“Where, Or What, Is The Promised Land?”
Dear Friends
The greatest stories, I believe, that have been passed down through the ages; spoken and written – are how to live life to the full. They are about who we are in truth, and the abundance and joy of living when we know and understand this. All the stories in the Old and New Testaments are instructions for truly living life, moving from the love of law to the law of love.
We tell a child not to do “something” because then “something else” – (the consequence) will take place, and they go ahead and do it their way anyway. Are we not perhaps all like that at times? Maybe it is because we are in fact living/creating our own stories and experiences. Then we say to others: “I’ve been there, done that…..I know what I am talking about.” It does not mean a thing! Each soul on its own individual journey through life cannot be denied the opportunity for its own unique experience.
We are going to briefly re-visit the story of Moses leading the people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. We know the story, it happened so long ago………..so we might ask: “really, what does that have to do with me?”
I do believe that each of us is on our own particular path or ‘mission,’ if you like, to reach a so-called ‘promised land’.
What is it we are we all doing, or working towards, even seeking, perhaps? We read the story in the book of Exodus and begin at the point where Moses leads the people out of Egypt. In essence he leads them from a lower state of conscious – with Egypt representing the lower consciousness, narrow places – in which they are in bondage, ignorant and enslaved. They are ignorant of spiritual truth; in bondage to the physical sense of bodily pains and bodily pleasure with belief in the power of material forms.
Moses’ purpose is to lead them to the Promised Land: that point of awakening to spiritual truth. In the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, we read that the Israelites represent our thoughts that are always endeavouring to waken to spiritual truth. The Israelites in Egyptian slavery represent thoughts that once had the illumination of Spirit but have gone down into, and have become obscured by, matter and material conditions.
Each of us in our personal journeys to a deeper understanding, and coming out of bondage to ignorance of truth, finds a “Moses” or steward to guide us. This may be in the form of a book or a teacher. In our eagerness we do sometimes lose sight of, or give up on trusting, the process that is in a constant state of unfoldment. The book or teacher will not take us to the “promised land” – these are mere guides/stewards.
We may find as we journey from our own Egypt (narrow place of limited understanding) that we move forward and then at times find ourselves moving back into “slavery.” This is our ‘desert experience’ which may include vacillating between illness and health, joy and sadness, lack and abundance.
We align with the words of Jesus: My kingdom is not of this world, when we come into that state of spiritual awareness in consciousness where we drop faith and dependency on things in the external.
The story of Moses is a guide in life, on our respective paths—it is your story and mine too. The story never ends. “They lived happily ever after,”… is the beginning of the next chapter! I believe it is the destiny of each individual soul to travel the spiritual path. Yet the Promised Land is not a destination, but a realization and experience, moment to moment; and not any one is exempt from the journey.
The Promised Land—My Kingdom—is not of this world, and we need to stop looking for it in the world. We will find it in those moments of silent communion when we understand (no matter how briefly) that the I Am of me is God. Stop! Be Still—And Know—That I Am God.
In closing……
We cannot use our human minds to define the Absolute, and when we speak of the Promised Land, we are speaking of perhaps even a momentary experience of it.
Our difficulty lies in trying to define everything at the level of humanity, when the Promised Land is the experience of God Consciousness.
It is the experience we have in a flash of realization that defies explanation. But it stays with us in consciousness
Bountiful blessings,
Mallory