NOTES for Num 33:1-56

The whole path of the people from Sinai to the land promised by God is described in detail in the Book of Numbers; all the stopping places are named one by one. What, it would seem, are such details for, especially since today many of the geographical points listed in the book remain only names, about which it is not even possible to say exactly where they were located? From a human point of view, this list really has no special significance. In the end the result matters: the people came to where they had to come, to the place where God wanted to see them and where He intended to settle them. For God, however, everything is somewhat different. For Him the result is always no less important than the path that led to it.

For us, it is usually precisely and only the result that has meaning and significance; we work for the result, and it alone is important to us. Of course, we usually keep losses and costs in mind, but only in the sense that they should not devalue the result, as happens when the costs in one respect or another exceed it. For us, however, this is only arithmetic; numbers matter to us, and usually it matters to us that the balance comes out, that in the end expenses do not exceed income.

For God, what matters is how a person will change after attaining the result he was seeking. When God sets one task or another before a person, He always has in mind that person's spiritual formation, and not only the solution of the task set. Moreover, a person's spiritual formation is always in first place for God; the result matters to Him in the context of the process, not in itself.

And this is understandable: after all, God's main goal is to make a person an inhabitant of His Kingdom, and here a person's spiritual formation is even more important than which tasks set by God he will be able to solve. In the end, for solving one and the same task God can find very different people, and most often He has several options. But a person is always unique, as is his spiritual path. A person can walk his own spiritual path only himself, and every path is unique, so that only the one for whom it is intended can walk it.

Without walking the path, a person will not see the Kingdom. God, of course, can transport anyone anywhere, but in order to become an inhabitant of the Kingdom, one must change inwardly, and that is impossible in principle without the person's participation. So it is with every path, whether the path of an individual person or of a whole people. Such was the path of the people of God through the land by which they had to reach the place where God appointed them to live. Here it is not only geography - here are stages of the spiritual path, absolutely important for God and, in their spiritual quality, absolutely unique, although outwardly they may look like a simple list of nomadic camps in the wilderness.