The Back Roads of Scripture

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he back roads of home are one of my most favorite things in life.  When I visit North Carolina, I always take a drive around the areas I knew as a boy.  Sometimes I go the long way just to enjoy the view, to take in all the scenery, and to drink in all the wonderful sights and sounds that an out-of-the-way-jaunt provides.

When I was home for the Christmas holidays, my sister and I took one of these drives.  We were gone for the better part of two hours, traveling more than fifty miles during that time.  We explored roads I hadn’t driven down in years.  We drove past the high school where I taught French for eight years, taking the same route I drove every morning to work.  The curves in the road were still the same, houses, yards, and fences were just as I remembered them, and the same trees and shrubs lifted their branches to greet us as we rode by.

We veered off this road and journeyed down several more, each one winding its way through a different part of my past, all of them bringing back wonderful memories of trips with my dad, conversations with friends, and time spent exploring new places and meeting new people. Not much has changed since I left home.  Every inch of that ground still fills me with a sense of belonging, a sense of safety, a sense of adventure, and a wonderful sense of peace.  No matter which back road I take, I always know the way home, and should the car break down or I have an accident, help is not very far away.

The Bible is filled with stories of back road journeys but we seldom pay any attention to them.  We know about Noah and the flood but very little about a man named Mephibosheth.  The story of Sampson and Delilah is very popular but the accounts of Obed-Edom the Gitite, Shallum the doorkeeper, and Araunah are virtually unknown.  We remember Abraham’s journey up Mount Moriah to offer Isaac but we know very little about his wanderings in the land of Canaan.  Yet it is these very back roads of scripture that hold some of the most wonderful truths and lessons God would have us learn, understand, and apply to our lives.

The road away from Pharaoh is one of these back road journeys for our consideration.  The Children of Israel have just left Egypt and are heading for their famous crossing of the Red Sea.  Everyone reading this story charges quickly through the verses leading up to the crossing because they can’t wait to see God open the waters before the people.  But there is a very important piece of scripture, a back road if you will, that shares volumes with us about the love and care of our Heavenly Father.

Exodus 13:18 is our back road trail off the beaten path: “So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” There it is in black and white—a back road journey.  Notice that God takes the people “around by the desert road.”  Earlier in this passage we are told that God does this to keep the people from being attacked and growing discouraged.  He leads them the long way around because He loves them, He wants to encourage them, and He wants them to enjoy His presences, His guidance, and His provision.

Not a bad trip is it?  The direct route is not always the way God chooses for our journey.  Sometimes He takes us off the beaten path, through the woods, down through a valley, or around by a desert road.  Whatever the scenery, the back road path is never an afterthought with God.  These jaunts off the beaten path give us opportunity to walk more slowly, to see more clearly, to hear more acutely, to drink more deeply, and to rest more soundly than if we charged straight ahead toward the end of the road.

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oo often in the Christian life, we concentrate on conquering the next hill, on climbing the next mountain, on putting many more miles behind us before the day is done.  Rarely do we stop to consider that sometimes God’s greatest lessons and His most wonderful blessings lie on the back roads of scripture.  A word here, a sentence there, and our perspective on His word and our understanding of who our God is completely changes and grows ever deeper. I invite you to explore the back roads of scripture in your walk with God today.  I don’t believe you’ll be sorry you took the time to walk “around by the desert road.”