Where are you going?

Keypoints on this page
	Abraham's journey of faith.
	Israel's journey in the wilderness.
	The broad way and the narrow way.
	Our life's journey and our destination - eternal peace, joy and happiness.

Throughout the world, one of the great growth industries is travel. In the UK, the government is considering how it can provide additional runway capacity to meet anticipated future demand for air travel. Meanwhile, many large cities face the problems associated with traffic congestion and the resulting pollution. In more rural parts of the world, such as the prairies of Canada, or the steppes of Asia, people still travel many miles across land by train. Some still travel by more traditional means such as horseback or camel.

As we travel by car or bus, we sometimes comment that we know where we are going, but we wonder where everyone else is heading. It does not seem to matter what time of the day or night - there is always someone else on the road!

Of course, travelling is not a new phenomenon. From his earliest history, man has travelled from one place to another. He did so to seek food, to escape from enemies, or simply to explore new areas.

Abraham's journey
The Bible records various quite lengthy journeys in its early chapters. One of the earliest was that made by Abraham. He was told by God to leave Haran where he lived and to travel to a place that God would show him:

‘Now the LORD had said unto Abram,Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee’ [Genesis 12.1].

So, Abraham started on a journey not knowing what his final destination would be. His journey started in what today is known as Iraq, and continued across the ‘fertile crescent’ through modern Syria, Lebanon, and Israel down into Egypt. From there, he returned to the land of Canaan (now Israel). This would have been a total distance in excess of 1600 miles. The journey would have been made on foot or on the back of an animal – there was no modern public transport available for Abraham!

Abraham made the journey because he trusted in God. Even though he did not know where God was taking him, he was sure that it would be for his ultimate benefit. Indeed, God, in a promise, had told him that this would be the case when he said:

‘And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed’ [Genesis 12.2,3].

The wilderness journey
In the book of Exodus we find recorded the journeys of the children of Israel after they left Egypt. The Israelites had been harshly treated in Egypt. They had been forced to carry out hard labour - particularly the making of bricks, under very harsh conditions. They pleaded to be released and to have their conditions improved.

Moses was chosen by God to lead the people and is told by God:

‘…ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an heritage: I am the LORD’ [Exodus 6.7,8].

The Israelites did not know at the time that their journey from Egypt to the land of promise would take some forty years. Having been released from Egypt by God, after He had inflicted plagues on the Egyptians, the people set out in hope of a better future in this land that was unknown to them. They started the journey but they did not know the destination. As with Abraham they had faith that God would bring good things to them at the end of the journey.

New Testament journeys
Other journeys are recorded in the New Testament. A familiar one is that made by Joseph and Mary from their home in Nazareth, southwards to Bethlehem, in order to take part in the census. This journey was made under difficult conditions as Mary was heavily pregnant. Yet, Mary and Joseph made the journey in order to meet their legal obligations and also because they had faith that God would be with them. The journey was necessary to fulfil the Old Testament prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem [Micah 5.2].

The Apostle Paul also travelled far on his ‘missionary journeys’, as they have come to be called. In addition to much travel on foot, he also travelled long distances by sea. In a letter that he wrote to the believers at Corinth, he speaks of having been shipwrecked three times and of spending a day and a night ‘in the deep’ - that is afloat in the sea [2 Corinthians 11.25]. He also mentions the perils of robbers as he journeyed - a peril that still exists in many areas today.

Clearly travel was still very difficult in the times of Paul, but he travelled because he believed that he was carrying out the work of God. He believed that, through his work, he could bring great benefit to others.

Paul journeyed because he had confidence that Jesus Christ was the Saviour - the Messiah that had been promised for so long. That had not always been the case. In his earlier life, Paul had not believed in Jesus - on the contrary, he had persecuted those who followed him and caused great terror among the Christians. It was on a particular journey, as he travelled to Damascus, that Paul saw a vision from heaven and heard the voice of Jesus. He was literally stopped in his tracks and started on a new life.

The broad way and the narrow way
Paul would have been familiar with the teaching of Jesus when he spoke of service to him being a journey. Jesus used the example of travelling along two different routes. One of these routes was wide, straight, and easy to find and follow. It appeared to be very attractive. It was a route followed by many people. The other route was much more difficult to find. It was a narrow, winding road and only a few people chose to follow it.

The lesson of this teaching was in the destination that was being sought. The two routes led to different destinations. The broad and attractive way, that attracted so many to it, actually led to destruction. In contrast, the unattractive, winding road led to life - but, sadly, few found that way. This was what Jesus actually said:

‘Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it’ [Matthew 7.13,14].

Jesus was putting the two choices before us. We can ignore him and his teaching and enter the broad way and the end result will be our destruction. On the other hand, we can, like Paul, choose to put our trust in Jesus. But, the way may not then seem as attractive for we will be entering through the narrow gate onto the winding road. Jesus commands us to put aside the things of the world that will lure so many to destruction.

If we choose to follow Jesus we may find that certain aspects of our lives seem more difficult. We must then follow the commandments of Jesus, and that may mean we have to bring about a change in our lifestyle.

If we have been following the broad way, it may come as something of a shock to turn onto the narrow, winding road. It really depends what destination we want to try and reach. We could stay on that broad way, enjoying all those things of today's world that pander to our tastes. We could call it the ‘eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die’ syndrome. Certainly, that broad way will end in destruction because our rejection of Jesus will bar us from the gift of eternal life.

That is the difference if we follow the narrow way. The journey itself may be harder, the route being more difficult to find. However, when we reach the destination we will be glad that we rejected the broad way because we will have come to something that offers so much more to us. Paul summed it up in a letter he wrote to believers at Rome when he said:

‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ [Romans 6.23].

The journey to the Kingdom
Although the way of Jesus is a narrow one we have a very helpful guide to following it contained in the Word of God. The Bible must be our ‘road atlas’ if that is the route we choose to take. It is, in fact, our only reliable guide. If we follow it carefully and put its instructions into practice, then we should have relatively little difficulty following the route, as the Psalmist wrote:

‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path’ [Psalm 119.105].

During our daily lives many of us have to travel from one place to another. We need to get to work, to purchase food, to get children to school, or perhaps to visit friends or relatives. For all these journeys, we need to make appropriate arrangements. As we travel, we encounter many other people also travelling, but we do not know their planned destinations.

For each of us, there is a much longer journey that should also be thought about. It is the journey through life. For many people, there is little thought about the future - they take life as it comes. In the end, there are just two destinations as we have seen in the words of Jesus. There is life and there is death.

There will be eternal life in the kingdom of God. This will be a time of peace and righteousness, a time when there will be no war, or pain, no discrimination, or victimisation, no famine, or drought. It will be a complete contrast to the world of today.

The alternative is eternal death - to go to the grave, with no future whatsoever except to gradually become just a pile of dust and be forgotten.

What will you choose for your journey through life?

Do you know where are you going?