Week 1 Passage-  Numbers 9:15-23

Numbers 9:17-18

¹⁷ And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.¹⁸ At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.

Explanation:

It seems from this text that the cloud would move from the tabernacle.  This indicated the leading of the Lord.  Where the cloud stayed the people camped.  They saw the movement of the cloud as the command of God.  When they cloud stayed in one place, they rested.  They stayed.  They were prompted by the movement of God.

Application:

1. The people camped around the tabernacle as it was directed by the cloud.  They set up their lives for obedience to God.  This was important for their development because God wanted to teach them obedience.  He was preparing them for Canaan.  Just see Deuteronomy 8:1-6.  “All the commandments shall ye observe to do…And thous shalt remember, the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.”
2. I may think it supernatural that they had a cloud, but they would think it supernatural that we have God’s Word available to every person containing the mystery now revealed.  Will I obey?

Response:

• Set up my life for obedience to the leading of the Lord.
• For more reading, see Ephesians 3, and 2 Peter 1:20-21