Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. – Numbers 33:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 13, 2025): Numbers 33

My Grandmother kept a travel journal whenever she went on a journey. These trips were with my Grandfather, and as far as I know, these journeys were always by car. Sometimes, it was with a tent trailer in tow, but later, they would travel using roadside motels. The information Grandma kept in her little journal included notes on the weather, the places where they stopped for meals, the name of the restaurant if one was visited, and the places where they stayed for the night. If an activity was participated in, her commentary always included that information. I remember stopping in a campground with my grandparents as a kid and finding a wild blueberry patch where grandma and I spent some time picking the little blue spheres. I am sure that that information made it into her journal.

As a result of the journal, Grandma could go back years later and remember the trip. And if my grandparents took the trip again, she could highlight places where they might want to stop for a second or third time, as well as the spots that should be avoided, all because she had written that information down when they had ventured there on a previous trip.

This verse begins a sort of travel journal, much like the one my Grandmother kept. The difference is that this journal includes forty years' worth of travel. It includes all the significant stops Israel made throughout their wilderness wandering. These were the places where Israel pitched their tents during the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The journal includes the Israelites leaving "Ramses" in Egypt and concludes at Abel-Shittim on the "Plains of Moab." It contains forty-two significant places where Israel stopped and camped during the forty years that the fledgling nation spent wandering in the wilderness. Of these forty-two places, twenty-four are mentioned within some of the other stories in the books of Moses. This means that there are eighteen places that we know of only because they are mentioned in this journal.

Many of the places mentioned in this journal are unknown. They are not cities where other things are happening, but rural locations in the middle of nowhere only remembered because a nation of itinerant wanderers paused there for a while before they moved on to their next stopping place. It is a record that later generations could read as the descendants of these pioneers remembered the places their ancestors went and celebrated the hand of God on a people who wandered the wilderness for forty years. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 34