Two Kinds of Walking
SCRIPTURE READING — DEUTERONOMY 8:1-10
Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. — Deuteronomy 8:6
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Chinese proverb). Early one morning in April 2022, I took the first step on a hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine in the eastern United States. While enjoying God’s good and beautiful creation, I also meditated on the theme of “walking” in the Bible.
Since ancient times, walking has been the most common way for people to go from place to place. It’s no surprise, then, that walking is mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible. Whether people took short strolls or long journeys, they moved forward one step at a time. In the Bible, the Hebrew word for “walk” (halak) can also refer to following God and living for him in his world.
In Deuteronomy 8 we find examples of both kinds of walking. God’s people had been walking in the wilderness for 40 years. And now, preparing to enter the land that God had promised them, they were reminded to walk in the ways of the Lord and to honor God in all they would do. And God promised to bless them abundantly.
Wherever we walk today, on short strolls or a long journey, may each step remind us to walk in God’s ways and to honor him.
Lord God, help us always to walk with you in our journeys near and far, seeing your hand in our world and striving to please and serve you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Walking in the Garden
SCRIPTURE READING — GENESIS 3:1-15
The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. . . . — Genesis 3:8
While hiking the Appalachian Trail, I enjoyed the early April wildflowers blooming along the pathway. I particularly noticed a crocus with a beautiful white flower. Sadly, its stem had broken, and it drooped sideways. It reminded me of the first walking scene in the Bible.
Adam and Eve must have enjoyed walking with God “in the cool of the day” in their garden home. But in today’s story from Genesis 3, they were deeply anxious. Earlier in the day, they had disobeyed God, doing the one thing God had told them not to do. God had created Adam and Eve to live in fellowship with himself, with each other, and in harmony with the earth and its creatures. In their disobedience, however, they tried to hide from God, and, as the story continues, we see their alienation from each other and from the rest of God’s good creation.
When he comes to walk with them, God finds Adam and Eve cowering in shame. God explains the consequences of their sin. But in his judgment on the serpent, we glimpse God’s promise to redeem fallen humanity back to fellowship with himself, with each other, and with his world.
As I hiked through Appalachia in April, I found it was often comfortably cool late in the day, and this drew me to look forward to walking with God and all his family in the world he has promised to redeem.
Lord, you have made us for fellowship with you. Thank you for redeeming us through Jesus—to love you, others, and your world. Amen.
Missing the Mark
SCRIPTURE READING — GENESIS 4:1-16
“I will be a restless wanderer on earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” — Genesis 4:14
While hiking the Appalachian Trail, how can you know if you’re on the right track? You simply follow the white trail markers, or “blazes,” painted on trees along the way. If you see the white blazes, you know you’re still on the path. Yet stepping off the trail and getting lost in the woods is not uncommon. For a hiker, that can be a dangerous sort of “missing the mark.”
In our passage today, Cain turns away from walking with God and is lost.
In this appalling story showing the depths of human sin, Cain attacks and kills his brother Abel because he feels slighted and resentful. The brokenness caused by sin blooms fully in this first murder in human history. Looking back now, who can count the lives lost because of sin?
When God confronts Cain with his hideous deed, Cain isn’t sorry. He is concerned only about his own fate. He is terrified that others will follow his example and kill him. Though God graciously marks Cain to protect him from violence, Cain remains lost as a wanderer and a fugitive.
In the Bible the Hebrew word for “sin” (hatta’t) literally means “missing the mark.” In our alienation from God and from others, we miss the mark. We are all lost. But Jesus finds us and sets us on the right path, the way of following him and loving others.
Lord Jesus, we are lost without you. Help us to walk in your ways and to love others, just as you have loved us. Amen.
Walking with God
SCRIPTURE READING — GENESIS 5:21-24
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
— Genesis 5:24
Walking a long-distance trail can give you a feeling of timelessness. Although the landscape changes, the day-to-day rhythm remains the same: walk, eat, sleep; repeat. The life of Enoch, an early descendant of Adam and Eve, also has a sense of timelessness about it. He lived for 365 years and did not die!
Yet Enoch’s lifespan was short for his family. Enoch’s father, Jared, lived to the age of 962. At age 65, Enoch had a son named Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old!
The four short verses about Enoch’s life don’t tell us much, but we do learn one crucial fact about him: “Enoch walked faithfully with God.” In his long life of stepping through each day, Enoch walked in a way that pleased God. In fact, God was so pleased with Enoch’s faithful walk that he spared Enoch from the curse of death.
Certainly there is mystery in this story. Yet there is no mystery about how to please God. God calls us to walk faithfully with him, trusting him, honoring him, and serving him. God will probably not take us away as he did with Enoch, but we have the comfort of knowing that Jesus, who conquered sin and death for us, has promised never to leave or forsake us when our own lives end.
Lord Jesus, help us to walk faithfully with you, looking forward to the day when we will join with you and all your faithful followers forever! Amen.
