Numbers 33 gives a full list of all the places the Children of Israel traveled throughout their 40 years in the wilderness.
While this is one of those sections of the Bible where you either jump ahead or sleepily read through each and every place thinking it’s your Biblical duty to do so. But is this more than a simple retelling of where they have been? Did Moses need some filler and figured the best choice is a list of campsites?
Well, this wasn’t really up to Moses to record:
Numbers 33:1 These are the stages in the journey of the people of Isra’el as they left the land of Egypt divided into groups under the leadership of Moshe and Aharon. 2 Moshe recorded each of the stages of their journey by order of YHVH ; here are the starting-points of each stage:
Did you catch that? “by order of YHVH…”
Why on earth would Abba need this information planted here of all places? In fact, why include it at all?
The answer lies in what is said right after. Before we unpack that though, let’s see if we can get a Biblical understanding of the past and the future.
There are two words that describe this concept:
This is the most intuitive “past” concept. It is what is behind you, what you have already passed, what can be looked back on.
Meaning: The past is what can be seen after it happens.
This verb is frequently used for past events. The past is not a “time category”, it’s something that has passed through you. That’s why Israel is called: ʿIvri (Hebrew) - “one who crosses over”
Meaning: The past is what you’ve crossed.
Weaving these two themes together we see that the things we have navigated throughout our lives is fully within view. We see it all. The ups, the downs, the tragedies, the victories -- all on full display in our mind's eye.
There is no changing what has happened in the past. It is literally behind us.
But we do have a role to play in what comes.
The future is what is in front, unknown, unseen.
This is where Hebrew gets fascinating. Like the past, there are two primary words used for the future:
Hebrew conceptualizes the future as what is in front of you, but not yet visible. This word is used for face, presence, forward direction. But here’s the twist: You face the unknown, not the known.
So the “future” is literally what you are facing but cannot see clearly.
This is the functional future word. It doesn’t mean “future time”. It means: end, outcome, destiny, result.
Biblical Hebrew cares less about what happens next and more about what it leads to.
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As we climb deep into the Word we actually see an odd dynamic appear time and again. A future event is sometimes spoken as though it has already happened. It’s as if there are things that live outside of time itself. Or phrased differently, it lives in the fullness of time.
Hebrew verbs aren’t past/future. Biblical Hebrew verbs operate on completed vs. incomplete, not past vs. future.
This is why future prophecy is often spoken in past tense and promises are described as already done. Certainty matters more than chronology.
For example: Isaiah 9:6 “A child has been born to us…” is a future event in completed form.
From Abba’s perspective what He has decreed is already “past” even if humans experience it as future.
Ok, so the past we can’t change and the future we can’t see. And we live in the intersection of them both: today.
We live our lives in this moment. This moment right now is where you are. But we don’t really, do we.
We tumble the events and experiences of the past over and over in our minds all the while trying to force a better outcome in the future. Not many people live today. Most are in the past and just as many live in the fantasy of the future they desire for themselves.
We need healing from our past, and we need to understand the landing point in front of us. Otherwise, we wallow in our misery and we strive for life -- but oftentimes a false version of life.
But Biblical Hebrew does not ask: “What will happen next?”
It asks: “What has God already established, and where does it lead?”
With this in mind, let’s now go back and ask again, “Why do we have a retelling of their journey?”
But before we lock our sights in on that target, let’s look at one last key detail.
Numbers 34 outlines the inheritance and states who will be the ones to lead the charge into securing the Land. This isn’t an unwarranted claim on someone else’s property and it isn’t colonization by imperialists. It is the return to what was always the case.
Before any of this, Abraham was told hundreds of years prior that this Land belongs to his descendants, even before it was true. But based on what we saw above, it was true even then. Abba decreed it, and it was so. And now we have a people group sitting on the verge of bringing it into physical reality.
Before this happens, however, Abba knew they needed to remember from where they came. They needed to know that He was with them going forward in the exact same way He was with them in the past. If He is mighty enough to bring you out of slavery, He is mighty enough to carry you through to the destination.
Coming out of oppression is only half the battle. The other half is walking head first, blind, into their destiny. And there is no chance they can do it on their own.
That leads us to today.
The first half of Numbers 33 discusses their past, and Numbers 34 discusses their future. Nestled in between is today.
Numbers 33:50 Adonai spoke to Moshe in the plains of Mo’av by the Yarden, across from Yericho. He said 51 to tell the people of Isra’el, “When you cross the Yarden into the land of Kena‘an, 52 you are to expel all the people living in the land from in front of you. Destroy all their stone figures, destroy all their metal statues and demolish all their high places. 53 Drive out the inhabitants of the land, and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess. 54 You will inherit the land by lot according to your families. You are to give more land to the larger families and less to the smaller ones. Wherever the lot falls to any particular person, that will be his property. You will inherit according to the tribes of your ancestors. 55 But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land from in front of you, then those you allow to remain will become like thorns in your eyes and stings in your sides — they will harass you in the land where you are living. 56 And in this event, I will do to you what I intended to do to them.”
This gives Israel instructions for today. Not when they retire, not when they have enough money, not when all of their problems have gone away -- today.
The God that delivered and the God with the promise is now setting reality at their feet.
He does not simply remind them where they have been. He does not merely show them where they are going. He commands them how to live right now.
And that is the tension we all carry.
If Israel only stared backward, they would forever define themselves as slaves. If they only stared forward, they would romanticize a land they had never walked. And if they ignored today, both past and future would collapse.
The list of stages in Numbers 33 is not filler. It is testimony. Each camp site is a scar. Each name is a reminder. Each movement is proof that they did not move themselves.
The past is not given so we can relive it. It is given so we can be healed by it. And healing comes when we recognize He was there. In the wilderness. In the discipline. Even in the delay.
But the future -- the achariyth, the outcome -- that is not fantasy. It is covenant.
Abraham was promised land before he had a son. Israel was promised inheritance before they crossed the Jordan. From Abba’s perspective, what He decrees is already complete. This means hope is not optimism. It is alignment with what He has already established.
Yet neither healing nor hope replaces obedience. That is why Numbers 33:50–56 sits in the middle.
Drive out what does not belong.
Destroy what competes for your loyalty.
Remove what will eventually wound you.
This is not a command for “someday.” It is a command for today. Because what you tolerate today will shape what you inherit tomorrow. And what you refuse to heal from yesterday will distort how you walk into destiny.
Most people live disoriented.
Some are trapped in achowr, staring behind them, replaying betrayal, loss, regret. Some live in fantasy paniym, staring into an imagined future, hoping circumstances will change them. Very few live faithfully in today.
But today is where inheritance is secured. Today is where idols are removed. Today is where wounds are surrendered. Today is where trust becomes action.
The wilderness was not wasted years. It was formation. The Land was not accidental territory. It was appointed destiny. And the plains of Mo’av -- that thin strip between memory and promise -- was decision.
That is where you are.
Between what has crossed over you and what is waiting in front of you is this moment. You cannot rewrite the stages behind you You cannot see clearly the land ahead of you. But you can obey here.
Healing from the past.
Hope for the future.
A plan for today.
This is how you walk well.
Because the same God who recorded every stage is the same God who has already determined the outcome and is the same God who is speaking to you now.
The question is not merely, “Where are you going?”
The better question is:
Will you live today in light of where you have been and where you truly belong?