Numbers 9:15-23 March 14,
1999 There are a myriad questions in life that plague us. We all have a list in our minds of that which we would like to know the answer to, if we could only have a face to face with the Almighty. There are other questions which are likewise perplexing, but may have no answers, questions such as:
While these questions may keep you awake at night, for others of us, our questions may deal with the more mundane but crucial questions of our lives: “Whom shall I marry? What college should I attend? Where should I work? Live?" Any of the day to day decisions which we face can perplex us to the point of anxiety and so we seek to discern what God would have us do. So we embark on what some call, “seeking the will of God.” How can you be certain what God wants you to do in life? Does God direct and lead us in life and if so, how and in what ways? Our passage this morning gives us a glimpse into this answer as it provides some crucial information about what it means for God to guide us in life. Turn to Numbers 9:15-23.
In our passage this morning, we see how God’s presence not only gives us comfort, but in what ways God’s presence guides us in life. GOD’S PRESENCE GIVES US COMFORT God comforts us by dwelling with us God’s dwelling in the Old Testament was the Tabernacle, a tent inside which were reminders of God’s presence and accessibility. Behind this room was a smaller room called the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. Inside the Ark were the two tablets of God’s Law. Outside and in front of the tent was the altar, where the daily sacrifices were made. The full name of this structure is used here: the Tabernacle of the Tent of Testimony. The word "tabernacle" comes from the verb “to dwell” or “settle.” According to God’s instructions this tent was in the middle of the Israelite camp, as it pictured God’s presence, His dwelling, in the center of their lives. It is also called the Tent of Testimony. This less familiar phrase refers the two tablets of the Law contained in the Ark within the Holy of Holies. Log this phrase in your mind, as the passage about God’s presence and guidance begins with an emphasis on the Tabernacle, on the importance of God’s Law. What happens next may create a picture of a Spielberg movie in your mind: once the Israelites obeyed what God told Moses about the construction of the Tabernacle, once the tent was completed, the cloud covered it. What cloud is this? In Exodus 13 when the Israelites left Egypt we are told in verse 21 that a pillar of cloud guided them during the day and a pillar of fire directed them at night. It was this pillar which kept the Egyptian army from attacking them while they prepared to cross the Red Sea. So, this cloud and fire were with Israel on their journey to Sinai. Once they completed the construction of the tent, Exodus 40:33ff tells us that the cloud which led them to this point then filled the tabernacle. The image of God’s glory in the form of a cloud covering the Tabernacle is picked up by the Gospel of John in 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (tabernacled). We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came of the Father, full of grace and truth.” God’s presence in the Tabernacle in the wilderness is fulfilled in Christ. Not only were the functions of the Tabernacle pointing to Christ, God’s glory in the cloud in the Old Testament is realized in Christ, too. Again, store that information as we consider God’s guidance. God comforts us by constant presence In Numbers 9:16, notice the constancy of the cloud; it continually covered the Tabernacle, every night the fire blazed. Then in verse 17 we see how this cloud and fire functioned for Israel. Not only was it a visible reminder of God’s presence, but it was the signal for the people to either move on or remain where they were. This morning we sang "Thy Word," from Psalm 119:105, where God’s Word is described as a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. This was the function of the cloud and fire. When you stumble across your bedroom in the middle of the night and mistakenly calculate the distance between your bed and dresser, you know how valuable that light is to your life. But a lamp shines not everywhere around you, but when pointed to where you must go, it helps you take each step, one step at a time. We don't see everything, but what we need to see. Again, in the New Testament Jesus is associated with the cloud and the dazzling glory of God’s presence. In Mark 9, when Jesus, with Peter, James and John, was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’s glory is revealed; a cloud appears, envelopes the disciples. The voice of the Father comes from the cloud, commanding the disciples to listen to His Son. Again, there is a connection between what we see here in Numbers 9 with Christ. The cloud and fire were a constant presence. They always gave the direction needed to take the next step. God’s presence in the form of the cloud let them know exactly where to go next. What comfort and how unlike the way we view God’s guidance. We talk about seeking God’s guidance rather than believing He is guiding. We presuppose that God is hiding and we go seeking. How contrary to the biblical pattern of life. What is pictured in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament by Christ. If you are going to talk about God’s presence among His people, if you are going to understand how God guides, to ignore Christ is to miss the key to the puzzle. GOD’S PRESENCE GIVES US GUIDANCE God’s guidance demands obedience The remainder of our passage describes how the cloud guided the people to travel. Repeated in elevated prose, the movement of the cloud is equated with the command of God. The people knew exactly what to do by watching the cloud and fire. Then by way of summary in verse 23 we read:
What stands out here is the relationship of God’s guidance with His command and the expectation that the people would obey perfectly. The people had to be prepared to leave, day or night, after camping for just a few days or after a year. The 18th Century preacher Henry Ward Beecher said of God’s guidance: "The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too." But for us, this only begs the question. What way is God going? How can I ever know? What does this passage (and others) tell us about the guidance we should expect from God? God’s guidance is clearly understood The cloud was conspicuous. Everyone could see it from miles away. Driving south I94 approaching the Illinois line off to the left you could see the steam from the Zion Nuclear Plant. It was not something you could miss. The cloud over the Tabernacle was not some vaporous little wisp which could vanish in a puff of wind, or be confused with some passing cloud. It was a conspicuous, obvious phenomenon. It could not be missed. There was no way the nation of Israel could miss the will of God. The people could see and know His guidance by His presence. Unfortunately, we sometimes picture God’s guidance as though He quickly flashes the road map of our life before our eyes, and if we blink, we'll miss what we should do. But God is not unclear in His will for us. God’s guidance is not something easily mistaken; it is not like the explorer in the deepest Amazon who suddenly finds himself surrounded by a bloodthirsty group of warriors. Upon surveying the situation, he says quietly to himself, "Oh God, I'm doomed." There is a ray of light from the sky above and a voice booms out: "No my son, you are NOT doomed. Pick up that branch at your feet and strike the chief standing in front of you." So the explorer picks up the stick and attacks the chief, feverishly swinging the limb with all his strength. He stands above the lifeless body, breathing heavily and surrounded by 100 warriors with a look of shock on their faces. The voice booms out again: "Okay . . . . NOW you're doomed." We be certain that God’s character is not that He would be so malevolent as to trick us like that. Jesus reminds us that just as a human father would not give his hungry kids a snake instead of a fish to eat, our heavenly Father would give us His Spirit. What is more, the common misguided view of trying to discern God’s will also betrays a misunderstanding of the will of God. How can we be sure that His guidance is what we see? How can we know God’s will for our life? God’s guidance is Word-centered This is where most Christians become confused. Some imagine that God guides by a mysterious cloud, an event, a feeling. But to conclude that is to ignore the context here as well as the teaching of God’s Word throughout. The presence of this cloud in the passage is equated with the command of God; it is God’s orders (verse 23). Not only that, remember where the cloud was located - above the Tabernacle, the place where the Law of God rested, where the sacrifices were made which pointed to His gracious character in revealing what was right and wrong and the provision for us when we break God’s Law. Israel did not subjectively decide that when the cloud moves they would move. It was not based on a hunch. Rather God, through His prophet Moses told the people what the cloud meant. This cloud in Numbers does not teach that God communicates in some direct and mystical fashion. I recently received an email which sought to bolster my faith in God by telling of a story about a man who wanted to know if God still speaks to us today. The man asked God to direct him in his life and so he began to receive the urge to buy milk and senses the need to drive down a dark street late at night. Finally, he felt gets the sense to go to a dark, unknown house, knock on the door and hand the person the gallon of milk. According to the story, as it turned out, the family was destitute and the poor baby needed milk. What does this tell us about God’s guidance? Absolutely nothing. The story, if it is even true, proves nothing whether the urge was from the God of Scripture or the Devil himself, or perhaps, as which is often the case with urges - from within the person. I recall young men in college who would, after spending time in prayer and reviewing the pictorial directory of the coeds, receive divine guidance to propose to a specific girl, telling her that God told him they should get married. G.K. Chesterton warned of this mistaken immediacy with God when he said: "It is a very short step from worshipping the divine light or voice within Jones to Jones worshipping Jones." This is not to say we can not receive guidance from God. We certainly should and must. Only we are not taught by Him to expect to receive it in a direct, immediate communication from Heaven, God to the soul. So, how does God lead? God’s Word is the primary means by which God guides. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that the Scriptures are sufficient. When we submit to its authority, we have all the divine instructions which are necessary to make right choices in life. The Bible rules over whatever impressions we think we might have detected from the circumstances in our lives. Deuteronomy 29:29 is key in understanding what we mean by God’s will. There are only two ways of understanding God’s will. The first is that which He has revealed to His people in His Word. This will we can open, read, discuss and then must obey. It is clear. The other will of God is the secret will, His plan, that which He has foreordained before the foundations of the world. That we will never know. You can not know and do not need to know what God will do tomorrow. Rather honor God’s Word and leave the future to Him. In fact we don't always want to know the future. A lonely frog telephoned the Psychic Hotline and asked what his future holds. His Personal Psychic Advisor tells him: "You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you." The frog is thrilled, "This is great! "Will I meet her at a party?" he croaks. "No," says the psychic, "in biology class." (Knowing the future is not all its croaked up to be.) Isaiah spoke against the desire to obtain God’s secret will. Isaiah 8:19-20 points to the only place we should ever go to find guidance - to God’s revealed will. Apart from that, we have no certainty. Apart from that we can not claim to know what God desires. In fact, we should be very cautious to attribute our choices in life to “God directed me to do this.”
Since God guides through His Word, we should understand that His guidance is... God’s guidance is community-oriented The cloud and fire was for all Israel. Each person in Israel was not to seek intuitively when they should break camp. Rather, God worked through His appointed people. He spoke to Moses; He directed the Levites. But guidance was not individual; it was for the whole nation. In the same way, God still guides and leads through His people. We are finite creatures and our predilection toward sin is strong. We can be affected by our own biases so easily. For this reason Scripture encourages us to find wise men and women who will give clarity and objectivity. Proverbs 15:22 tells us that “plans fail for lack of counsel but with many advisors they succeed.” But far too often we reject this counsel because people tell us something we don't want to hear. This is the basis of Presbyterian government - wisdom is counsel. The Apostles practiced this rule. In Acts 15, in a momentous turning point in the history of the church, deciding that circumcision was not to be mandated for Gentiles, that admission into the church is not based on perfect obedience to the Law of God, but is by faith - that decision came about by a collective decision. They thought it out together; they allowed people to discuss and argue. Then when a decision was made, they could say, “It is good to the Holy Spirit and to us&ldots;” Remarkable - no vision, no "word of knowledge," no immediate communication - but the considered judgment of godly men. Dawson Trotman, the founder of a Christian ministry called the Navigators, used to say, "The Lord gave you a lot of leading when He gave you a brain and common sense." This is how we discern what we are to do in everyday life. What we must obey, God has revealed; in all the myriad of other choices, God calls us to prayer, to wise counsel and trusting God. The great verse on God’s guidance comes from Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Follow the Lord, trust Him, seek Him and He will direct your paths. It does not say that He will reveal which paths you should take, but you must trust He will direct your paths. Does God guide His people today? Certainly, for He has ordered all our steps, every aspect of our lives. Will He tell us what those steps are? No. He calls us to a life of faith, of trusting Him. Does God guide His people today? Certainly, for He has revealed to us His will. God’s Word tells us what He expects from us, what His Law demands. He spells out clearly that our lives are to reflect His character. His law points to His holiness. But what is more, God’s revealed will points to Christ, His Son, who perfectly obeyed the Father's will and kept the Law for us. This word constantly points us back to this critical issue in our lives. This is where our attention must be and then we leave the details to a loving Father to direct us. |