When Failure becomes Success

Is a failure, disappointment, or bad misstep a fatal scar on our lives?  The answer is "Maybe", but it depends on where you go from there.  It is entirely possible to deepen and guarantee that past mistakes will continue to further erode your life.  It is also possible to see the errors, no matter how awful, turn into merely a difficult time that leads your to something better.  Remember, we still have the power of choice, change of direction, and faith at our avail.

To make any error more lasting and painful, just keep making bad decisions.  You may remember the the pharaoh of Egypt who defied Moses and God's demand that pharaoh let the people of Israel go.  At first the request was only to allow the people of Israel go to the wilderness to have a time of worship.  He stubbornly refused.  With each refusal, God would deepen pharaoh's hardheartedness and send yet another plague to convince pharaoh to change his mind.  

We hereby see a real life example of how not to succeed in life.  On the tenth plague, the Angel of Death killed the firstborn of the cattle and man if the lintel of the door was not covered with the blood of a lamb.  Only after the death of pharaoh's firstborn son did pharaoh allow the people of Israel to depart.  End of story, right?

Shortly after releasing Israel to leave the country, something once again welled up in the heart of pharaoh's heart.  He gathered his army and pursued Israel just as they reached the shore of the Red Sea.  He had Israel trapped, and he would now take his vengeance.  He is how deep into failure we can go.  A man who was possibly the strongest king of his time could not resist his impulses to exert his power and dominance over these people.  Ego, pride, self-worthy, and a dozen other excuses drove him further and further into utter failure.

When God miraculously stepped in to literally dry up a pathway across the Red Sea allowing Israel to pass safely to the other side, he simply could not restrain himself.  He was literally crazy enough to commend his army and chariots to follow Israel into the opening while huge walls of water stood on either side.  Then came his destruction as the chariots were stuck in the mud and the walls of water collapsed on them.

In a split second, pharaoh realized the awful depth of his stupidity and stubborn choices.

Another man who had recently murdered someone had years ago fled from the pharaoh into the desert.  It seemed like a life altering mistake that had taken him from the indulgent favor of pharaoh, the father of the pharaoh mentioned above.  Fallen from privilege, power, and luxury, Moses now tended the sheep of a man named Jethro.  It was a humble life that had no grand future.

In the desert, Moses came across a bush that burned without being consumed.  This was his moment of that would dramatically alter his life from shepherd to the one who would face the most powerful king of his time and prepare him to lead the people of Israel.  Moses obeyed the voice of God from the bush and this moment began a difficult but incredibly important period of history that would literally change the world.

The newly minted follower of God was sent back to Egypt to face the new pharaoh of Egypt.  Moses was doubted by the people of Israel and hated by pharaoh.  After a contest between Moses and pharaoh of ten awful plagues, pharaoh let the people of Israel leave Egypt.  

The zenith of these conflicted and contrasted lives came to a climactic conclusion at the Red Sea.  Two lives were brought to a conclusive moment.  The shepheder crossed over without any difficulty to become one of the greatest men in history.  The king of Egypt went from his grand throne to a corpse at the bottom of the sea.  

Yes, every live is given multiple opportunities to "Get it Right".  Even the missteps can turn into a small detour that can be made tight.  Moses was no saint, and pharaoh had every privilege.  There choices either turned defeat into success, and success into failure.

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