But Italy Is a Country Precariously Balanced on the Edge of Economic Meltdown. They Need

Numbers 9:15-23

PRAY ps 73.23 Is 58.4

Intro:

Silvio Berlusconi: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Saturday, ending one of the most scandal-plagued eras in recent Italian history amid the jeers of thousands of protesters gathered in central Rome to celebrate his departure.An orchestra near the palace played the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. “We are here to rejoice,” one said.
But Italy is a country precariously balanced on the edge of economic meltdown. They need a new leader, a visionary who will guide them through this crisis.
We often feel this way as a church: we yearn for new and visionary leadership at those defining moments.
The people of Israel are in a similar state: they are in the wilderness (Jews name the book of Numbers “in the wilderness’) ready to depart for the PL and need the kind of visionary leadership. It's not Moses, who is only a mediator, and is mentioned only once in our text. They require the kind of guidance only almighty God can provide.

Context

Nu 1-9 moses has prepared the children of God to move from Sinai to the PL. Like beginning a journey to Disneyland!
Tribes are numbered, organized, purified, priesthood established, the tabernacle consecrated, Passover celebrated.
The spine of the narrative is that God's people are between Egypt, a place of slavery and bondage, and the land of promise, a land of goodness.
But they are at risk and vulnerable, without sure resources, without visible support systems, living only by faith in the revealed living God.
They are hanging on a wire like the Grouse Skyride between two towers, hanging.
9.15 = Climax: is the cloud descending, covering the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony: the moment they have been waiting for, their Master and Commander takes up residence exactly in the center of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Now, their journey can begin.
Here is what this text repeatedly says:
When the cloud remained over the tabernacle, the children of Israel camped. When the cloud, god's glory and guidance, lifted, his children set out. They journeyed.
When Israel camped, the tabernacle was set up in the middle of the camp with 3 tribes on each side. The centre of the camp, according to ANE tradition, was the place for the king's tent. Since God was the king of Israel, his tent was rightly in the centre.
When they journeyed, the tent was taken down, and the ark of the covenant led the way, just as a king would lead his army into battle.

The melodic line of this text is that God is with them on the journey. The word cloud is mentioned 14 times. Fourteen times in 9 verses. Almost ridiculous number. The point is, The cloud and fire is his holy presence. He has not rescued then abandoned his people. He doesn’t create the universe then stand back to observe (that's deism). He is not uninvolved and distant! He is their shepherd, leading them to green pasture.

We see four realities:
First, the timing is his: The children of Israel did not have a blueprint of God's expected movements. There was no itinerary. The cloud lifted, or it didn’t. They had to keep watch. Imagine being an Israelite; the biggest question each morning over coffee and manna was, Will YHWH move today?
Second, the direction is his: The children of Israel knew they were going to the PL, but did not know how they were going to get there. They did not know which path their journey would take, or what obstacles they would encounter or avoid.
Third, the strategy is his: The children of Israel did not have a playbook or a vision statement. They had the dynamic and intimate presence of God. YHWH directed and planned every aspect of the journey. His leadership was perfectly visionary. He knew where he wanted to take his people, how they would get there, what would happen along the way, and had already, from before time, determined and laid the groundwork of his desired outcomes, even as events seemed to suggest otherwise. He was their shepherd. All they had to do was follow.
Fourth, the destination is his: For the children of Israel, it was the land of fulfilled promises. That was his goal. That was his future. The place where his people would enjoy his presence, in shalom and abundance. All they knew was that it was good. It was a land of milk and honey. Moses says in ch 10: ”the LORD has promised good to Israel.” Whatever their suffering or circumstances, they had this to look forward to. He was leading them to green pasture.

So these four things all belong to Him! There was only one thing required of Israel: follow, which means: patience in his timing, trust in his character, and obedience to his commands.Follow. Cuts across the grain of the human heart to surrender to God's direction, though. Very difficult, when circumstances are troubling, to trust God. As Ben will tell us next week, proved impossible for God's children in the OT.

Let's look at the text: You know that ‘cloud’ shows up 14 times. 2 times 7. Since this is the book of numbers let me tell you some others:

the word ‘tabernacle appears 7x.
The word ‘command’ appears 7x.
This text seems to show the way things should be. 7 is the number of perfection, and we have 7, 7, and two times 7. These numbers refer to the things of God: the cloud, the tabernacle, and his command.
But there are two other numbers we find in the text: The Hebrew word for ‘journey’ appears 9 times, and the word for camp appears 6 times. Everything referring to Israel is imperfect. Very significant in Hebrew literature.
everything that has to do with God has a perfect number. But everything that has to do with his children has an imperfect number. The theological point being made is: even though God and his guidance is perfect, his people do not perfectly follow it.

How often we take things into our own hands. We fail to wait patiently for His provision. The golden calf was produced out of impatience. Abraham, faced with infertility and old age, got a descendant on his own, but Ishmael was not the child of promise.
How naturally we depend on our own emotion, intuition, desires, and understanding, and then boldly assume God will sanctify our decisions.
And how arrogant we are to complain about His perfect direction.

see 11.1.

But there is a difference between us and them. We are not Israelites. This is not a Jewish service. The difference is that Christ has come. He tabernacled among us. He proved his perfect obedience to his Father’ direction.

He trusted his Father's timing, so that he entered history at the Roman moment, when the word about the new exodus in his death and resurrection could spread effectively.
He trusted his father's direction; his words and works were those his Father had given him to say and do.
He trusted his Father's strategy, even that his death would deliver many from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of eternal life.
He trusted his Father’s destination, that his resurrection would lead to enthronement and glory and the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believed.

And it is the Holy Spirit who we read about in our first reading who does something incredible, in light of Numbers 9: He, the Holy Spirit, tabernacles in us, as followers of Christ, and among us, as the church of Christ. We have not been left as orphans. Jesus says, you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

So what does God's direction look like today for you and me as children of God?

A Christian is someone who has been rescued from slavery to the rule of sin, and who is being prepared for heaven, the supernatural land of promise. So we, like our ancestors, are on a journey, heading toward a good land under God's guidance. In a certain way, we are in the wilderness. And God is the same now as he was then: directing and guiding.

We often say, I wish God would show me what he wants to do, who to marry, what his will is. Well, we have to look in two spheres. His general will is that you repent of being the director of your own life, and place your faith in Him. His general will is that all people should be saved, and submit to Christ the King. His general will is clearly shown in Scripture.

His specific will, his guidance and direction for the individual, is revealed to us in a variety of ways, which often work together:

The bible, the historical record of God's will and direction
Prayer should we not ask a god such as this for direction along the journey?
The wisdom of trusted elders, including wisdom literature in the bible
Circumstances, with constraints and opportunities
Your natural interests and passions
God's supernatural intervention: like Jesus appearance to Saul in acts

The temptation in a computerized world is that we can make perfect decisions. But No perfect decision in this fallen world. But God will always use imperfect decisions or even evil ones in the tapestry of his design and purposes.

Application

Be aware the danger that you don’t want to know God's good and perfect will; it may be that a cherished sin is keeping you from hearing and heeding God's direction.
The text does not tell us how the Israelites felt. They may have been afraid, but how they felt did not shape God's direction. He leads, he directs, often not the way we think he ought to, and this produces anxiety. So the application is to be patient, and trust him.

At times we feel like we are in the wilderness! certainly as a church, that we are at risk and vulnerable, without resources, without visible support systems. But our only hope is to live by faith in the revealed living God, who directs without fail.