This week’s readings from Torah are divided into two main parts: (1) Bemidbar (Numbers) 30 – 32, a portion called “Matot” (Tribes) because it features Mosheh’s address to the leaders of the tribes concerning the matter of vows, and (2) Bemidbar (Numbers) 33 – 36, a portion called “Masei” (Journeys) because it gives a recap of the 42 journeys that the people of Yisrael had undertaken between Egypt and the Promised Land. These journeys have often been compared to the journeys and life paths that every believer has to travel upon, from birth up to the moment of entrance into the Promised Land of eternal life. The day of the Exodus from Egypt may be seen as the birth of Israel as a nation, while the entrance into the Promised Land (after the death of practically the entire generation who left Egypt) is clearly foreshadowing the theme of Life after Death, one of the most central themes in Scriptures as a whole.
The location where the Exodus began, according to Numbers 33 (Rameses), is believed to be in the general area of the modern-day Cairo. According to Google Maps a walking journey from Cairo to Eilat in Israel can be done in less than 100 hours – effectively 2 weeks if you walk 6-7 hours per day. However, it took Israel 40 years (or: more than 2000 weeks) to complete this distance and eventually this monumental undertaking could not be seen as simply one journey – as a matter of fact, Numbers 33 describes it as being 42 journeys in one! Some people would say: This is just one of those typical exaggerations in the Bible! Others may conclude: What a waste of time! But there are many of us who accept the Exodus account as truth and who choose to believe this account and to embrace the words of 1 Cor 10:11 (“And all these came upon them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come”). For us, the journeys of the Exodus are collectively a guide to life. These journeys are filled with traveling tips and directions and pearls of wisdom and crucial warnings that we cannot go without if wish to enter the Promised Land.
The 42 journeys in the wilderness remind us of the fact that our own lives consist of many journeys, some of which we enjoy and others that we would never have undertaken if we had the choice. Some of the journeys that some of us have undertaken in the past, have taken us a very long time – almost like the 40 years it took the people of Israel to reach the Promised Land. Many of our journeys have only lasted a few moments – some of which ended in joy and others in frustration and disappointment. Some of our journeys have turned out to be like the title of the well-known movie, “The Hundred Foot Journey”, where a hundred foot is not only the distance between two restaurants, but also the sacrifices that one person needs to make to accept another person and the surprising discovery that the things that people have in common are much more significant than the things that they differ about.
We have a tendency of underestimating the value of some of the journeys that we undertake. Sometimes our reaction to some of our journeys is not a great deal different from the reaction of people who do not really take the Exodus seriously – people who respond to the Exodus by saying: What a waste of time! But the journeys that take shape throughout our lives are never a waste of time! Not even the ones that we dreaded. Not even the ones that ended in complete disappointment. Someone has said we inhabit two kinds of time: real time and in-between time. In real time we pursue our lives: our careers, our relationships, our family and social interactions. In-between time is the time we spend in waiting rooms or on airports (when, sometimes, there is a lay-over time between flights of more than 10 hours). In-between time is also seen as the time between jobs or the time of recovery after a catastrophic or life threatening event or the time taken to prepare for something really important. The general idea is to make the most of the real time and to keep the in-between time to the absolute minimum.
This is not the Scriptural pattern of looking at time. There is only one kind of time and this is the time that we have received out of Yahweh’s hand to live our lives to the full. Some journeys are long and others are short. Some of the jobs that need to be done are big and others are not so big. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you can only wonder: What on earth am I doing here? How did I even get here in the first place? But every second that forms part of every single event of our lives, is a second that counts. Every moment is crucial because all of time is real and eventually we are responsible before Yahweh for the way we approach every second of every single journey during our lifetime.
Something that we do not always think about is the way the people of Israel travelled through the wilderness. Their entire journey consisted of traveling and camping in the desert. Each one of the 42 journeys ended with a camp, with the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) in the center of the camp. This is important, because everything else was focused on this Tent of Meeting. Directly surrounding the Tent of Meeting the Priests and the Levites were found. And, surrounding the Priests and the Levites, the 12 tribes of Israel were found – almost like the spokes of a wheel. And above the Tent of Meeting the cloud of Yahweh’s presence was found. This was the case, irrespective of whether they stayed at that place for one year or for one day.
The Tent of Meeting did not simply appear in the middle of each camp, by accident or by miracle. No, it had to be erected, at the end of each single journey and it had to be taken down again, at the beginning of the next journey. Fair enough, the Tent of Meeting was just a tent, a portable construction that was designed for this purpose. But nevertheless, it was not exactly the same kind of thing as our weekend tents or our modern day Wendy houses. It included forty eight 5m-tall wall sections, one hundred 70kg foundation sockets, more than twenty four huge tapestries, all kinds of pillars, fasteners, furnishings and utensils. It needed a crew of more than 8000 Levites to dismantle, transport and reassemble, each time the people moved from one place to another. And each time the Tent of Meeting was erected, 600 000 households pitched their tents in the prescribed formation around it.
During this period of 40 years there was one important lesson that was impressed on the minds of the people of Israel: They were never simply “passing through” a particular place along their journey. Not a single one of their encampments in the wilderness, and not a single one of their experiences along the way, was without meaning or significance. After each one of these experiences – even after the painful experiences and those incidents that they would have preferred to forget as soon as possible – they had to settle at their camps where Yahweh’s presence and Yahweh’s involvement was symbolized by the Tent of Meeting, right in the center of the encampment. This was their focus. This was their comfort. And this was the driving force motivating them to rise up the next day and proceed with their journey – knowing that there were no guaranties, other than the knowledge that time belonged to Yahweh and that He had promised that He would be with them, every step of the way!
The words of Psalm 37:19 have not always been true with regards to Israel in the wilderness, but because we know what had happened to them, and because we have learned from their example, it should be true for us: “They are not ashamed in a time of evil, and in the days of scarcity of food they are (still) satisfied.” How is it possible to remain satisfied in a difficult and sometimes unwanted situation? The answer comes from the same Psalm (37:39): “But the deliverance of the righteous is from Yahweh, their strength in time of distress.” Scriptures abide with verses teaching us that Yahweh is able to turn the worst of times around and make every single journey meaningful and unforgettable.
“Thus said Yahweh, In a favourable time I shall answer You, and in the day of deliverance I shall help You” (Isa 49:8).
“Yahweh said, Did I not direct you for your good? Did I not intercede for you in a time of evil and in a time of distress against the enemy?” (Jer 15:11)
“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear, knowing that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, not with what is corruptible, silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless” (1 Pet 1:17-19).
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