Exodus 14:11 (AMP)
11 Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What is this that you have done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
God had done it, after being slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, God had finally delivered his people and Moses was leading them out into the Promised Land to worship him. God did not just bring them out, He brought them out with a mighty hand through signs and miracles and in the process, Egypt willingly hands out its treasures to the Israelites. Now they have come to the Red Sea and Pharaoh is coming after them. Even with all they have seen God do to bring them out, they still want to go back. Though they are free, they still have a slave mindset.
A slave mentality limits you because it affects how you see yourself. You never see yourself the way God sees you, and you always feel like you have to depend on another person. You have no self-worth, you have a victim mentality, and you never see yourself as a victor. In their eyes, the Israelites out in the wilderness never saw themselves as champions and victors. They saw themselves as grasshoppers. Without Egypt, Israel felt lost and that is why the wanted to go back.
For so many years they had allowed Egypt to define them, where they lived, what kind of work they did and how they did it, what they could have or not have. This was their life for over 400 years, so that when God set them free, their joy was only short-lived. When they faced a challenge and Egypt was not there to tell them what they could or could not do, their first inclination was to head back to Egypt, that which they were familiar with. The harder Job was not to get them out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of them. They were attached to their oppressor, they had lost their identity.
You cannot serve God with that kind of mindset because you will always look back. You will never be able to enter into the land of promise that God has for you, just like the generation that died in the wilderness because of their rebellion and unbelief.
We develop a mindset, and then that mindset forms us.
Ephesians 4:23 (AMP)
23 and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude],
Unless our mindsets are changed, we can never inherit that which God has for us because we will not be able to see ourselves from God’s perspective. A slave mindset does not walk in faith, and remember, without faith it is impossible to please God.
Reflections
When you experience trouble in your walk of faith, do you run to God or do you toy with the idea of going back to the world for solutions?
Who are you, and where do you derive your identity from?
Do you relate to God as a harsh task master or as your heavenly father? How has your mindset of him affected your relationship?
