Numbers 21:10

וַיִּסְע֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽיַּחֲנ֖וּ בְּאֹבֹֽת׃

The Israelites marched on and encamped at Oboth.

When I drove from Los Angeles to Chattanooga three years ago I stopped at a few noteworthy places. Phoenix and New Orleans for example – these are famous cities, and my driving companion and I enjoyed our stops there tremendously. We also stayed in little known cities, including Fort Stockton, Texas. The motel was nice, the people were kind, but in the end it wasn’t more than a place we stayed in as part of a bigger journey.

You might wonder what happened to the Israelites in their journey, in this town mentioned in the Torah, Oboth. You would be hard pressed to find any details. This, and many other encampments the Israelites made during their journey, are only remembered by name without any memorable event to accompany it. Though nothing noteworthy happened in this place, it gets mentioned in the Torah because it was still a district that provided its hospitality to the Israelites as part of their journey. Though insignificant in and of itself, it becomes imbued with meaning and purpose because it is part of the great journey to the promised land.

I hadn’t thought much about Fort Stockton until today. I see now that that place was special, not because anything important happened to us there, but because there we found rest while on an important journey. Oboth gets a shout out once a year for being a stop where the Israelites rested on their way to the land of Israel. Here’s to our own forgotten places, the forgotten people, the forgotten moments that supported us on our own personal journeys, for without them we would not have made it to where we are today.