It’s cool to read about the Israelites’ journeys from Egypt to right beside Canaan, and today, I want to mention how life’s a journey for all of us. I may even mention and review a road trip or two. This chapter is found in pages 100-101 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 128-129 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 201-202 of my VOICE copy, and pages 206-207 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I’m glad the first Amplified Bible version didn’t rag on about any sins in a note when I was writing on that last chapter, but I wish they had said something about life being a journey in a footnote in this one… I guess that’s why I now realise the 80s (when that translation was first published) was and remains to this day an intimidating era — I may have been born in 1990, but not everything about the 80s was good. There were delusional prosperity preachers everywhere (and this has been the case ever since), abuse was (and still is) worshiped in every block, and Epstein, Trump, Dobson, and Reagan were beginning an unholy alliance, hoping to destroy Christianity by means of child trafficking and call it godliness. Indeed, that may have worked in those days so that God would fight against it until it is no more. But this doesn’t nullify God’s promise to His people, who don’t follow the utterly bankrupt everything in the worldly systems (see 1 John 2:15-17, James 4:1-4, and Romans 12:2) and instead choose love so that miracles may happen. Too bad offence is high enough so that progress is stalled too much, or even reversed.
I guess part of a promise is that we’re sadly on a long trip home, fraught with many evils, disasters, and heartbreak in every corner, and when it comes to if we’ll even get there, we can’t be certain of that all the time, can we? Indeed, as I write this down, I get a text from Oxfam about a devastating earthquake in Colombia 🇨🇴 so I pray for recovery and healing in all the affected areas, even if there’s only a slight impact 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖🩷❤️💜💙🩵💚💛🧡🤎🖤🩶🤍💞💕💓💗💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌💌 I’m sorry that country sits on the Ring of Fire, where violent earthquakes are common and loss and devastation is massive in most cases… I remember Japan had this horrific earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that actually made the Earth’s axis get closer to the Sun ☀️ by about five feet. I posted about it on Tumblr all night long, but sadly, my account has since been deleted 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 and I was beginning to learn about how we’ve been in the last days since Jesus had ascended back to Heaven. I wish safety was common and in every country… the Ring of Fire is, for the most part, where the Pacific Ocean touches land, like California and Chile 🇨🇱 for those who don’t know.
But enough with my rambling… I feel life often has all sorts of curveballs and unfair surprises, and many people, even the sensible ones, don’t take into account that too many people don’t have a chance to make it to a place where good things may be common and safety is high. That’s why I often pray for hope and revival in mostly underdeveloped nations. At the same time, though, many people in the richer nations think they’re entitled to what they were given or what they received from others, including from God… which is weird, because I don’t own the land I live in, and I pay rent at my place, too. I’d rather not be in a rush to get some property here… nor do I want to chase after anything worldly like money, fame, women, etc. I remember I had a dream about two and a half weeks ago which contained over 1.6 million bucks randomly showing up in my account, and I had some funny clothes on (I don’t really remember what they were haha), and everyone I’ve talked to so far hasn’t said it’s a trap, which I’ve suspected from not long after I had that dream that night. Even some close friends I’ve mentioned this to didn’t get the memo… I guess the Church has been poisoned by prosperity preaching more than I thought. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t get what you need in life, though. Indeed, if it were up to God, no one would be in misery, but everyone would be saved and there’d be affluent places everywhere. For God wants everyone to go to Heaven (1 Timothy 2:3-4) and doesn’t enjoy loss or injustice. Indeed, it’s not your fault if you’ve suffered any! Yet He didn’t want anyone feeling like a robot 🤖 or a machine with no good mind, so he gave us all free-will to choose Him with, but I’ve seen it go wrong enough for all sorts of people to conclude it was a mistake or something 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓 and that’s what I can never accept… and I don’t even know how soon God actually defends His Name for anyone 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 I don’t want to believe He’s inactive in His goodness and benevolence 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
If life is indeed a journey, why then does evil often have the upper hand? And why is the Church complicit with most of it? These questions are unanswered, and I’m surprised the true Church still has a way in any region of the world… but I can’t tell if anyone is saved or not… usually when I feel I’m close enough to someone for us to be brothers (or if they’re a lady, like brother and sister), I discover something… disturbing they hold to and won’t let go of. I don’t want to mention my personal history of all I’ve noticed so far, though, mostly because I don’t want to embarrass them… but one friend, Josh, started a weekly Bible study with the Gospel of Matthew a few days ago, and the whole thing’s over the phone 📱 📲 ☎️ 📞 📳 so that’s nice. We started in chapter 4, though, for the first few chapters are really about Jesus’ early life and His baptism. I’ve missed doing things like that… we used to have a men’s Bible study group every week or month on various New Testament books, usually… until one of them started living with his girlfriend and we had to step back because he was living in compromise. But I’m happy to inform you I’ve never done this before and don’t plan to start now in the future. This was in the previous decade, mostly before Josh got married to his wife and before I landed my first job in mid-2017, after I escaped homelessness by Jonathan taking me in to fulfill some of the Lord’s will for me. Life happened after that, though, and eventually the living situation fell apart. But at least I still haven’t gone back into homelessness! Too bad I’m very low on hours at work right now, though 😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓😓 I’d pray for more, but I feel I need to use as much time as I can to rest and write all these Bible notes 📝 📋 for you guys 😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇 I want to experience God’s goodness again, too, and I have a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday anyway.
I guess all I can say from all this is that our lives are like road trips, but at least road trips can be fun 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 I just wish life could be more enjoyable for more and more people… we’re born into the fight, and victory is never guaranteed. But it took 40 years for Israel to head from Egypt to Canaan, with the entire congregation being at Kadesh (that is, the wilderness) for 38 of these years. The notes 📝 📋 written into the VOICE translation, for the most part, actually provide good explanations in this chapter, too. And this is an actual good chapter in Numbers, so that’s nice. I’ll see you in chapter 34… we’re nearing the end of this book 📖 here.
In Christ,
Ron Outland
Ron And His Stories 