Our life cycle on earth has a limited shelf life.  We expire when God says it is time and “we are no more” as inhabitants of earth.  In the meantime, our journey leads us through good times and challenging times through all the ages, stages, and phases of life here.  We can choose to take this journey with God or we can choose to do life our own way with no help from God for he will come only when we ask him. God is faithful, true, loving, overwhelmingly patient with us but He will only come when we ask in Jesus Name to come and be “our present help in times of trouble.”  (Psalm 46) When we ask God to lead, we must obey and follow His direction if not, it seems pointless to ask. 

God is pleased when He is invited into all the stages of our lives. God delights in every detail of every phase we go through as we grow our faith in Him.  Our “invite” is our realization that God is real and does what He says He will do.  Our faith and trust in God prompts His invitation to join Him in HIS work!  God has promised to always be with us from birth until our passing from the arms of our loved ones into the arms of Jesus in heaven. Each stage of life will have experiences with opportunities to enlarge our expectant hope in God because of what Jesus did for us—forgive and remove our sins.

The stages of our lives teach us to rely on God’s Word for wisdom—the skills for living.  We learn that “To obey is better than sacrifice,” for example with reasons why.  We learn from God’s Son, Jesus all the behaviors to acquire to demonstrate our love for God and others through our obedience to God.  We learn that our Father God uses our mistakes, misfortune, and failures at each stage in our brief journey on earth as ways to grow, deepen, and mature our faith. Sooner hopefully than later, we realize we must be still before God, let go of our pride and stop clinging to what is not ours to handle so that we may know God is with us and it is God who will supply all our needs. 

God has power above all and overall.  God reveals the limited power of our enemies who seek to dismantle our faith in every phase of life if we are attentive to Him.  God will forever lead us by the power of His Holy Spirit from birth through adolescence through adulthood to senior living in His Name for His glory.  We need only to call on His Name.  God is listening and knows what we need before we do.  God sees us.  He knows us by name.  He forgives.  God loved us before we knew what real love was.  Yes, there is no one like our God!

Moses has been told by God to write down all the adventures they have had together on their journey through the desert to the Promised Land.  We are not sure why, but maybe this exercise is to document all that God has brought them through, all the ways God provides, with all the ways they must obey to obtain the promises of God. This is more than the “baby book” notations of achievements of God’s children!  It’s all about God!

Numbers 33

Stages in Israel’s Journey

Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. ² At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages:

³ The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians, ⁴ who were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them; for the Lord had brought judgment on their gods.

⁵ The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Sukkoth. ⁶ They left Sukkoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert. ⁷ They left Etham, turned back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol. ⁸ They left Pi Hahiroth and passed through the sea into the desert, and when they had traveled for three days in the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.

⁹ They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there. ¹⁰ They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

¹¹ They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin. ¹² They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.¹³ They left Dophkah and camped at Alush. ¹⁴ They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵ They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai. ¹⁶ They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah. ¹⁷ They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth. ¹⁸ They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah. ¹⁹ They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez. ²⁰ They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah.

²¹ They left Libnah and camped at Rissah. ²² They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. ²³ They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. ²⁴ They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. ²⁵ They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth.

²⁶ They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath. ²⁷ They left Tahath and camped at Terah. ²⁸ They left Terah and camped at Mithkah. ²⁹ They left Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. ³⁰ They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth. ³¹ They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan. ³² They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.

³³ They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah. ³⁴ They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. ³⁵ They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber. ³⁶ They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.

³⁷ They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of Edom. ³⁸ At the Lord’s command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. ³⁹ Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming. ⁴¹ They left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. ⁴² They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon. ⁴³ They left Punon and camped at Oboth. ⁴⁴ They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.

⁴⁵ They left Iye Abarim and camped at Dibon Gad. ⁴⁶ They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim. ⁴⁷ They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.

⁴⁸ They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. ⁴⁹ There on the plains of Moab they camped along the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim.

⁵⁰ On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses, ⁵¹ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, ⁵² drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. ⁵³ Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. ⁵⁴ Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.

⁵⁵ “‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. ⁵⁶ And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

What would it be like if we sat down, recalled, and documented our own journey with God?  Camp on that thought.  Take all the time you need.

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” –Paul to the church of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:8-10

With God, our lives are defined by grace, purified by God’s love, refined by challenge, and aligned with a heavenly call and purpose. In God’s plan, in God’s land of promise for us, we win more often than we lose, forgive as quickly as we are offended, and give as abundantly as we receive. We rely fully on Jesus’ act of sacrifice as our redemption from sin.  We serve out of our giftedness and delight in our assignments given by God with hearts’ motivations to please God, our Father, not others. We may stumble, but we do not collapse. We may struggle, but we defy despair. We boast only in Christ, trust only in God, lean wholly on his power. We enjoy abundant fruit and increasing faith as we continually grow in His Presence.  Our God is an awesome God indeed!  Living for God, in Jesus Name, at every age and stage of life will be worth it all when we see Jesus face to face in all His glory!

May these words be of great encouragement to all of us in whatever stage of life we are in today.  They have been written with the leading of God’s Holy Spirit and delivered with all the love of God in me to all who will read.  Pass it on, so all others my know!

Lord,

Thank you for your encouraging words that touched the depths of our hearts. “Deep calls to deeper still.” Thank you for being so attentive to each one of us, loving us, with compassions that fail not as you patiently guide us in through each phase of our lives here as we prepare for life eternal with you there.  Thank you for your love, mercy, and grace that fills our hearts, minds, and souls this morning.

In Jesus Name, Amen