Every Step Recorded

Numbers 33 opens: These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses wrote the starting points of their journeys by the commandment of Yahweh. The record lists about forty campsites. Scholars debate the location of many of them, so we should be careful not to claim certainty about where each one was.

The journey began at Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover, while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn. On their gods also Yahweh executed judgments. The list passes the sea, Marah, and Elim with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees. It moves on to Rephidim, where there was no water, Sinai, Kadesh, and Mount Hor. There Aaron died at 123 years old, in the fortieth year. Even dull-sounding names were real places where God sustained His people.

God then spoke in the plains of Moab. Israel was to drive out the inhabitants, destroy their stone figures and molten images, and demolish their high places. They were to divide the land by lot. If they failed, those who remained would be irritants in your eyes, and thorns in your sides. The book of Judges shows this warning coming true. Like Israel, Christians are pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13), and God who led every step will bring His people home.