Are We There Yet? Series

Are We There Yet?

Wanderings

The Story – Chapter Six

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rn6N1kuZ_o

Are we there yet?

QUESTION…

Anyone ever heard those words on a road trip?

Anyone ever said those words on a road trip?

I REMEMBER – taking road trips as a kid. And they were pretty rough. Our car had no a/c… and only an am radio. There was no such thing as DVD players… and I don’t think the 8 track player was invented yet.

SO HOW – did we entertain ourselves… counting certain type of cars, and by annoying our parents by saying things like…

• Mom he’s touching man

• He’s looking at me

• Mom tell him to stop passing gas

• I have to be… and the all time favorite

• Are we there yet? (I mean – think about it, how could they even get us to understand how much longer was left if they could say such things as… “we’ll be there in 17 Sponge Bob episodes.)

NOW – Occasionally my mom or dad (usually my mom) would reach into the back seat and smack us… And my dad would say things like… “don’t make me pull this car over” (he never did)… OR – the famous line that everyone knew he would never do… “If guys don’t stop your whining I am turning the car around and going back home…” (maybe if he had done that one time… it would have helped).

Road trips – gotta love them especially with kids in the back seat…

Maple Grove…

WELCOME to chapter 6 of The Story, ‘Wandering…’ A conversation I am calling ‘Are We There Yet?”

AND LIKE – I’ve been saying if you are new to MG or even if you have been here for decades you could not have picked a better time to be here… BECAUSE – we are spending the bulk of the year 2013 (from January – September) looking @ the greatest story of all time. God’s story, The Bible… from Genesis to Revelation. AND – we are using this book, ‘The Story’ as our guide… AND BASICALLY – The Story is a collection of biblical passages arranged in chronological order… designed to tell the overall story of the Bible.

NOW IN – Chapter Six of The Story we are going to be looking at one of the most famous road trips of all time… The Israelites journey from Egypt to the Promise Land… AND – to be honest… when you first look at it…it seems like it would be a pretty easy journey to make. Nothing too difficult. I MEAN - I pulled up a map and just kind of traced the path…the most obvious path…that you would have assumed they would’ve taken…

OKAY - they’re beginning in Egypt (in the Land of Goshen), and they would’ve taken a road that’s called “The Way of the Sea.” Isaiah 9:1 gives us the name of this road.

IT - was a popularly traveled road, and it was a pretty direct route towards the land of Canaan. You’re looking at a journey of about 170 miles… AND – to top it off it’s scenic route… Not too bad really.

AND SO - they leave Egypt thinking, “You know, this isn’t going to be so bad… A trip up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (kind of like driving the PCH or the A1A) a journey of 170 miles.

NOW – let me try to put this distance in perspective….

IF WE - traveled from Charlottesville to Norfolk it’s about 170 miles.

I looked this up google maps, (170 miles… 2 ½ trip)

AND THEN - I clicked this little icon—the walking icon I never knew existed —

AND - that I could walk to Norfolk in 56 hours… or in two days and eight hours. NOW THAT - seems pretty aggressive. That’s if you don’t stop (to pee, sleep or eat)… BUT – if we got a little more realistic and decided to walk — twenty miles a day (allowing time to stop to pee, eat and sleep) — it would take about 8 ½ days…

For fun… I put in how long it would take to get from here to Seattle Washington… about 2,700 miles… walking 892 hours or about 37 days.

SO HERE WE ARE – in Chapter 6 of The Story… AND BEFORE - the Israelites, set out on their road trip they go to google maps for directions and see that the Promise Land is about 170 miles away… 56 hours if they walk non-stop.

BUT – there is no way they could do that and besides there are two to three million of them. AND - they’ve got a lot of stuff to bring with them… SO – they figure worst case scenario it will take them about a month to get to the promise land…