Friday, September 26, 2025
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
Numbers 9:18, 20 – At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. … Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out.
I grew up in a military family. We moved 11 times before I graduated high school. Sometimes moving was exciting. Sometimes I was sad about letting go of our old place and the people that we knew there. And I was unsure of what awaited us in the new place. But somewhere around move number nine, on a Midwestern interstate, it dawned on me. It happened after my mom had rallied us in another riveting round of the “alphabet game.” Ever played it? It’s a race from A to Z. You have to find all twenty-six letters on passing road signs—“H” in highway, “I” in I-Hop®, “J” in Junction City—and so on. I can’t remember who won that round (it was probably mom). But I do remember feeling at home there, on the road. We were still on the way, but somehow, I was already home.
Maybe you’ve lived at the same address your whole life. But we all move eventually, cross country, across the ocean, or across the street. When we move, we usually don’t have a clue what we’re getting into. But we start over, grow, become new people. And if we never move, never change, never are forced to adapt, we stagnate, we stiffen, get stuck. And sometimes the best remedy is simply to get up and move. As physical therapists tell us, “Movement is medicine.” “Motion is lotion.”
The people in the Bible are almost always on the move—east of Eden, out of Egypt, toward the Promised Land, from the cross just past Jerusalem, from the empty tomb, sent by the risen Jesus to be His witnesses in Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. God never seems to let His people stay put, at least not for long. But the movement God is most concerned about is not geographical, but relational. God created us for movement toward in Him in faith—faith He gives as a gift. God created us for movement toward our neighbor in love—the same love He gives us, even when we’re stuck in our sin. The journey we’re each called to make is from the dead-end of putting faith in ourselves, or in some other finite creature, to the expanding horizon of trusting our Creator, following His lead, loving like He loves. And the vehicle, the means of conveyance, the way to get there, is the Word, Jesus, God’s Word who set up His tent, His tabernacle, in our midst (see John 1:14).
In our translation of the Bible passage today, maybe you noticed that the phrase “the command of the LORD” was repeated four times. In the original Hebrew text, the phrase is “the mouth of the LORD”—not by the command, but by the mouth of the LORD they moved. It includes commands, but there’s more. God’s voice with His people on the road through the wilderness is also assurance and forgiveness. It’s a cleansing fire, a purging promise, a tender invitation, a rally-cry over a long-awaited “Q” in La Quinta®, just past Junction City, making a home on the way through a word.
WE PRAY: Lord Jesus, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions: