"These are the stages of the people of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 2 Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places. 3 They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, 4 while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them. On their gods also the Lord executed judgments."
Numbers 33:1-4
The chapter which begins with these verses is largely taken up with a retrospective ac- count of the journeyings of Israel from the time they left Egypt until they stood on the plains of Moab, about to cross into the Promised Land. We are told first of all (2) that Moses made this summary of the journeyings and wanderings at the express command of the Lord. It is clear, therefore, that this record was to stand as an important reminder to Israel and to us of all that had taken place. And the lesson lies in trying to discover why this record was specially made. We think there must be some significance in the fact that the journey is summed up in forty stages (548); for it took, all told, forty years to accomplish. We do not mean by that that they completed one stage per year, but rather that there seems to be some symbolism involved in the coincidence of the numbers. And, of course, this is the point; it should not have taken anything like this time to accomplish it. The journey from Egypt to Horeb (Sinai) on a rough estimate could not have been more than, say, 220240 miles, and from there to Kadesh 150110 miles. In Deuteronomy 1:2, 3, we are told that from Horeb to Kadesh was eleven days' journey. The whole thing could have been done in little more than a month! And the lesson of this chapter seems aptly summed up in the contrast given in Deuteronomy 1:2, 3 between the eleven days' journey and the forty years it took them to get to this present point in the plains of Moab. The point to gather here is that a great part of their journey was not re- ally necessary, but was made necessary by their failure and sin. They were on the move, but they did not get anywhere, for so very long. It is possible, too, to journey through spiritual life, being constantly on the move, without getting anywhere, going round in circles and all because of disobedience and sin. If the Old Testament is God's picture book of the spiritual life, the question that this poses for us is whether we see ourselves in this picture. Is this the story of our lives at a standstill spiritually, although showing a great deal of movement and activity? Have we got anywhere in the past year?