Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during July 2022]

Back in the days when the typical family holiday was based around a car trip the seaside, at some point fairly early into the journey there would arise a plaintive cry from the back seat – “Are we there yet? How much longer?” These questions were often part of a cycle, alongside other cries such as “I need the toilet” and “I’m going to be sick”. The long-suffering parents would eventually resort to “Sit back and shut up!” and all would be quiet for a few minutes before the cycle began again.

It is not difficult to image Hebrew children asking the same question during the Exodus as they saw their parents pitching the family tent for yet another night in the wilderness. Their fathers would diligently explain how it was that their nation was trekking through the desert:

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. Numbers 9:17 [NKJV]

Some twenty or so years later those children would be explaining to their own children as to why they were still trudging through the sand. And so on for 40 years until they did eventually arrive at the Promised Land but, much like airline passengers today, setting foot in the destination country was not the end of their journey.

About 800 years later the Israelites were on the move again. How long would it take for a column of 10,000 captives^[1] to cover the 650 miles from Jerusalem to Babylon? Daniel and his companions were no doubt too well brought-up to pester their escorts with questions during their long journey into exile in Babylon but they must have wondered about what awaited them. Were they, as sons of the nobility, allowed to ride or did they too have to walk? Did their faith and youthful vigour allow them to sing as they travelled or did they too have questions about how long the journey was taking?

The Israelites eventually returned from exile in two tranches under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Fewer in number and with royal support they would have felt more positive about the journey but the distance was the same. Many of them must have asked “How much longer?”

These questions came to me recently, at 35,000 feet over Germany. “Are we there yet? How much longer?” Some 80 years ago, there were other people in the same geographical location asking the same questions, albeit from a lower altitude. It is a sobering reminder that we live in a world where war and various forms of strife have dominated most of the period since then.

A long time ago some shepherds received an exciting message: “… on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”^[2]
Are we there yet? On the contrary, two thousand years later it seems that we are moving further away from the ideals of peace and goodwill.
How much longer? With respect, God only knows.

[1] 2 Kings 24 v14
[2] Luke 2 v14

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