Why evaluate the journey’s start, and see the steps along the way?
By Dean Collins
What have you been doing the last 40 years?
Some of us can answer that question and some of us can’t. I suspect few ever imagine being old enough to remember back four decades ago. And most of us don’t see any value in the review. But maybe we need to pause from time to time and consider where we started, where we are currently, and where we are headed.
A 40-year travelogue
As we come to the close of the book of Numbers, we discover that, at God’s command, Moses wrote down all of the stops and starts on the journey from bondage in Egypt to the last steps before entering the Promised Land. It’s a travelogue covering 40 years. Some commentaries and scholars have taken the time to plot the journey on a map. Looking at such a map, you realize Moses could have taken a much shorter route. The trip could have lasted just a few weeks, but disobedience has its consequences.
In Numbers, Moses reviews the journey from Egypt by listing each starting place. At least 40 times—from the start in Rameses to the plains of Moab where they began the conquest of the Promised Land—Moses records that the Israelites “set out.” So maybe as we consider our journey in life we start with where we first set out.
Record the beginning
It’s probably worth the time to consider where you were born and the reasons your parents were living there at the time. It might be connected to your spiritual journey. In my case, the location of my birth is tied to my father’s conversion experience after WWII and his desire to be a church planter. My dad never finished elementary school due to his own father’s early death. Near Vestaburg, Michigan there was an unaccredited Bible college that allowed my dad to enroll and study for the ministry. Had that not happened I am not sure when, how, or if I would have ever become a follower of Jesus.
The Israelites started in Egypt because hundreds of years earlier God brought them there by the hand of their brother and son, Joseph, who had been left for dead years earlier. Here, in the land of the Pharaohs, God’s people were saved during a seven-year drought. Joseph had actually been sold into slavery by these brothers, not killed as their father thought, and God had guided and protected him until he became second in command in Egypt. That is quite a trajectory! But in the following generations, the new leaders of Egypt had long forgotten Joseph and for centuries had held God’s chosen in bondage.
Moses records that when the Israelites set out from Egypt they did not have to sneak out but rather they “went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians.” And this happened not by their strength but in the strength and power of Almighty God. But the people of Israel had a lot of stops and starts in the wilderness because they insisted on questioning, challenging, complaining, resisting, and disobeying God.
At one of their worst moments, they fashioned a cow out of gold to worship instead of waiting for Moses who was getting instructions from God at Mt Sinai. They couldn’t wait 40 days without creating a new God. I’m not sure what sort of help they thought they could get from a statue of a cow. But before we bash our spiritual forefathers, I suspect we could ask how many times we’ve been impatient and tried to create new pathways and new authorities for our lives instead of trusting God and following his plan.
Measure the progress
Just as the exodus story has a starting place, lots of stops and starts, and the eventual arrival of the Israelites into the Promised Land, our stories include much of the same. So take a few minutes and ask yourself the following questions:
Where did you start your spiritual journey?
Where are you now?
Where are you headed?
Hopefully, you find yourself a long way from your starting place. We all started with the chains of sin holding us back from experiencing God. You might have been stuck there for just a short time, or maybe, as was true with the Israelites, years of disobedience kept you from experiencing all of God’s goodness and grace. Paul reminds us in Romans 8 that because of Jesus we have no condemnation. We have been set free. What we could have never accomplished on our own God has done for us.
As we consider the days ahead there will likely be some more stops and starts. But as we set our minds on the things of God and are led by the Spirit of God, we can be confident that God will provide for us in each step and that he will not only bless us but also use us to spread his love to those around us.
What the walk requires
Walking in the Spirit does not require that you become a pastor. It does require that you be obedient to God and that you use your gifts and abilities to glorify him and to spread his love in and through your occupational choices and your life situations.
None of us knows whether we will have 40 more seconds or 40 more years to fulfill our calling. In some ways, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is to use the time we have faithfully following God wherever he leads.
Your time with God’s Word
Numbers 33:1-56; Romans 8:1-11 ESV
Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Kataion Unsplash
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