February 17, 2025 - Numbers 33-36

Israel is closing in on her target, the promised land of Canaan.  First, though, a look back:  “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.  Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord” (33:1-2).  What’s the old adage?  “You have to know the past to understand the present.”  That’s from the atheist astronomer Carl Sagan.  The source, however, does not diminish the truth of the statement.  To understand who she was, where she was, and where she was going, Israel must understand her past.  The same for us!  To understand who we are in the present and where we are going in the future, we must understand where we were in the past.  Paul puts it like this:  “And you were dead in trespasses and sins . . . by grace you have been saved . . . so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-7).  It’s good to remember.

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,

and cast a wishful eye

to Canaan's fair and happy land,

where my possessions lie.

I am bound for the promised land,

I am bound for the promised land;

oh, who will come and go with me?

I am bound for the promised land.   -- Samuel Stennett (1787)