It seems like forever ago when we left Egypt. You remember what that was like, right? Egypt’s forces were obliterated by the plagues and Pharaoh—under compulsion—finally let Israel go.
That was forty long years ago, and for most of this generation of Israelites, that event is either told to them second hand or a memory they gleaned from their much younger years. Israel is about to finally enter Canaan, but the journey to get there has been anything but easy.
Numbers 33 operates as more than just a master list of all of the forty-two stops Israel made since they left Egypt—it’s a reminder of the hardships and toils encountered by the people along the way. Every stop is an event; every location represents people lost.
It’s exactly the same reason as to why people keep scrapbooks today. Whether you organize them by vacation, by year, by family, or something else, you want those memories with you. They remind you of how you became who you were.
Remember Marah (Numbers 33:8)? That’s where Israel had no water and God solved that problem for them by throwing a piece of wood into the water (Exodus 15:23-25).
How about Kibroth-Hattaavah (Numbers 33:17)? There the people grumbled so loudly that God gave them a massive influx of quail, only to have a severe plague strike right after and destroy some of them (Numbers 11:31-35).
Come to think of it, those two accounts represent a bigger theme from this story. When you consider a trip of this size with this many people, critics will point to natural trade routes that existed in the area.
While there’s little doubt the Israelites criss-crossed with those paths, the point of emphasis here is that God sustained them, not their own resources. It was God who “led them through the great and terrible wilderness” (Deuteronomy 8:15), not their own strength.
Other markers represent similarly serious moments in Israel’s history. Hazeroth (Numbers 33:18) was where Miriam and Aaron spoke out against Moses’ wife (Numbers 12). The Wilderness of Sinai (Numbers 33:15) was where they received the Law (Exodus 19).
For a generation that either didn’t know, didn’t remember, or didn’t appreciate these moments, this chapter was a witness to their trials.
But those trials didn’t just come out of nowhere—they were the result of Israel’s provocation of God. Deuteronomy 9:7 reminds them that they rebelled against God from the moment they left Egypt all the way up until the doorstep of Canaan.
If they want the subsequent conquest to go well, they need to fully trust in Him. Otherwise, they can expect just as many hiccups (or worse) that the previous generation experienced.