Numbers 32-33: Stations of the Desert

Today is the feast day of the great Saint Patrick. On this day I will officially end the longest hiatus I've taken from this blog since I began it back in April of 2009. My last post was in early December of 2010, which means for about three and a half months I have not directed my mind towards Sacred Scripture, a fact that I am ashamed of. Beginning this Bible-reading endeavor was meant to keep me motivated, and though by and large it has done this, I still suffer from lapses of determination in which I allow other facets of my life to gain superiority over a much greater facet -- reading the Word. The good news, at least, is that I've never once questioned this endeavor nor come close to giving up on it all together. Even during my lapses, in the back of my mind I know that I have a job to do, one that is more important than most of the other activities in my life. That job consists in striving to understand Scripture, become knowledgeable of it, and, hopefully, to gain graces from the mental meditations the Word inspires. We are now in the season of Lent, and I knew I could not let another day, especially during this time of year, go by without turning to the Word. I hope and pray that any future hiatus will be a brief one, and that my reading from here on out will be much more focused and much more steadfast.

I am still on the Book of Numbers, which I began nearly a year ago in March of 2010. When I left off, the Israelites were on the very doorstep of their promised land. They had been skirmishing with the locals, and still showing ingratitude towards the One Who led them through the desert. Now, in Numbers 33 we get a summary of sorts of the entire journey from Egypt to Canaan. Every stop along the way, every town or city or camp, is mentioned by name. It's fascinating to read about the journey in one brief chapter like this. It reminds the reader just how far the Children of God had come, through what obstacles they had to endure, through what sins they committed. The journey from Egypt was a miraculous one. And it was a symbolic one. Many Biblical scholars say that each station, or stopping point, mentioned in Numbers 33 is representative of a certain sin or struggle that we have to endure on our own journey through life. The Israelites could not have gone straight from the slavery of Egypt to the milk and honey of the Promised Land. Such a radical transition would have left them unappreciative, unworthy, untransformed. Instead, God leads them on an epic, 40-year odyssey that indeed transforms them. They still suffer from ingratitude, but this is because they do not cease being human. As humans they can never completely be worthy of the Promised Land -- it is only God Who can unlock those gates and through His eternal Mercy allow them to enter. But they can still transform themselves, better themselves, and please God to allow them to enter into His domain. So it is with us. We must undergo a transformation, which is why we must endure this life, with all its obstacles and temptations. If God had created us and then instantly placed us in heaven, we would have no concept of what it means to love God or what it means to suffer or sacrifice to obtain a good. In fact, we wouldn't even know good, because we wouldn't have ever known evil. The suffering we endure in this life (and the suffering endured by the Israelites in the desert) prepares us for a place in which we will know goodness and happiness, that is heaven (symbolized by the Promised Land of Canaan).