And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” Exodus 14:10–12
Do you ever get the feeling you would just like for everyone to leave you alone for a change? When all of children are making demands and patience begins to wear thin, sometimes the idea of solitude seems so inviting, but then what would life be without such otherwise pleasant society? Some people would like to be left alone when it comes to spiritual matters. They don’t want God (or His messengers) telling them what to do with their lives; they want to be left to do as they please. We need to be careful what we wish for, however, for God has often shown that, when people insist on being left alone, He will grant their request. Without Him we are hopelessly lost.
The people of Noah’s day wanted to be left alone. Minds filled with nothing but “only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) would not entertain this “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). They wouldn’t tolerate such a message while they were busy “eating and drinking” (Matthew 24:38). When God shut the door to the ark (Genesis 7:16), He gave them their wish and left them alone. This world is still filled with people who don’t wish to be bothered with God’s word.
Sometimes even Christian people prefer to be left alone. We seldom crave correction when it is precisely what we need. When Moses tried to make peace between two Israelites in Egypt, one replied in contempt, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14). When God’s word convicts you of some deficiency, do you turn a deaf ear? If you were to fall away, would you want someone to try to restore you (Galatians 6:1) and save your soul (James 5:19–20), or would you want your brethren to leave you alone and let you drift away? When we have problems, we often prefer to keep them to ourselves, but the Lord said that we should confess our sins to one another so that we might receive prayers and receive the healing that we cannot receive anywhere else (James 5:16). Why then should we even try to walk this road alone?
Being alone is the worst thing that could ever happen to us. God knew from the beginning that we would need help. That’s why He gave the first man a wife (Genesis 2:18) and placed the first Christians in Christian society (Acts 2:42–47). God doesn’t want us to be alone, and He will only leave us alone if we insist on going our own way. When the Pharisees chose to put their tradition above God’s word, Jesus told the twelve to “leave them alone” (Matthew 15:13). When Paul spoke of those who exchanged truth for a lie, he tells that “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28). God will leave us alone if we want, but the end of a godless life is not a happy one!
On the other hand, if we follow His counsel, God has promised that He will never leave us alone. When everyone forsook Jesus, God never did (John 16:32). When all forsook Paul, the Lord stood with Him (2 Timothy 4:16–17). God has done everything He could to draw us nearer to Him, including the giving of His Son to reconcile us (Romans 5:10), correcting us as a loving Father (Hebrews 12:5–8), and suffering long with us (2 Peter 3:9). If I wish to be left alone so that I might do as I please all my life, I must not be surprised when I find myself all alone at the Judgment!