanged that dream for comfort? There are thousands of excuses, and they will die where they have thought they should be, instead of where they wanted to be.
As far as we know, the Lord did not tell anyone of these people to get up and go back to the land He had promised them. Did all the brothers of Joseph become comfortable, did any of those that left that land with Jacob and his family after the famine was over get up and say, “Its time to go back home?” Apparently not, at least not that we know of. “Why would we leave, look around, everything we need is right here in Goshen.”
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but most people who call themselves Christians live in Goshen, you could just call it the world instead. They are comfortable, they have employment, a box made of wood and stone they call home, and they are rarely if ever inconvenienced by what we could call the things of God. (1 Cor. 2:11) Getting up and going to church on Sunday morning is about the extent of their service to Him, the rest of their lives are spent in the pursuit of keeping that box in running order, getting the kids off to school, and the mundane, repetitive task of leaving that box they call home five or six days a week to continue in what they call life. They live in Goshen, they have hard taskmasters, they do not call on the Lord to be used by Him, yet they call themselves Christians.
Their biggest complaint is people who say, “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” the state that the world is in, yet they find their comfort in Goshen, they have no real desire to get up and go home, at least not until the taskmaster begins to place burdens on them that they believe are too heavy to bear.
I don’t meet many born-again believers who are inconvenienced these days, perhaps I live in the wrong area myself, perhaps I live where food and water are readily available, where electricity is seen as a right, not a privilege or blessing, perhaps in a sense I also live in Goshen, not wanting to get up and head off into the dark unknown to find my way back home. The easy road is rarely the one that leads to Jesus Christ, yet that is the one that many Christians seek today. Why get up and go if you’re not sure you’ve been called, why seek for inconvenience when Goshen is such a comfortable place?
