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Don’t Get Stuck in the Past as You Remember Egypt

Don’t Get Stuck in the Past as You Remember Egypt

Last updated on: June 10, 2026 at 12:00 pm by Lee Ann B. Marino

Don’t Get Stuck in the Past as You Remember Egypt 2026-04-29T16:35:37-04:00 Lee Ann B. Marino

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There’s much to be learned among studies of the Old Testament. Perhaps one of the greatest ones is don’t get stuck in the past. As cliche as this advice often sounds, there’s some real truth to the importance in moving forward in life. The longer we remember Egypt, the less we accurately remember where we used to be. While there’s nothing wrong with an occasional trip down “memory lane” or remembering different times in your life, constantly thinking things were better at some point in the past is both detrimental and inaccurate.

Numbers 11:1-6

Photo of a note that says memories with berries surrounding on top left.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the Lord, the fire stopped. After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the Lord had burned among them there.

Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” (NLT)

Remembering emotionally, not factually

Ah…the Israelites in the wilderness. Never was there a more discontented bunch. We’ve heard numerous sermons on their grumbling and complaining through an 11-day trip that took 40 years. Were they grumbling so much, they kept forgetting to look at the map? Did all the women want to stop at the nearest gas station and ask for directions, and the men insisted that they knew where they were? Did the GPS die? Was everyone so mad about things, they just didn’t know where to go?

It was all of this and it was none of it. The Israelites thrived on their emotions for 40 years. They were so emotionally wound up, they couldn’t see what was in front of them. Their bad attitude led to their lack of faith, but we don’t understand what led them to that. Many preachers attribute their issues to grumbling and complaining, but the issues they had were far deeper than mere whining. If whining was the real problem, none of us would go anywhere, ever. We’ve all succumbed to the temptation to grumble and complain, but we eventually find a place where we move forward. God doesn’t leave us wandering around in the wilderness for an extended period of time.

The problem is far deeper than “looking back” and not being focused. We all look back over things from time to time, making assessments, remembering how things were, and maybe even enjoying parts of that journey. There is nothing wrong with this, despite what we are told. In parts of the Bible, God Himself tells us to look back and “remember.” The Israelites’ problem was not in remembering. It was how they remembered. It was in what they remembered and in the way they remembered their events.

They remembered them emotionally, rather than factually.

The facts

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They were not at the top of the food chain. Their lives considered of leftovers; whatever was left over after the Egyptians took their piece of the pie. They worked in hard labor without fair pay, were abused and mistreated, and had no legal status. Being in Egypt wasn’t a walk in the park. As a result, the Israelites were enslaved and suffering. They cried out to God to set them free. They were as unhappy in Egypt as they were in the wilderness…they just didn’t remember it that way. Why? Their feelings were in the way.

When we remember things emotionally, they seem different than when we went through them. We aren’t objective. We remember things through the way we are feeling about our current situation, through the angst and frustration we currently experience. In our frustration to escape our current discomforts, where we came from suddenly sounds different to us. Maybe it wasn’t that bad…maybe it wasn’t what we thought…maybe we can re-frame it…

Emotional memories

Let’s start off by saying that emotions, in and of themselves, are not bad. We find a vast array of feelings – both good and bad – throughout Scripture. We have emotions to not only experience the host of human life, but also experience the things God feels as He deals with humanity. There’s nothing wrong with having feelings, nor is there anything wrong with recognizing them.

That being said, emotions can’t control our lives. We can’t base our decisions on what to do or not do on our feelings on any given day. We also must avoid the temptation to remember things through an emotional lens. Emotional remembering is crippling the church. We try so hard to justify where we are, we do not remember where we came from in an accurate way. Bondage is bondage, and bondage will remain bondage, no matter how much we want to remember it differently. There was something at an earlier time that you never thought you’d get through or overcome that’s just as difficult as what you face today. What you went through back then wasn’t easier. It was just different, or comparable to now. Through emotional memories, you aren’t remembering it accurately.

Spiritual bondage

It’s a fact: all of us were in bondage to someone or something. Some examples include:

Concepts of what our family life should have been
Beliefs about how life should be
Drugs, alcohol, food, sex, or relationships
Shame about our origins, job, or situations

These are the things we think of as we remember Egypt. We’re all wired to think others will always be there, things will forever get better, and our lives will be a certain way. When things don’t turn out as planned, we start remembering our days of bondage more fondly. They seem different in the face of freedom. No matter how much we cried, screamed, hoped for, and wanted to be free, being free feels different when it feels just as hard and sometimes just as lousy as our bondage.

The realities of freedom

The Israelites were living with the realities of being free. No longer could they blame their bad lives, bad attitudes, and bad choices on the Egyptians. They had to go out and get the manna themselves! (Really, God did enough by raining it from heaven for them. The least they could do was get up and go get it!) They had to ration how much they needed, one day at a time. Care was required to make sure they didn’t keep it beyond when they should. God might have led the Israelites, but they had to make their own way into the Promised Land. They had to be accountable and responsible for themselves, and let go of the expectations, concepts, and ideas they had as enslaved people.

The same is true for every one of us. When we are led out of our bondage, we must let go of the ideals and concepts we had in bondage. This all sounds fine and good until the enslavement was from a family member, a husband or a wife, a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a pastor, or someone close enough to embed the need to keep up appearances with them. We remember Egypt through the lens of expectation and appearance, and are too quick to forget what life was really like for us. Jesus Himself pointed out that not everyone close to us (even our own family members) would understand our need for freedom. Yet sometimes, in that freedom, the loss, the difficulties, hurt us so much that we start clouding over the reality of things with our own hopes and expectations.

All in what you remember

It’s all in how we remember it. Let’s face it: when garlic and onions are your primary memory, things couldn’t have been that sensational. No one eats a dinner and remembers how great the garlic was. If the bondage you were in was better, you’d still be there; not remembering bits and pieces that seem appealing in hindsight, but weren’t in the reality. Hurts heal, emotional responses change, and love covers a multitude of losses…but the one thing it will not do is turn garlic into a sustainable experience.

When you remember Egypt, always keep in mind that you left where you were for a reason, and you cried out to God, and He heard you. Even though circumstances may not be what you hope they will always be…freedom is better than garlic, every time.

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About Lee Ann B. Marino

Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino, Ph.D., D.Min., D.D. (”The Spitfire”) is “everyone’s favorite theologian” leading Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z as apostle of SAFE Ministries. Her work encompasses study and instruction on leadership training and development, typology, Pneumatology, conceptual theology, Ephesians 4:11 ministry, and apostolic theology. She is author of over thirty-five books, host of the top twenty percentile podcast Kingdom Now, and serves as founder and overseer of Sanctuary International Fellowship Tabernacle - SIFT and Chancellor of Apostolic Covenant Theological Seminary. Dr. Marino has over twenty-five years of experience in ministry, leadership, counseling, mentoring, education, and business. You can read more about the author here.

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