The Burning Platform
The story of Moses, the Israelites, and their escape from Egypt provides a great illustration on the topic of a burning platform.1 As you may recall from having read the story or seen Charlton Heston playing Moses in The Ten Commandments, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Moses, being led by God, painted a picture to the Israelites, and to Pharaoh, of free Israelites returning to their homeland. Pharaoh, however, refused to give the Israelites their freedom, so God sent 10 plagues on the Egyptian people. It was not until the last plague that Pharaoh decided to let the Israelites go. What changed for Pharaoh? It was not the vision. He knew Moses’s vision before the first plague. What changed was the burning platform. Pharaoh did not think he had to change. Even when the plagues came, Pharaoh did not feel there was enough pressure from Moses to make him do anything. It was only after the last plague (the killing of firstborn sons) that the burning platform for Pharaoh became hot enough, compelling him to let the Israelites go. However, the story does not stop there. Once the Israelites started to escape, they realized that leaving Egypt was harder than they first thought. Some of them wanted to return. But once on the shores of the Red Sea, the Egyptian forces in pursuit posed a deadly alternative to moving forward. So Moses parted the Red Sea, and the Israelites traveled forward despite the immediate fear of crossing and the unknown circumstances that lay ahead. However, the Red Sea closed once again after they crossed, signifying that they had no choice but to go toward the vision (the Promised Land) because they could not go back. This is what the burning platform is: it is the motivation to move you toward the vision and overcome obstacles in your way because you can no longer, or no longer want to, stay where you are.