As I'm sure you're aware, the nation of
Israel is a unique nation, always has been,
always will be.
In the ninth chapter of Romans, Paul enumerates
some of the things that set the nation
of Israel apart from the other nations of
the earth.
One of them is the law, the giving
of the law.
Only Israel had a law given by God
through Moses.
And the worship, the priesthood, the covenants, the
promises, the sonship, that is the special election
by God of Israel, all of these things
are unique to Israel.
And finally, Messiah himself came through the line
of the Jews.
But in that list of distinctives, Paul also
lists another thing that's often overlooked.
He says that to Israel was the glory.
Now, he's not referring there to the fact
that Israel had special honor, although that was
true.
It's specifically the glory.
It's some specific thing that Paul had in
mind.
The glory that he's referring to is the
Shekinah glory, the pillar of cloud by day
and the fire by night that rested over
the nation of Israel, the symbol of God's
presence among them, the visible representation of God
dwelling among his people.
No other nation has had the glory.
The term Shekinah is not a biblical term.
It doesn't occur anywhere in the Old Testament.
It's a word that the rabbis used after
the Old Testament period to refer to the
glory.
But the word is based on a term
that does occur in the Old Testament because
it means basically a dwelling, God dwelling with
his people.
That's the Shekinah glory.
For a thousand years, Israel enjoyed the presence
of God as illustrated by the Shekinah.
That cloud appeared when Israel was in Egypt.
The passage that Bing read earlier is a
reference to the initial appearance of the cloud
to Israel.
As they were camped on the shore of
the Red Sea ready to leave Egypt and
go out into the wilderness, the glory appeared.
That was the glory that protected them from
the Egyptian army.
It was the glory that led them through
the desert down to Mount Sinai.
It was from the cloud as it appeared
on Mount Sinai that the law was revealed.
After the tabernacle was erected, the glory appeared
over the tabernacle and filled the tabernacle, God
dwelling between the cherubim on the mercy seat.
Then it was that same cloud that led
them from Sinai up to Kadesh Barnea and
remained there at Kadesh while the nation wandered
for thirty-eight years.
Then, as they gathered again, led them on
into the Promised Land.
Evidently, while the ark rested at Shiloh, the
Shekinah dwelt there.
In one of the Psalms, Psalm 99, David
refers to the fact that Aaron and Moses
and Samuel saw the glory of God revealed
in the cloud.
So the cloud must have remained over the
ark all the time that the ark was
present there at Shiloh.
Then later David brought the ark back to
Jerusalem and when Solomon built the temple, again
the cloud filled the temple and again was
the visible representation of God dwelling among his
people.
It must have been an awesome thing in
those days to approach the city of Jerusalem
and see this great cloud resting on the
temple, a great pillar of fire by night.
No other nation had the glory.
It was there throughout the period of Israel's
apostasy and rejection of the truth up to
the time of the Babylonian captivity.
Ezekiel seems to indicate that at that time,
just prior to the Babylonian captivity, the cloud
departed.
He saw it remain for a moment over
the walls of Jerusalem and then vanish.
In the words of the Old Testament, the
temple was Ichabod, the glory had departed.
Throughout the long period of the exile, there
was no glory.
One of the exilic Psalms is basically a
prayer that the glory might return to Israel,
but it never returned.
In Isaiah, the fourth chapter, there is a
prophetic reference to the cloud.
You don't need to turn there because we're
not going to spend a great deal of
time in this passage, but I wanted to
read it because it shows God's ultimate purpose
again for the cloud.
When the Lord has washed away the filth
of the daughters of Zion and purged the
bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by the
spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,
then the Lord will create over the whole
area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies
a cloud by day, even smoke, and the
brightness of a flaming fire by night, for
overall the glory will be a canopy.
There will be a shelter to give shade
from the heat by day and refuge and
protection from the storm and the rain.
The cloud was many things to Israel.
It was a source of protection.
It was a source of leadership or direction,
guidance.
It gave light at night, warmth when they
were in the wilderness in the chilly evenings.
It provided shelter from the sun, direct rays
of the sun, and it was a picture
of all that God is to his people
at any time.
Now, there are many facets of this history
of the cloud that we could refer to,
but there's one that's particularly pertinent to our
situation today, and it's found in Numbers, the
ninth chapter.
I'd like to have you turn there, if
you will.
Numbers, chapter nine.
If you're new to the scriptures, that's the
fourth book in the Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
Numbers nine.
The book of Numbers is an account of
the wilderness wanderings of Israel.
Our title, Numbers, is taken from the two
different censuses that were taken.
The Hebrew title is In the Wilderness, and
that seems to me to be a much
more appropriate title, because Numbers is essentially an
account of the events that transpired within the
nation of Israel when they wandered in the
wilderness, the two approaches to the Promised Land,
the first to Kadesh where they turned away
in unbelief, and the second forty years later
when they went into the land.
The first nine chapters are a description of
the preparation that the nation of Israel made
to enter the land, and these are given
in detail.
You have to put yourself in Moses' shoes
to see the enormity of his responsibility.
Israel numbered about a million and a half
to two million people at this time.
We know from the first census that there
were six hundred and three thousand fighting men,
so there must have been at least a
million and a half people if we consider
women and children.
Moses had to lead this group of people
approximately three hundred miles through a trackless wilderness.
He had never been there before.
None of the people had been there before.
He had been to Sinai, but he had
never been through the portion of the wilderness
leading up to the Promised Land.
It would be somewhat as if God would
ask you to lead the entire population of
San Francisco to Los Angeles through the Mojave
Desert when you had never been there before,
and you had to take all of them—women
and children, aged and firm, dogs, cats, parakeets,
their grand piano, and everything else, all of
their baggage and gear—had to be taken along
through a region of the world that you
had never seen before.
That was Moses' responsibility.
How could he carry out a responsibility like
this?
God promised that he would provide leadership through
the cloud, and that was God's way.
We stand very much where Moses stood today.
We're on the verge of a new year,
and we don't know what lies ahead.
Many uncertainties.
That's a trackless wilderness ahead of us.
We've never been there before.
Most of us have twenty-twenty hindsight, but
our foresight is very poor.
We really don't know what to expect.
And we, as Israel, have a cloud to
lead us.
I want us to look at Numbers 9
in order to make some observations there and
apply that to our situation today.
On the day that the tabernacle was erected,
the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of
the testimony, and in the evening it was
like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle
until morning.
So it was continuously.
The cloud would cover it by day and
the appearance of fire by night.
And whenever the cloud was lifted from over
the tent, afterward the sons of Israel would
set out.
The word means to break up.
They would break camp.
And in the place where the clouds settle
down, that's the Hebrew word shakhan, that the
word shekinah comes from, when it dwells, when
it rested, when it settled down, there the
sons of Israel would camp.
At the command of the Lord, and if
you have an American Standard version in the
margin, it says at the mouth of the
Lord, that is, God is speaking through the
cloud.
At the mouth of the Lord, the sons
of Israel would set out, and at the
command of the Lord they would camp.
As long as the clouds settled over the
tabernacle, they remained camped.
Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle
for many days, the sons of Israel would
keep the Lord's charge and not set out.
The word that's here translated lingered is a
word that means to draw on or to
drag on.
When it was worrisome for them to remain,
and the cloud lingered on, in fact, the
Hebrew word for patience comes from this verb.
When it lingered on, the sons of Israel
would keep the Lord's charge and not set
out.
If sometimes the cloud remained a few days
over the tabernacle according to the command of
the Lord, they remained camped.
Then according to the command of the Lord,
they set out.
If sometimes the cloud remained from evening until
morning, when the cloud was lifted in the
morning, they would move out.
Or in the daytime and at night, whenever
the cloud was lifted, they would set out.
That is, if the cloud lifted in the
evening, they would break up camp and set
out.
If it lifted up in the daylight, they
would break up camp and set out.
Whether it was two days or a month
or a year that the cloud lingered over
the tabernacle, staying above it, the sons of
Israel remained camped and did not set out.
But when it was lifted, they did set
out.
At the command of the Lord, they camped
and at the command of the Lord, they
set out.
They kept the Lord's charge according to the
command of the Lord through Moses.
This repetition and elaboration of a theme is
so characteristic of Jewish writings throughout the Scripture.
You find the same thing.
When they want to underscore something, they say
it again and again, like driving a nail
in and then turning it on the other
side and bending it over.
There's no doubt about what he's saying.
They explicitly followed the cloud.
Do you see that?
There are many observations we can make from
this passage.
I would like to ask you to spend
a great deal of time on it in
the next few weeks, doing your own study,
but there are some things that I would
like to suggest in an initiatory way.
Number one, it seems to be very obvious
that the cloud could provide no leadership unless
the nation of Israel was willing to be
led.
You'll note that the passage does not say
that the cloud drove them, it led them.
And likewise, we are not driven by the
Spirit, we are led by the Spirit.
The foundation for all leadership from God is
a willingness on our part to go wherever
the Lord wants us to go.
To go wherever and whenever and however.
That's foundation.
God cannot provide leadership unless we're willing to
give ourselves unreservedly to him.
No secret reservations, no small print, but a
yielded heart.
Now that's basic.
You could understand that if Moses or one
of the people looked out of his tent
in the morning and the cloud was raised
and he sensed that this was the day
to move on and he suddenly decided that
he didn't want to move on, that that
was a lovely place to stay and he
just stayed there, then the cloud could provide
no leadership.
Now I'm sure, knowing what we know of
God's gracious nature, the cloud would not have
moved on without the nation, but there would
have been no progress.
You see, that basic to following the Lord
is a willingness to go wherever he wants
us to go.
A number of years ago, I think I
shared this story with my adult Sunday school
class, but a number of years ago when
my children were younger, I took one of
my boys to pick up the babysitter and
as we walked up on the porch a
big dog lunged at us.
I didn't even see him coming and my
boy had on short pants and that dog
lunged for his legs and my boy just
jumped right across the porch, right into my
arms and shinnied up my side and he
had me around the head and the dog
started gnawing on my leg and I was
helpless.
I was dancing around trying to kick the
dog.
Finally the owner came out and grabbed the
dog and dragged him off of me and
a few minutes later as I was limping
out to the car, my little boy said,
Daddy, I'll go anywhere with you.
His confidence was misplaced, I have no doubt
about that, but so many times I've thought
about that, that that really is the attitude
that enables us to receive the Lord's leadership.
Father, I'll go anywhere.
I'll go anywhere.
As I was driving down to church this
morning, I stopped to get a cup of
coffee and on the table in the restaurant
was a little sign that said we're available
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
and that's exactly what we have to say.
Lord, I'm available.
I'll go anywhere.
I'll do anything.
I'll go to Texas if you want me
to.
I'll go to Hong Kong.
Because the minute we say I'll go anywhere
but, see then we really frustrate God.
We tie His hands because He can't provide
leadership as long as there's some attachment that
we place on our own lives.
Now that's the first thing.
Before we can ascertain the Lord's will for
our lives, there must be a willingness to
follow Him wherever He leads us.
And the second thing that I see, and
this was so encouraging to me, was to
observe that the cloud was conspicuous.
Everyone could see it.
They could see it from miles away.
I think it must have been much like
the Permanente plant used to be a few
years ago when you see that big plume
of smoke rising over the plant.
You could see it from all over the
peninsula.
It wasn't some wispy, vaporous little thing that
could vanish in a puff of wind or
might be confused with some passing cloud or
smog or fog or whatever they had in
the wilderness.
It was a conspicuous, obvious thing.
It could not be missed.
There was no way that the nation of
Israel could miss the will of God.
Now you see what this tells me is
that God is not playing games with us.
His will is not written on some flash
card that He flashes and if we blink
we miss it.
He wants us to know His will.
He wants us to know it more than
we want to know it.
And if we want to know His will,
we cannot miss it.
Do you believe that?
The only people that miss God's will are
people that don't want it.
Now that ought to set us free to
live with abandonment.
You can rise in the morning and say,
Lord, whatever, and know that through the day
God is going to lead us and His
leadership will be very clear and precise and
we cannot miss it.
We cannot miss it.
God's not going to lead us down some
blind alley and then say, Aha, I caught
you.
You missed it, after all.
He's not that kind of Lord.
His will is obvious and conspicuous.
That's the second thing that I see.
The third thing that I observe in this
passage is that there's something very distinctive about
following a cloud.
People follow their investment counselors or their psychiatrists
or their horoscope, but the idea of following
a cloud is not too appealing.
As a matter of fact, they will scoff.
Following the will of God is something that
people cannot understand outside of Christ.
It seems the most impractical way to live.
They will ridicule you.
They will misunderstand you.
They'll think you're terribly impractical.
See, there's something very unusual about following a
cloud.
A student friend of mine, Pete LaPrade, and
I a couple of years ago had lunch
with a professor at Stanford and he was
telling us about his spiritual background.
He was not a Christian.
He told us that when he was in
the Marines, he had a platoon sergeant who
often shared the gospel with him and he
couldn't respond to it.
He felt that he couldn't because it was
so specific, he said.
This man had told him that after he
got out of the Marine Corps, he was
going back to the Midwest to live because
he was convinced that that's where God wanted
him to live.
He scoffed at the idea that God could
provide that kind of leadership, but he does.
And if you follow the cloud, you'll be
misunderstood.
You'll be scoffed at.
People will not understand.
Some of you, I know, have parents who
do not understand choices that you've made because
they've been choices that are based upon the
will of God for your life.
And your parents or your wife's parents or
your husband's parents do not understand.
Expect it.
Don't be surprised.
It's a foolish thing to the world to
follow a cloud.
There's a fourth principle that I see in
the passage, and I've already alluded to it,
that they followed the cloud explicitly.
When the cloud lingered for a day, they
dwelt there for a day.
If it rose in the middle of the
night, they rose in the middle of the
night, packed their goods and left.
If it remained for a year, they remained
for a year.
If it lingered on in circumstances that were
less than desirable, they remained there.
Now, that will be your experience this coming
year.
God will lead you into things that are
not necessarily of your choosing.
Your circumstances may not be the best possible
circumstances.
There may be hardship and pressure and distress,
and God's will may be for you to
linger there because He's lingering there.
And we have to accept that.
That's all a part of the process, that
God is working out in our life.
Perhaps you've had a very active ministry this
past year, and this coming year God seems
to set you aside and you have less
ministry and less contact with people, but that's
God's will for you.
And He may linger there for a while
because there are some lessons that you and
I need to learn in that spot, and
they can only be learned there, and so
we must linger there.
Or perhaps you're a mother who's been actively
engaged in some service or some project, and
now an infant's come into your home and
you're tied to that home and you're not
free to go, and you have to linger
there.
That's God's will.
You see, that's why Paul says, in everything
give thanks, for that's the will of God
for you.
That situation you find yourself in is the
place where God wants you to remain, and
it may not be what you would choose,
but it's what God has chosen for you.
And then I see a fifth thing here,
and the fourth and fifth tie together.
God had a goal in mind when He
led them by the cloud.
The goal was the promised land, the land
that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
others.
God was committed to leading the people from
Sinai into the land of Canaan.
That was His promise to them.
That was the goal.
And that's why sometimes the cloud lingered in
spots that were less than desirable, because that
was part of the process of getting from
Sinai to Canaan.
That was the only way to get there.
There was no other route.
And that explains why God may take us
through circumstances that are extremely difficult, because they're
all part of the goal that God is
working out in our life, which is not
to make us comfortable, but to make us
Christ-like.
You see, it's God's desire that we manifest
the character of Jesus Christ, that our lives
manifest love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness
and self-control.
Those are attributes of Christ's life, and that's
God's goal for your life and mine.
And therefore, in order to accomplish that end,
He may have to lead us through some
things that are somewhat distressing, arduous, difficult, hazardous.
You see, He has a goal.
He's not wandering.
The people wandered, but if you read the
book of Numbers carefully, you'll discover that the
cloud did not wander when the people wandered.
The cloud remained at Kadesh.
The people broke up into little bands and
wandered throughout the wilderness.
And when the thirty-eight years had ended,
they came back to Kadesh, and the cloud
was still there, hadn't departed, ready to take
them right into the land.
God doesn't wander, doesn't veer from the path.
He has a goal in mind for your
life and mine, and He's going to take
us there, though the process itself may be
difficult.
That's why Paul says, all things work together
for the good of those who are called
according to His purpose.
And the good, in that context, is conformity
to the character of Christ.
It's glorification.
And that's why he can say that everything
works to accomplish that goal.
So wherever God takes you this year through
the trackless wasteland of 1974, and no matter
what pressures you experience, know that the Lord
has in mind a goal.
He's leading you toward the promise, which is
the working out in your life of all
of God's desire for you, conformity to His
Son.
Now that's the way God led Israel, through
a cloud.
And He's leading us today, not through a
cloud, because the glory, the visible representation of
the glory in the cloud and the fire
at that time is reproduced in our lives
in the person of Jesus Christ who indwells
us.
He is the glory.
We are the sanctuary.
He indwells us.
The Shekinah is here.
And He's promised to provide for us the
same kind of leadership that He provided for
His people those thousand years.
Proverbs says, trust in the Lord with all
your heart, and lean not unto your own
understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He
shall direct your paths.
That's a promise.
He'll direct your paths in 1974 if, number
one, are you willing to go wherever He
leads you this year?
Are you willing to go?
That's where it begins.
If you're willing, you cannot miss it.
And number two, know that perhaps 95%
of His will is already revealed in terms
of this book.
So give yourself this year to reading it
and studying it, giving heed to it.
Let the Word address itself to the decisions
and the problems that you have to face
this year.
Because almost all of God's will is revealed
for us here.
And in those areas, the 1% or
5% or whatever it may be where
the Word of God has not given a
specific decision, know that the Spirit of God
who indwells you will call the decisions.
He will give you that deep down sense
of the rightness of an action, that peace
that passes understanding.
And that will be the basis of decisions
that you'll have to make.
Knowing, you see, that you cannot miss God's
will.
You can rise in the morning and say,
Lord, whatever today, and begin to act out
your life in whatever capacity the Lord places
you.
And know that God is going to lead
you.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not to your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He
will direct your paths.
We're like Israel, standing on the verge of
the wilderness this year, 1974.
And in the words of that chorus, My
Lord knows the way through the wilderness.
All we have to do is follow.
Let's stand together, shall we?
Thank you, Father, that you're the wonderful counselor.
You're the one who directs us with your
eye upon us.
You're the one who knows where we are
and what we're doing and what our situation
is and what our problems are and how
we feel about things.
You understand us, Father.
And you've promised to give us wisdom from
your word and by the peace of your
Spirit.
Teach us, Lord, not to second-guess ourselves
when we make decisions.
Teach us to know that we have wisdom
from above and act upon it with confidence
and rest upon it no matter what may
happen after the decision.
And teach us, Father, to follow you wherever
you lead us this year.
Thank you that you know the way through
the wilderness.
You've been there before, and therefore nothing is
hidden from you.
And we thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.