Numbers 33:1-49 - The Journey Home

I. THAT THIS ITINERARY WAS WRITTEN " BY THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD ," NO DOUBT AS A MEMORIAL UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL OF THEIR TRIALS AND OF HIS FAITHFULNESS . Even so it is the will of God that every Church and every soul should keep in memory the stages of its own spiritual progress, for these are full of holy memories and needful lessons, all being eloquent of our own insufficiency and of his goodness. No one, being in plenty and at rest, should ever forget the straitness and the trial through which the good hand of God hath led him.

II. THAT THE TWO ENDS OF THIS ITINERARY ARE PLAINLY FIXED , THE ONE IN THE GLORIOUS DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT " AFTER THE PASSOVER :" THE OTHER ON THE VERGE OF JORDAN IN FULL VIEW OF CANAAN . Even so all spiritual life histories begin with the redemption from bondage through the blood of the Lamb, and end with the sure hope of immortality on the verge of the river of death.

III. THAT THE INTERMEDIATE STAGES ARE TO A GREAT EXTENT UNCERTAIN , SOME QUITE UNKNOWN , AND OTHERS MATTER OF DISPUTE . Even so, while we know whence all Christian progress leads men at the first, and whither it being, s men at the last, yet the intermediate course (sometimes a very long one) is for the most part strangely indiscernible, its points of contact with the outer world having little meaning or interest save for the travelers themselves. Just as maps help us little to follow the forty-two stages, so do religious theories give us small assistance in tracing the actual course of a soul through the trials and perplexities of real life.

IV. THAT WITH EXCEPTION OF THE BEGINNING AND THE END , THE ONLY FIXED POINTS IN THE ITINERARY ARE SINAI , KADESH , AND HOR — WHERE THE LAW WAS GIVEN , WHERE PROGRESS WAS RESUMED AFTER LONG DRIFTING TO AND FRO , WHERE AARON DIED . Even so there are in the history of most souls these three conspicuous epochs to be Doted:

V. THAT THE FEW NOTES OF EVENTS APPENDED TO CERTAIN NAMES OF PLACES ( ELIM , REPHIDIM , HOR ) SEEM TO BE SELECTED ARBITRARILY . Some other places certainly had, and many others probably had, more interesting associations for the Israelites. Even so it is not only or chiefly those passages which attract attention and secure comment in the history of a Church or of a soul which are of deep interest and profound importance to itself; names and facts which have no associations for others may for it be full of the deepest meaning.

And note that all the stations named in this list have their own signification in the Hebrew, but the spiritual teaching founded on such signification is too arbitrary and fanciful to be seriously dealt with.