“Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.”
After leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses and his people suddenly found themselves pursued by Egyptian soldiers come to recover their slaves. Desperate to preserve their newfound, God-directed freedom they turned toward the unknown. As Moses looked out over the great sea stretched beyond them do you think he must have searched for a solution beyond his understanding? As can only be imagined, could he have reached out over the water with his staff, filled with great anxiety and a need for an unknown way of deliverance to open up? What must have been unknown to Moses and the Israelites, as to even being a possibility, was that the water could move and part, allowing the dry ground to appear as their path of escape.
As this story of Moses illustrates, trusting in the unknown takes a great amount of imaginative, forward and creative thinking. In that creative space of thought and light and desires is where we believe in possibilities and in things which have not yet come to pass. It takes a certain awareness and paradigm shift to be in this place of trust. Yet, life is full of unknowns. Every step we take can bring us to a corner we cannot yet see around or facing a vista we have not yet climbed. Each new day can be called the great unknown. We may attempt to plan our months and years, thinking we can prepare every needful detail, but still find that each day brings so many new situations and unknowns.At times we may be faced with a great unknown in physical ways, like the Israelites at the Red Sea, but often, it is challenges of emotional, mental and spiritual unknowns. What did the Israelites do? They turned themselves to their promised prophet of deliverance foretold by their father, Joseph. Moses then trusted in an unknown path and went forward full of faith.
Just before their exodus from Egypt, the Israelites received the opportunity to practice trusting in the unknown when they were instructed to kill an unblemished lamb and put the blood of that Lamb on the doorposts. They were told that by doing this act of faith the destroying angel of death would pass over them and their household and not kill the firstfruit of their womb. Can you imagine the amount of trust in their unseen God this required?
Like the Israelites, we too can learn that trusting in the unknowns of life brings peace and hope. We may not be able to see farther than the sun setting over the horizon, but we can remember after the darkness comes the Sun shining brightly with the morning beams of light. It is the way life on Earth was made–with the rotating cycles of the Earth creating a pause of the Sunshine for our nourishment through evenings and seasons of winter. That space of time, the darkness of the unknown and unseen, allows us the opportunity to use our acting power to trust in the God of Heaven, our Creator, not in man; to choose to hope in anticipation of our return to our life in Heaven.
This Way of our Original Culture was laid out and shown by our Creator since the very Creation of this earth. It illustrates a pattern for us to live by and to Be. Our original people and families had to search out what they did not see and know. They knew their mind and heart were created for searching and finding unknowns and that which is unseen. This is how God's people have always come to know great truths. It is this proving process that develops inner strength and integrity of character. Many of us, like the Children of Israel, have taken our turn wandering step by step in the wilderness for “40 years”, a span of time necessary for the ripening process to occur within us; learning and growing in preparation for that Promised Land God has in store for us to inherit.
When Adam & Eve left the garden, did they understand how it would all play out? Did they know that eventually they would receive angelic ministers who would show them more direction on how they could return back to the garden? Did they know it would be hundreds of years before they could come back into God’s presence? They most likely did not. However, when the angel asked why they were offering sacrifices to their God, Adam’s response revealed this pattern: “I know not, save the Lord commanded me.”Adam and Eve’s story reveals an instructive pattern that when our God offers direction through the Holy Spirit to us, or through messengers, we most likely will not know why at first. It is unknown. Yet that knowledge and inner knowing will come as we honor our heavenly and earthly parents and Christ, the King of this earth, step into the unknown, accept what the darkness brings, and walk forward until further instructions come. For the best of directions, the unknown will be revealed through that which is recorded in ancient scripture, from our God through the Holy Spirit.
Each of us is invited to follow the patterns set by Nature’s laws and continually search and trust in the unknowns. The way of Faith is an unknown path, which quickly becomes known as we act in faith. This “knowing” can quickly become unknown again, revealing a continuous cycle and rotation of knowns and unknowns, that which is seen and that which is unseen. This is our Original Culture & Story; trust in the unknown and unseen; trust in our God and Creator. This trust brings us closer to knowing God and His Way as we embrace our personal journey of Becoming like Him. It is only through these soul-stretching experiences that growth is even possible. God's way of allowing us to grope in the dark through the unknowns of life is truly a sign of his love for and confidence in us, his children.
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| The Hebrew Model: Restoring Our Original Culture & Story by Katie Hansen |
