The Two-Hundred-Fifty-Seventh (Journeys)

Have you ever gone on a trip?  Chances are, you have.  It could have been a short trip, maybe as a part of running errands or even just going to and from work.  Or, perhaps you’ve gone on a long trip as a part of a vacation or, albeit less exciting, a work trip.

Whatever the trip was that you’re thinking about now, you had to start from some location and travel to another location.  Maybe, when all was said and done, you actually ended up right back where you started.  Maybe it was a one way trip because you were moving to a new location.

Being in the Navy, our family has gone on quite a number of trips.  Personally, I had five moves in my first five years, two of them being cross country.  Then, married, Sara Gene and I had two moves within our first year of marriage, followed by four moves over the next ten years or so, again with two cross country moves in there.  And that’s not counting our honeymoon and the various family vacations we went on!

The thing about all these types of trips though, is that they require some level of planning.  Things would be very stressful and unnecessarily challenging if you didn’t plan them to some degree.  Especially in the case of moves, when you have to account for your personal belongings being packed up and shipped!

You plan out how long the trip will take, making sure to reserve somewhere to stay as you finish each day.  Not as important, you can plan fuel and food stops.  Those are easier to find as needed while you’re travelling.  But, I will tell you to be wary of the cross country drive across Texas!  There are some stretches there where gas stations, really any stops, are few and far between!

With moves in particular, unlike vacations or work trips, your starting location and ending location are different.  This is more along the lines of a journey, and depending on how much time you have you can “beeline” it or you can meander around seeing the sights along the way.  Of course, sometimes the season plays a role in how you plan the journey.  I remember us in the freezing cold as we stopped by “mountain Rushmore,” as our son called it, because we had to make that particular cross country journey in the wintertime.  That was a rough one!

These are all physical journeys, and in our case with the exception of one move they all happened before Yeshua brought me back to Him, so I was certainly focused only on the physical during them.  As believers, our spiritual life is no different though.  We have trips and journeys in that life as well.  And sometimes in scripture we can even see a spiritual journey impacting a physical one.  In fact, based on what I’ve learned through studying scripture, due to how intertwined our spiritual and physical aspects really are, most, if not all, of our physical journeys are based in some way off our spiritual journey.

One journey recorded in scripture is most obviously related to the people’s spiritual journey: Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.  We’ve definitely looked at it before, but as a reminder of some key points, the journey itself should have only taken about eleven days based on the most direct route (Deuteronomy 1:2).  Instead, it ended up taking forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).  

Based on Israel’s transgressions, the most egregious of which was making idols and worshipping other gods, YHWH had them continue walking in the wilderness before entering the promised land so that all the generation that committed these acts would not enter.  Their iniquity resulted in the consequence of not receiving YHWH’s promised blessing of entering that land (Numbers 14:32-34).  They had to physically continue traveling because spiritually they were not ready to enter.    

They weren’t alone however.  YHWH did not abandon them in addition to preventing them from entering the promised land.  He still led Israel throughout their journey, as a cloud by day and fire in the cloud by night.  When He descended on the tabernacle and remained, Israel would remain in one spot.  When He removed Himself, the cloud lifted and they would continue on their journey (Exodus 40:34-38).  

The whole point of a journey is to end up in a different place than you started.  The Israelites didn’t know exactly where they were going or how to get there.  All they knew was that it was a place YHWH promised to give them.  A place described in paradise-like terms, where the land flowed with milk and honey (Exodus 3:17).

Was it literally flowing with milk and honey?  Were there rivers of milk and streams of honey when they spied it out?  No, of course not.  They did find a prosperous land though, which is what they understood “flowing with milk and honey” to mean (Numbers 13:23, 27).

Another transgression, and what you could probably call the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” was the Israelite’s lack of faith in YHWH.  If worshipping other gods wasn’t enough of an indication of their lack of faith in Him, they sealed the deal, so to speak, by being afraid of the people in the promised land rather than trusting YHWH would handle them (Numbers 13:30-33).  Despite some maintaining their faith and trying to convince the others, the whole group was sentenced to continue forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:34-35).

Israel started in bondage in Egypt.  Forced to work for the Egyptians and kept from leaving by pharaoh, their proximity to those people resulted in their turning away from YHWH.  They started incorporating pagan beliefs and worship into their lives, including the worshipping of the golden calf as shown during the wilderness journey.    

Still YHWH’s chosen people, He heard their cries and He delivered them from that bondage.  Everything from getting manna in the wilderness, to receiving the commandments, to being able to reach and see the promised land, their whole journey, was intended to bring them back into faith and obedience to YHWH.  The reward?  The freedom they cried out for while in bondage in Egypt.

Yet, as they reached the promised land, saw the people in it, and were afraid, the people of Israel looked back to Egypt and even desired to return there (Numbers 14:4).  To the paganism, to the separation from YHWH, and to the slavery, they desired to return.  Despite being shown that YHWH will provide for them and take care of them, they rejected Him and wanted to go back to their previous life.

Let’s look at another journey.  One that is almost the exact opposite of Israel in the wilderness.  It’s a journey traveled by a man who went from shepherd to king.  

As I’ve stated in previous studies, I’m in the middle of the account of David as I’m reading through scripture chronologically.  You likely remember the high points of his life, which is sufficient for now, but as a synopsis, he was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king, was pursued by the reigning king, Saul, and eventually rose to take his rightful place as King of Israel.  Now, along the way and even while he was king, he had his…struggles.  But, we’ll touch on that in a moment.

You see, as you read through David’s life, there is a constant theme that is in stark contrast to what we saw of Israel in the wilderness.  David constantly sought the counsel of YHWH throughout the events in his life.  The most recent one I read was at the point where King Saul had killed himself and David asked YHWH not only if he should go into one of the towns of Judah, but which one he should go to (2 Samuel 2:1).  If you recall, he had been hiding from Saul for the longest time because Saul wanted to kill him.

Whereas the Israelites complained about where they were and the conditions they were in, rather than seeking YHWH for understanding or help, David sought YHWH.  Why do you think that is?  Why did David have more faith in YHWH than Israel in the wilderness?  He had so much faith, he stood up to Goliath when everyone else cowered in fear.

We can only speculate, because there is no specific verse in scripture that says why David had so much faith, but the first time we read about David is when he was anointed by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13).  It states that the Spirit of YHWH was upon him from that day forward.  Perhaps there was a feeling David had from the Spirit, or perhaps David always had that faith in YHWH even before his anointing.

Another possibility is that David’s experiences had led to his faith.  We don’t know the timing exactly, in relation to his anointing, but we see elsewhere that he successfully fought and killed both a bear and a lion at some point in his life (1 Samuel 17:34-37).  He clearly attributed this to YHWH’s work in his life, however we don’t know if he called upon YHWH for help in those situations or if the situations occurred and that was what grew his faith.

Regardless, it’s clear that YHWH not only gave favor to David, despite some of the sins he committed, he exalted him to kingship.  David was even considered a man after YHWH’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22).  How else can we explain this but that David’s faith and relationship with YHWH is what YHWH desires most from us?  I mean, David even killed a man after committing adultery with his wife, an act that resulted in a child being conceived (2 Samuel 11).  It had to be David’s relationship that kept YHWH’s favor.

The other major difference between David and Israel in the wilderness is that David didn’t look back to the start of his journey and desire to return there despite all that YHWH had done in his life.  His attitude was one of looking forward, not looking back.  When the son born to him out of that adulterous act fell sick because of David’s sin, he fasted and wept, but once the son had died, David got up and moved on (2 Samuel 12:13-23).  YHWH led David on a journey, both spiritually and physically, and rather than wanting to turn back and become a shepherd again, David embraced that and trusted in Him.

The thing about a journey though, is that it will never happen unless you take action.  For the Israelites, it was the first action of escaping Egypt once pharaoh told them to leave.  For David, it was volunteering to fight against Goliath despite King Saul telling him he had no chance.  In both cases, for the Israelites and for David, YHWH led them.    

As believers, we need to take lessons from both of these situations.  Not only do we need to trust YHWH and follow His lead, we need to look forward to where He’s taking us, not backward to where we came from.  If you haven’t started a spiritual journey with YHWH as your leader, now is the time to do so.  Unlike the physical journeys we take in life, you won’t plan every detail along the way.  In fact, you can’t!  But I will tell you from experience that the most amazing, eye-opening, and fulfilling things I have learned have come from studying scripture without trying to detail everything out.  He has led me on this spiritual journey, and I’m excited to see where He will lead my family and me!

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene