Numbers 9-May 6
For the next two days we are going to be thinking about the importance of following God. One of Jesus’ favorite commands was “follow me” (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17, Luke 5:27). In fact, following Christ was really the evidence of a person’s belief. In the case of the disciples, following Christ meant leaving their home and vocations. For the rich young ruler, following Christ would have cost him all of his great accumulated wealth. Regardless of the circumstance, God’s call to follow Him indiscriminately can be found throughout the Bible.
At times, following God can be exciting and full of great surprise but at other times it can be laborious and unbelievably unpredictable. In the case of the nation of Israel, their journey in the dessert was certainly unpredictable. As we will see in just a few days, their trip with God through the wilderness lasted much longer than anticipated due to their own unfaithfulness. However, even before their rebellion, God’s leadership was incredibly irregular.
We see this truth in verses 15-23 of Numbers 9. In this text, the Bible describes for us the situation of Israel. God’s presence was easily perceived in those days by a cloud that covered the temple during the day and the appearance of fire that engulfed the temple by night. This cloud was the evidence of God’s presence with Israel, and it was also the catalyst for their movement. Whenever the cloud would lift from the temple, the people were to follow.
The arrangement was certainly easy enough to grasp. There was little mystery as to when God was leading the people to move, but certainly there was great wonder at what He was actually up to! In fact, verse 20 shares with us that God’s plan must have seemed erratic to the people at the time. Evidently, there were occasions in which God would move the people daily, leading them to a destination for the evening only to get up and move again the next day. However, sometimes God’s presence would linger for days. When this took place, the people simply had to wait.
If you are like me, the constant movement isn’t really that difficult. When God is actively working and I am in pursuit of Him, life seems to have a rhythm and a flow to it that is nice. The difficulty many of us face isn’t in the movement, it’s in the waiting. It is extremely hard to wait on God and even more challenging when we don’t know what He is up to! Remember the setting of this text. God’s people are following him through the rugged terrain of the wilderness. They weren’t waiting for Him to move while sitting in a beach resort! Instead, they were in the desert, desperately anticipating the day that they will eventually come into the glorious land that had been promised to them.
God’s plan requires that we wait and trust. This is challenging but it is necessary. We don’t always know what He is up to and we can’t always understand His ways, but we still must submit to His call. The Scripture is replete with examples of God’s perfect timing, the question for us is whether or not we will trust Him with our future in the present. Have the courage to wait in the wilderness with God, after all He has promised to lead every single one of us into the Promised Land of heaven one day very soon!