"I Left My Heart in Egypt"

You probably recognize the title of this post is as a play on Tony Bennett’s signature song “I left My Heart in San Francisco.” Unfortunately, after being phenomenally delivered from Egypt, it became the Jewish national anthem. Within days of crossing over the Red Sea into the wilderness, the Israelites began thinking longingly about the things they missed in Egypt—the “leeks and onions.”

Moses said: “God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you … He allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna … that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:2-3). Interestingly, the root of the Hebrew word for wilderness, midbar, means "speak" or "word." God speaks to us in the wilderness; it creates in us a hunger for God’s words.

But of course that didn’t happen—the Jews couldn’t stop thinking about what they left behind, about the way things used to be. You may call it nostalgia; God calls it rebellion. None of us should expect that we will ever fully possess our Canaan (the abundant life Jesus spoke of) while our heart still thinks wistfully of the way we were (another sad song title). Listen to these words: "Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past” (Isa 43:18). In other words, get your heart out of Egypt.