Numbers 9 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Preliminary:

The matters we have omitted in the studies in Numbers have been the census details and the various legal instructions, thus leaving ourselves with the purely historical narrative parts of the book.

Passage: Numbers 9:15-23

15 On the day the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant law, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. 16 That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. 17 Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites set up camp. 18 At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they set up camp. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle for only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would set up camp, and then at his command they would set out. 21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. 22 Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. 23 At the Lord’s command they set up camp, and at the Lord’s command they set out. They obeyed the Lord’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.

A. Find Out:

1. What was the sign of the Lord’s presence? v.15,16
2. What principle decreed when they moved? v.17,18
3. How did this vary? v.19-22
4. So how is this summed up? v.23

B. Think:

1. Why do you think the sign changed from day to night?
2. What was the principle of moving out?
3. What was the principle of staying?

C. Comment:

      In these opening verses of this set of studies we simply see the general principle that operated for Israel throughout their time in the wilderness. The tent that had been created on God’s instructions (Ex 26), to house the Ark of the Covenant, was the place where God made His presence manifest. When this tent had been completed, God’s glory filled it (Ex 40:34,35).   Now that glory manifested itself as a cloud over the tent (tabernacle) during the daytime and as fire at night. Both were representative of the Lord’s presence, each suiting the time of day so as to be clearly visible to all the people.

      How did Israel decide when to move and where to go? It was very simple: they simply watched the cloud and the fire. From the record here it would seem that it didn’t move at night (the Lord is considerate!), but when it did start moving they were to follow it. We have here in this historical picture (for it did happen, it wasn’t just something figurative) a picture of what divine guidance and the believer is all about – when God moves we move.

      Jesus was to say, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing” (Jn 5:19). Paul was later to write, “Let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25), i.e. as He moves, we are to move. Thus this very graphic picture of Israel being led by the Lord, from the moment they are constituted as a nation at Sinai, is very real for us too. The New Testament pictures the church as Jesus’ body and that responds to the head, Jesus (Eph 1:22 ,23) as he leads us.

D. Application:

1. Jesus is my head. I am to follow him.
2. He’s given me His Spirit. I am to respond to Him.