Setting Out - A Good Beginning
NUMBERS 9:15-10:36
Starting something new can be a nerve-racking experience. Whether it is stepping out on the first day of a new school or a new job or trying to make a new set of friends when you move into a new community, that which is new often makes us afraid. Our children sometimes find these occasions especially daunting. Many a parent’s heartstrings have been tugged as their prospective kindergartner sobs, “Come with me, Mom …” As we grow up, we realize that Mom and Dad can’t always be there to help us over the hurdles of life, but that doesn’t keep us from sometimes secretly wishing that they could be. How comforting it would be to have the constant presence of someone who really knows what they are doing with us as we launch out into a particularly challenging new venture!
A NEW START
Israel was on the verge of a new start here at the end of Numbers 9. They were about to set out from Mount Sinai where they had been camping for almost a year. It was there at Mount Sinai that God gave them his Law and the instructions for building the tabernacle, as we see in the book of Exodus. It was there that he taught them about his sacrifices and the priesthood, as recorded in the book of Leviticus. It was there that he arranged the camp and prepared them to set out on this journey, as we have seen already in the book of Numbers. Now it was time for the talking and preparing to end and for the action to start. It was time for the Israelites to put their feet into motion and begin the journey into the wilderness, marching toward the Promised Land. That was a challenging prospect for Israel. There was so much that was unknown. Where would they camp? What would they eat and drink? When would they get there? Would their mission be a success? There must have been quite a few uneasy hearts in the camp.
GOD WITH THEM
There was one thing that was not to be an unknown, however. They wouldn’t have to go into the wilderness alone: God was going to go with them. The central focus of the second half of Numbers 9 is to underline the connection between the cloud and the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the visible symbol of God’s presence in the midst of his people, the tent of their heavenly King at the center of the camp. It was not just an empty symbol, however: it was inhabited by the cloud of God’s glory that descended onto it on the very day it was first set up (v. 15). This descent of God’s glory demonstrated that God would indeed dwell in the midst of his people. What is more, the book of Exodus ended with the recounting of the same event (40:34–38). By repeating it here, the narrator is linking this new journey into the wilderness with the journey in the book of Exodus that took them to Sinai in the first place. Just as God had accompanied them out of Egypt on the way to Mount Sinai by means of the pillar of cloud and fire, so now the same pillar would rest on the tabernacle. God was indeed present with his people. Here was comfort for uneasy hearts.
GOD LEADING THEM
God was not just present with his people as an observer, however. He was not just along for the ride, or even sitting in the copilot’s chair. God was going to lead them into the Promised Land. By means of the cloud, the Lord would tell Israel when they were to set out and when they were to camp. He would decide how long they were to remain in a particular place, whether one night or two days or a month or a year (9:22). The Lord would guide them and direct them on every leg of their journey. In fact, to make sure that you don’t miss this point, the narrator labors it somewhat in 9:17–22. Essentially, all he is saying in these verses is, “When the cloud moved on, the people would set out, and when the cloud stopped they would camp”—yet he takes six verses to say it, utilizing almost every possible permutation. By means of this repetition, he stresses the fact that on this march there was no room for creativity and individualism on the part of God’s people. There was no place for fussing and crying out, “Are we there yet?” What they had to do was watch the cloud and follow carefully wherever it went. It is not coincidental that the phrase “at the command of the Lord” occurs seven times in verses 18–23.1 The narrator wants us to be aware that this journey is at the will of the Lord himself and under his direction every step of the way.
Now it might seem as if such an obvious marker of the Lord’s leading as a fiery cloud would be evident enough that all could follow it directly, but that was not the case. Getting such a large number of people ready for the march was no easy undertaking. This should not come as a surprise to those of us who are parents. I find it a major challenge to get five children up and out of the door to school in the morning, let alone an enormous nation. What is more, as we saw in the earlier chapters, the people were not to progress forward as a disorganized rabble but as a disciplined body, an army arranged by tribes and families (see Numbers 2). Achieving this kind of order would have required significant coordination. For that reason God commanded that the actual instructions for the people to move out were to be mediated through the priests by means of the silver trumpets (10:1–7). These special trumpets were not employed as musical instruments but as signaling devices, just as the military used to employ bugle calls to direct the actions of troops on the battlefield. The priestly trumpet calls were the signal for the various sections of the camp to set out on their journey, so that everything could be done in good order, exactly as God had commanded them.
THE SILVER TRUMPETS
At the same time, we need to notice that the use of these trumpets was not simply a convenient signaling device, one that could equally well have been replaced by an alternative method of getting the word out, such as semaphore flags or carrier pigeons. The second part of the passage about the trumpets reminds us that these trumpets would continue to have an ongoing use in Israel: this was to be “a perpetual statute throughout your generations” (10:8). After the journey through the wilderness was over and the people had entered the Promised Land, these trumpets were still regularly to be used for two events: warfare and worship. They were to be sounded whenever the people went into battle (10:9) and whenever they gathered for their festivals (10:10). At the sound of the trumpet, the community would gather together either to fight or to fellowship in praise. The trumpets would issue a continuing call to exercise obedience to God’s demands.
The sound of the priestly trumpets was not simply a rallying cry to bring the people of God together either. The sound of the trumpets also brought them to the Lord’s remembrance (10:10). As well as being a call for the people to come together and act as one, it was a cry to God to come and act on their behalf. Whenever the Israelites faced their enemies, they could sound the trumpet and know that God would remember them and come to their aid (10:9). Whenever the people brought their offerings at the great festivals, the priests could sound the trumpet and know that God would hear from Heaven and pay attention to their offerings (10:10). Their sins would be forgiven, and their acts of worship would be received and accepted. So the trumpets not only called the people together to renew their obedience but reminded them and assured them of God’s continuing presence and favor toward them. It is not coincidental that these themes of presence and obedience are the same themes that we saw highlighted at the end of Numbers 9.
The note about the continuing function of the trumpets thus says something profound and enduring about the nature of the journey on which Israel was embarking: the wandering people of God were about to begin a pilgrimage that would revolve around the twin themes of warfare and worship. That pilgrimage would continue even after they had entered the land. What is more, God’s presence and their obedience were absolutely necessary if these tasks were to be carried out successfully.
THE WANDERING PEOPLE OF GOD
This observation points us toward the way in which this passage addresses us in our contemporary setting. For we too are the wandering people of God, as the book of Hebrews reminds us, located between our exodus from the bondage of sin and death and our entry into the promised land of Heaven. We too face a daunting journey through the wilderness, surrounded by hostile terrain and many enemies. We may not literally travel through a land without water and food as they did or face the prospect of fierce battles against well-equipped enemies, but we too have many struggles in this world. We should have no illusions about the difficulty of our pilgrimage. This world is not our home, and it is frequently not a hospitable environment for believers. Jesus puts it this way in John 15:18–20:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
Since this is the case, what is needed if you are to survive the pilgrimage and make it to the other side of the wilderness? You need exactly the same two things they needed: you need the presence and favor of God with you, and you need to obey his directions.
GOD WITH US
The first thing you need to endure this wilderness is to know God’s presence and favor with you. This presupposes, of course, the fact that God is not equally present and favorable toward everyone in this world. The Canaanites were religious people, many of whom doubtless sincerely believed in their gods. Yet the decisive difference between the two nations was ultimately this: God had chosen Israel and called them to be his people, while he did not choose and call the Canaanites. God certainly didn’t choose the Israelites because they were better than the Canaanites—that becomes clear enough as the book of Numbers unfolds. Nor were the Canaanites innocent bystanders, good people who wished they too could be included in God’s people but were excluded by a harsh decree. On the contrary, they were sinners whose sin had now reached its full measure (see Genesis 15:16). God had good reason for bringing judgment upon the Canaanites. What is more, those Canaanites who wished to switch sides and abandon their idols in favor of the true and living God could do so at any time, and by God’s grace and mercy some did. However, as long as the Canaanites remained faithful to their gods and were strangers to the Lord, they would receive no favor from God. For them, his presence was something to be feared, not something to be sought.
So too in our context God’s presence and favor is not equally bestowed on all. It is true that none of us deserve God’s presence or his favor. By nature we are all just like the Canaanites: aliens and strangers to the true God whose whole lives are committed to serving something or someone other than him. Yet in his mercy and grace God promises both his presence and his favor to those who come to him by faith in Christ. As Paul puts it in Romans 5:1, 2, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” What Paul is saying is that we didn’t always have peace with God or access to his presence, but now we have both of those things through Jesus Christ. As he goes on to say three chapters later, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). God’s wrath remains on those who are alienated from him, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. On the contrary, they now experience peace and fellowship with God.
Do we know God’s presence and favor? If God’s presence and favor are vital for life and if they are not for everyone, then that is a crucial question for which to know the answer. When we stand before God, are we trusting in whatever goodness and righteousness we can muster? There is no peace in that affirmation. Peace, the absence of condemnation, the experience of God’s favor—these things are only to be found by pleading the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our place. If our hope is resting on the righteousness of Christ, then we have the favor of God and the presence of God with us right now.
Jesus promised his disciples his presence and favor when he said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We often look to that verse as encouragement in the work of missions and evangelism, and appropriately so. It is the assurance that as we go and share the good news with those around us, God will go ahead of us, touching hearts and lives by his Spirit before we even open our mouths to speak. However, there is more to the verse than that. When we trudge through some of the weariest valleys of life, this verse assures us that Jesus is there with us. When we face uncertainty in relationships and are not sure if we can trust someone, Jesus is there with us. When we feel ready to faint and give up because of the painful difficulty of life, Jesus is there with us. The one in whom the glorious presence of God took flesh and dwelt on earth has promised that he will constantly be with us by his Spirit: he will never leave us or forsake us, no matter what life may throw at us.
OBEDIENT LIVING
The second thing you need in order to endure this wilderness is obedience to the Lord’s directions. The Israelites were to take their cue from the cloud and follow its leading. So, too, you and I are to take our cue from God’s Word, the Scriptures, and to follow its directions. Which directions? All of them! There are no commands in God’s Word that are irrelevant or negotiable; there are no proposals or suggestions, only commands. However, let me highlight two particular areas where we need to obey GodWord that are particularly relevant to this passage. First, we need to hear the trumpet call to come together for spiritual warfare instead of fighting as individuals. I’m not talking about declaring some kind of evangelical jihad on the non-Christian world around us. I’m talking particularly about the spiritual struggles that each of us faces individually and together as a society. Often we try to face our struggles on our own. We live after all in a culture that cherishes individualism. Yet we are to be a community of believers, a family of God’s people, a military unit that fights together and is committed to the policy, “No man left behind.” When one person hurts, we all hurt; when one person rejoices, we all rejoice.
In order for that policy to be a reality, though, we need to be involved with other believers outside the setting of church on Sunday morning. There are a variety of ways to build those connections. It could be an evening Bible study or singing in the choir or participating in the youth group. We all need to find a context in which we come together with other believers to build deep and strong relationships. We need to make a space in our life where we encourage them and they are able to encourage us in our daily warfare.
We also need to work together if we are to make an impact on the society in which we live. We are called to be salt and light in our community, acting as a preservative against rottenness, as well as communicating the gospel (Matthew 5:13–16). If we only act as individuals, our influence is limited; but when we come together, we can have a bigger impact for good. Once again there are a variety of ways in which we can have that impact on the surrounding culture. But in order to maximize our impact we need to be called together to fight as a unit, not as a disorganized group of individuals.
WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP
In addition to coming together to serve one another and to fight together, we also need to hear the trumpet call to come together for worship and fellowship. Perhaps the most important thing we do as God’s people is to come together to worship God. The world certainly doesn’t think so. The world thinks we are wasting our time when we come together to praise and exalt the Lord, and it asks us when we are going to get busy doing something useful. In reality, though, there is nothing more useful in all of the world than singing God’s praises and studying his Word. This is what reorients our thoughts in the right direction and empowers us for renewed service by filling us with an accurate understanding of who God is and what he is doing in this world. Activity is good, but it has to be activity that accomplishes something real. It is not enough simply to start marching and to determine the destination later: you have to know where you are heading before you get underway. Scripture is both where we receive our marching orders and where we are reminded what we are marching toward.
WHEN WANDERING DAYS ARE DONE
The third point we need to be reminded of, though, is that our wandering is not forever. Israel would one day hang up their marching boots and enter the Promised Land. It would take them a long time to get there because of their sin, but eventually they would reach the goal that God had set for them. One day, too, Israel would be able to hang up their swords and their spears, at least temporarily, when God gave them rest from their enemies all around during the reign of King David ( 2 Samuel 7:1). However, even when their wandering was done and their warfare was finished, they would never leave worship behind.
So too for us, the trumpets that we now hear summoning us to spiritual warfare and spiritual worship are not the only trumpets there will be. One day the final trumpet will sound, announcing the definitive arrival of God’s presence on earth (1 Corinthians 15:52). This time it will not be in the form of a fiery pillar or as a baby at Bethlehem, but in the triumphant return of Jesus Christ to establish the new heavens and the new earth. The final trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will rise, and those believers who are still alive will be caught up into his presence (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). Then our wandering and our warfare will finally be over, replaced forever by worship. But for all those who do not belong to Christ, that day of God’s presence will be a day of great fear and anguish. They will hear the dreaded words, “Depart from me, you cursed” and will be sent out of the presence of God into the blackest darkness forever (Matthew 25:41).
Now is the time to bow the knee to Jesus. Now is the time to hear and heed the trumpet call to worship him joyfully, trusting in his righteousness and rejoicing in his grace. Now is the time to celebrate his mercy, that he would choose a foul sinner like me and call me to serve him and fellowship with him forever. Now is the time to delight in the words of forgiveness and acceptance: “There is no condemnation; you have peace with God through Jesus Christ!” Now is the time to revel in his presence with us, and to recommit ourselves to full obedience to his leading and direction. Don’t wait until you hear the final trumpet: the trumpet sounds for you today to summon you to enter into his presence and bow down.
A Good Beginning
In life we can learn many extremely valuable lessons from the successes and failures of others. Over the course of my wandering years I have been part of many churches around the world. Each of them had its own distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and I would say that I have learned something from each church. The most valuable lessons, however, came from the churches at the extremes of the spectrum of health: I have learned most from the churches that were the healthiest and from those that were the most dysfunctional, while I learned rather less from the churches in between. In the healthy churches, I observed the shape of the faithful and skilled practice of ministry, while from those at the other end I discovered the painful consequences that ensue when ministry is not done well. Both lessons have been immensely useful to me in my own ministry!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
In this passage in Numbers 10 we receive our first impression of Israel on the march, and what we see is entirely positive. They began the journey so well. In fact, if they had continued in the same way that they started out, they would have been in the Promised Land within a few short weeks. First impressions can be deceptive though. As we will see, things began to unravel in short order as the journey continued. Nonetheless, it is important to notice the fact that Israel began well. This shows that the problems that subsequently developed were not due to ignorance on Israel’s part or a lack of clarity on the Lord’s part. God was faithful to do what he had promised, and the Israelites knew exactly what they ought to do. The problems that would soon emerge were thus entirely their own fault.
As we follow the wanderings of the Israelites over the next few chapters, we will encounter both positive and negative lessons. We will see their faithfulness and their unfaithfulness, and the consequences that flow from both attitudes. The first lessons we will see though—the ones we will look at in this chapter—are the ones that result from the good beginning that they made. These lessons provide a positive paradigm for us to follow in our own wilderness journeys.
A LIFE OF GOD-CENTERED PILGRIMAGE
The first point to observe is that at the outset Israel understood that the wilderness life is to be a life of God-centered pilgrimage. It is camping out, not coming home. This is perhaps an obvious point, but we should never overlook the obvious in the Bible. The Israelites were on the march from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. The Lord had brought them out of Egypt, but they had not yet received their inheritance in the place that God had promised to give them (v. 29). In the meantime they were not to settle down while they were in the wilderness, nor were they to expect to enjoy all the comforts of home there: they were simply camping.
Now, I have to confess that I am personally not much of a camper. My idea of enjoying the great outdoors is throwing open the window of my comfortable hotel room and taking in the stunning view and fresh country air. I find it difficult to understand why anyone would voluntarily give up a comfortable bed, properly cooked food, and easy access to drinking water. The whole idea is rather a mystery to me—unless, of course, you are going somewhere special and this painful inconvenience is the only possible way to get there.
So too the Christian life is rather a mystery to many people. Why would anyone endure the things that many Christians voluntarily endure? Some go on missions trips, paying good money to work hard for the sake of others in a hot and humid climate instead of lazing on the beach with a good novel. Many Christians spend their free time meeting with other believers to discuss the finer points of the Bible and theology instead of watching television or talking about sports. They give generously of their time and money to support the work of their church instead of using it to create a more comfortable lifestyle for themselves. In some countries Christians even endure time in prison and lay down their lives for the sake of the name of Jesus. Why would anyone do these things? Isn’t that a waste of your life? The whole idea is rather a mystery—unless, of course, we are going somewhere special and this is the only possible way to get there. We need constantly to remember that the Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage, which necessarily involves discomfort and suffering. It is a journey whose sacrifices only make sense in the light of the outcome.
On that journey the people were arranged around the symbol of God’s presence, the tabernacle of the testimony (v. 11). The tabernacle was the tent of their heavenly King, the Lord, a King who was not merely present with his people when they camped but also while they were on the march. Whether in camp or on the march, the tabernacle and its holy objects remained at the center of the community, carried by the Levites between the tribal groupings (vv. 17, 21). Calling it “the tabernacle of the testimony” reminded Israel that inside the tent were the most sacred objects from Israel’s sojourn at Mount Sinai, the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, the official treaty documents that ratified the covenant between God and his people. It drew their attention to the promises that they had made to God at Mount Sinai, as well as those that the Lord had made to them.
Nor were the people simply gathered around the tabernacle in an unruly mass. On the contrary, they were arrayed exactly as God had instructed them back in Numbers 2. The arrangement by which the Israelites camped was the same arrangement by which they marched, according to the Lord’s commandment. At the beginning of the journey no one among the Israelites said, “Why do you have to spend so much effort in telling us exactly where we should stand? Let’s just love the Lord and march however we like.” They understood that there is no conflict between love and careful obedience. If they loved the Lord, they would be eager to do exactly what he had said. Nor is this perspective simply an Old Testament view of what God expects from his people. Jesus himself said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Obedience in the Christian life is never an option for the exceptionally spiritual: it has always been a mark of the believer’s true love for the Lord. At this initial stage of the journey, this attitude also marked out the Israelites.
A LIFE OF CONSTANT WARFARE
Second, the Israelites also understood that wilderness life is a life of constant warfare that can only be won in God’s strength. This is evident even in the ordering of the march: the Israelites were arranged by military divisions under their various tribal standards, as if marching out to war (vv. 12–28). Leading them from the front on the initial three-day leg of the journey was the ark of the covenant, which represented not only God’s throne but his chariot as well (v. 33). God was going to be their advance guard in the forthcoming conflict.
As a reminder of the true nature of their wilderness life, every time they broke camp, Moses would say, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you” (v. 35). “Arise” here isn’t just a request to God to get up and get going, as you or I might shout, “Rise and shine” to our children in the morning. The Jewish commentator Baruch Levine translates it, “Attack, O Lord!” It is a word that is sometimes used in military contexts as a summons to begin the assault (see Judges 5:12).1 Moses is thus invoking the Lord’s warrior presence with them in the conflict with their enemies.
The same theme reemerges in the words that Moses would say whenever the ark came to rest because the cloud had stopped moving: “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel” (10:36). The New Jewish Publication Society translation renders the Hebrew more literally, “Return, O Lord, you who are Israel’s myriads of thousands.” When it came to fighting, the Lord himself was the countless thousands of Israel, the decisive contributor to their victories. As long as the Lord was fighting for them, Israel’s victory was assured, no matter how heavily outnumbered the Israelites were by the opposition.
This is a truth to which many of God’s people have testified. In the nineteenth century, the pioneer missionary Mary Slessor went undaunted through the dangers of the African jungle to bring the gospel to unreached tribes in the Calabar area of Nigeria. Many of those to whom she went had had little or no contact with white people. Some were cannibals, while on other occasions she physically stood between two warring tribes to keep them apart. When asked how a single woman, once described as “wee and thin and not very strong,” could go where she went, she simply replied, “God and one are always a majority.” It doesn’t matter who is against you if God is on your side—or, more precisely, if you are on his side.
The same principle also operates in the opposite direction, however. If God is not with you, then it doesn’t matter how many people you have fighting for you, defeat is inevitable. The psalmist stated this clearly: “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
A TRUTH TO BE REPEATED
This truth is not exactly a profound and obscure Biblical insight that can only be discerned after years of intricate research in the original languages. It is a central Biblical teaching. So why did Moses feel the need to repeat the formula in the people’s hearing so often? It is certainly not because otherwise God might forget to go with them on their journey! Rather, Moses asked God to go and fight for the Israelites every time they set out as a reminder to himself and to his people. He knew that God’s people constantly need to be reminded of this reality. Is the same not true of us as well? I know that it often is for me. I constantly forget that my pilgrimage is a fight in which, unless the Lord wins the victory for me, all of my best efforts are in vain. How many things in my life would be different if I remembered that truth!
If I remembered this reality, I would pray more and be more constant in invoking God’s aid in my struggles. I would awaken every morning crying out, “Rise up, O Lord! Protect me against my enemies and against temptation. Walk with me throughout this day!” I would go to sleep at night asking the Lord to remain with me, thanking him for his sustaining presence and power throughout that day. Moment by moment, in between rising and resting, my thoughts would return repeatedly to the Lord to invoke his presence and his power with me.
If I remembered this reality, I would be less puffed up with pride when life goes well. On the Sundays when my ministry is a blessing to people, I would recall that it is the work of the Lord’s Spirit that changes hearts and lives, not my carefully crafted words. When my life is relatively free from dramatic sin, I would be aware that this faithfulness is not the product of my matchless devotion to the Lord but his gracious preservation of my wandering soul.
If I remembered this reality, I would panic less when the struggles of life become intense and I feel myself to be utterly out of my depth. The truth is that I am constantly out of my depth in life and ministry, even when it comes to the tasks that are most familiar. I can easily put together a series of words that will fill up half an hour on Sunday morning, but in my own strength I am unable to write a sermon that will break the stony hearts of unbelievers and touch afresh the lives of the saints. Only God can do that. The same is true of my parenting. I can discipline my children and assure a certain level of outward conformity to polite moral codes, but in my own strength I can never show them the depth and gravity of their sinfulness and their desperate need of Christ. Only God can do that. Whenever I feel competent to cope on my own in this life, it is a delusion. Indeed, God in his mercy often chooses to take us through those deep waters where our lack of capability becomes most evident to our naturally blind eyes, in order that we may recognize what is always true: unless the Lord goes ahead of us and fights for us, we are utterly defeated. Like the Israelites, I need to be reminded constantly that this wilderness life is a conflict that only God can win.
DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY
At the same time, this truth does not mean that we simply sit back and wait for God to do everything. Sometimes people fear that a focus on the need for God’s work in our lives will lead to passivity on our part. If we believe in the sovereignty of God in all things, won’t that lead us to neglect outreach to unbelievers and the pursuit of holiness in our own lives? Nothing could be farther from a Biblical position. There is no conflict between absolute trust in God’s work and responsible human activity on our part, a theme that finds expression in this passage in the invitation to Hobab to accompany the Israelites (vv. 29–32). Commentators are divided over this little incident. Some see it as evidence of a lack of faith on Moses’ part. Why should he invite Hobab to be the eyes of the community, finding good camping spots for them in the wilderness, if the Lord had promised to do that for them?4 Isn’t that a sign of unbelief?
The text itself, however, doesn’t seem to place a negative light on the request of Moses. Rather, I think the commentators’ problems flow from the fact that they are placing a false dichotomy between divine guidance and human responsibility. Biblically, these things belong together. Trust in the Lord as divine builder and guard does not exempt the laborer from building or the watchman from keeping his eyes open (Psalm 127:1). In the same way, the request for Hobab’s assistance is not a mark of a lack of faith in God’s guidance on the part of Moses but simply the wise use of the gifts and abilities of another in service of the Lord’s people. Moses recognized that Hobab might be the means by which God’s provision for their needs would come to expression. In this life of warfare, even though victory can only be won in the Lord’s strength, sometimes his strength is ministered to us through the very ordinary means of the people he has placed around us with exactly the combination of gifts and abilities that we need.
FINDING REST
The third truth that Israel needed to remember on their march is that even though the wilderness life is a pilgrimage and a war, the goal of the pilgrimage is neither constant traveling nor constant conflict, but rest in the land God had promised. The reason the ark went ahead of them on their travels was not simply to protect Israel from dangers and enemies but to find for them “a resting place” (v. 33). This was the goal of the whole pilgrimage, to find a place of rest in the land that God had promised to give them.
This loss of perspective is what so often discourages us in life, isn’t it? We forget that we are only camping here, only passing through on our way to eternal glory. We start to believe that this world really is all there is, and so we grumble about our accommodations and our food here. The conversation between Moses and Hobab shows us what it means to keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Moses didn’t invite Hobab to join him on a miserable trek through the apparently endless wasteland that stretched out before them. No, he invited Hobab to look beyond the wilderness and join Israel in coming to the land where the Lord had promised good things for his people. What is more, when Hobab initially declined, saying that he would rather return home to his own land and his own people, Moses continued to press him, affirming that Israel would share with him whatever good things the Lord gave them (v. 32). In effect, he invited Hobab to join the spiritual descendants of Abraham, who left his home and his people by faith, seeking a city with foundations that God had promised him.
Is that where our eyes are fixed? When someone asks us why we are followers of Jesus, what is our response? The answer is certainly not because since the time we became Christians our lives have begun to work out more successfully. I cannot say that God always gives me everything I want or think that I need, nor does he always make my life run smoothly and easily. What I can say, though, is this: God has promised me eternal life in his presence, a place where I shall stand before him forever and do what I was created to do, which is to worship him. God has promised us that in view of the glory set before us, this is the very best life we can experience in this world. Eternal life will make worthwhile whatever losses we have to suffer in the present. What is more, the Lord has promised his presence with us in the midst of all of the present difficulties of life. Eternal life in Christ has already begun, but only in part. Even for the most fortunate, rest is only partially tasted in this world: the best is always yet to come.
INVITING OTHERS TO SHARE GOD’S REST
This should not only be where our eyes are presently fixed but also where we endeavor to get others to fix their gaze. Moses really cared about what was best for Hobab, and so he boldly invited Hobab to join the covenant community on their journey. Hobab was not an Israelite. Moses could simply have said, “You go your way, and I’ll go mine,” especially when Hobab initially declined his invitation. Hobab did not respond to Moses’ words by immediately pleading for the opportunity to come along with Israel. He was certainly no Ruth, crying out, “Where you go I will go.… Your people shall be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). In fact, we never do find out for certain whether Hobab came along with the Israelites or not.6 What we do see, though, is Moses’ passionate desire that the Gentile next door should be included in the family of faith.
We need to have the same passion for our “outsider” neighbors. Moses knew that to be in the wilderness with God’s people was better than enjoying the comforts of home and family because of the rest that God had promised to his people. We should be able to say the same to our family and friends. We must have a passionate desire for them to come to know God and walk with his people, a desire that keeps on inviting them to become part of God’s people. We should long for them too to join us on our pilgrimage. If we do not, it is most likely because we have lost the conviction that God’s rest is the only true good in this world. If God’s rest is indeed the best this life has to offer, then even though it may be costly for someone to acquire it, it is worth the price. That is the point of Jesus’ parable in which he compares the kingdom of heaven to a pearl of great price. Whatever it costs, the pearl is worth the price (Matthew 13:45, 46). So too, if you and I believe passionately with all of our hearts that God is the only good in this world, and if to be in his presence for all eternity is our supreme desire, then that belief will spill out of us into all of our conversations and our relationships. Friends, neighbors, family—yes, even our in-laws—all will know what is most important to us, and by the grace of God some may be added to the pilgrim people of God.
THE TRAILBLAZER
Yet there is a problem with this picture, isn’t there? The people of Israel began well, but they couldn’t keep it up. Moses himself began well, but even he did not make it all the way to the Promised Land. So what good is holding up the ideal beginning of the Israelites and saying, “Be like this” if even they couldn’t carry it off? If they sinned and grumbled, led as they were by the ark of the covenant and the fiery cloud of God’s presence, what hope is there for us? If the lesson of this chapter is, “Be like the Israelites,” that simply leaves us depressed and condemned by our own inability to do what we ought. A perfect model is of no use to radically imperfect people like you and me.
What we need is someone to journey through the wilderness on our behalf and to be faithful throughout the journey. That, according to the book of Hebrews, is exactly what we have in Jesus. He is “the trailblazer and perfecter” of our faith (12:2). As God, we could truly say that it was Jesus who led Israel on their journey through the wilderness.8 However, it is in becoming man that Jesus has most profoundly traveled the road through the wilderness before us as the ultimate pilgrim and warrior. After his baptism, Jesus went out into the wilderness, where he bore all of Satan’s temptations in full force—a force we have never known because we always give in long before the real test comes (Matthew 4). In his humanity, Jesus faced the wilderness test and passed it by faith. He confessed his dependence upon his heavenly Father moment by moment, even though he was himself God in human flesh. He kept his eyes fixed on the rest that was set before him, the joy that would arrive through bearing the cross. Jesus sought constantly to bring others too into this rest, crying out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He has demonstrated and accomplished the life of faith in this fallen world, all the way to an obedient death on the cross. He didn’t just begin well; he ended well, seated in triumphant victory at the Father’s right hand.
The result of his obedience is that now my rest is won. He blazed the trail and lived the perfect life of faith in my place. Now when God looks at me, he sees the perfect obedience of Jesus, not my flawed efforts. If my salvation depended on my own best obedience, then I would be utterly lost. I might start well, but I would never carry it through. It wasn’t enough for God to bring Israel out of Egypt, give them his Law, point them in the right direction, and say, “Now go, capture the Promised Land.” They might begin well, but they would never carry it through. A trailblazer alone would not be enough. More still is necessary: God needed to do everything required for my salvation, and that is exactly what he has done in Jesus.
What is more, Jesus took on the wilderness “for the joy that was set before him,” the writer to the Hebrews tells us (12:2). Think about what love that demonstrates! What was “the joy that was set before him”? It was the prospect of our salvation! It was the glory that would redound to God himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—through redeeming lost humanity. God loved you enough that he sent his Son into this wilderness world, into the realm of temptation and sin, into the arena of sickness and death. That thought was what sustained Jesus through his darkest hours of suffering—the knowledge that his suffering would mean your salvation. How awesome is God’s grace!
Fixing our eyes on the rest that God has promised thus means nothing more and nothing less than fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the beginning of our faith and its end. He is the one who has accomplished our salvation and the one who now applies it to us by his Spirit. He is the one who promises to go with us on our journey and the one who has already gone ahead of us, scouting out the next steps in our lives. He is the one who fights our battles for us and assures the victory of all those who are in him. He is the one to whom we are to point our neighbors and our friends and say, “Here is rest for your soul. Come with me and meet this glorious Savior. Come and share the good things he has promised to all those who belong to him.” He himself is the joy that is set before us, the joy into which we will finally enter in fullness and completeness when our wandering days are done.
Duguid, I. M., & Hughes, R. K. (2006). Numbers: God’s presence in the wilderness (pp. 129–146). Crossway Books.
Starting something new can be a nerve-racking experience. Whether it is stepping out on the first day of a new school or a new job or trying to make a new set of friends when you move into a new community, that which is new often makes us afraid. Our children sometimes find these occasions especially daunting. Many a parent’s heartstrings have been tugged as their prospective kindergartner sobs, “Come with me, Mom …” As we grow up, we realize that Mom and Dad can’t always be there to help us over the hurdles of life, but that doesn’t keep us from sometimes secretly wishing that they could be. How comforting it would be to have the constant presence of someone who really knows what they are doing with us as we launch out into a particularly challenging new venture!
A NEW START
Israel was on the verge of a new start here at the end of Numbers 9. They were about to set out from Mount Sinai where they had been camping for almost a year. It was there at Mount Sinai that God gave them his Law and the instructions for building the tabernacle, as we see in the book of Exodus. It was there that he taught them about his sacrifices and the priesthood, as recorded in the book of Leviticus. It was there that he arranged the camp and prepared them to set out on this journey, as we have seen already in the book of Numbers. Now it was time for the talking and preparing to end and for the action to start. It was time for the Israelites to put their feet into motion and begin the journey into the wilderness, marching toward the Promised Land. That was a challenging prospect for Israel. There was so much that was unknown. Where would they camp? What would they eat and drink? When would they get there? Would their mission be a success? There must have been quite a few uneasy hearts in the camp.
GOD WITH THEM
There was one thing that was not to be an unknown, however. They wouldn’t have to go into the wilderness alone: God was going to go with them. The central focus of the second half of Numbers 9 is to underline the connection between the cloud and the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the visible symbol of God’s presence in the midst of his people, the tent of their heavenly King at the center of the camp. It was not just an empty symbol, however: it was inhabited by the cloud of God’s glory that descended onto it on the very day it was first set up (v. 15). This descent of God’s glory demonstrated that God would indeed dwell in the midst of his people. What is more, the book of Exodus ended with the recounting of the same event (40:34–38). By repeating it here, the narrator is linking this new journey into the wilderness with the journey in the book of Exodus that took them to Sinai in the first place. Just as God had accompanied them out of Egypt on the way to Mount Sinai by means of the pillar of cloud and fire, so now the same pillar would rest on the tabernacle. God was indeed present with his people. Here was comfort for uneasy hearts.
GOD LEADING THEM
God was not just present with his people as an observer, however. He was not just along for the ride, or even sitting in the copilot’s chair. God was going to lead them into the Promised Land. By means of the cloud, the Lord would tell Israel when they were to set out and when they were to camp. He would decide how long they were to remain in a particular place, whether one night or two days or a month or a year (9:22). The Lord would guide them and direct them on every leg of their journey. In fact, to make sure that you don’t miss this point, the narrator labors it somewhat in 9:17–22. Essentially, all he is saying in these verses is, “When the cloud moved on, the people would set out, and when the cloud stopped they would camp”—yet he takes six verses to say it, utilizing almost every possible permutation. By means of this repetition, he stresses the fact that on this march there was no room for creativity and individualism on the part of God’s people. There was no place for fussing and crying out, “Are we there yet?” What they had to do was watch the cloud and follow carefully wherever it went. It is not coincidental that the phrase “at the command of the Lord” occurs seven times in verses 18–23.1 The narrator wants us to be aware that this journey is at the will of the Lord himself and under his direction every step of the way.
Now it might seem as if such an obvious marker of the Lord’s leading as a fiery cloud would be evident enough that all could follow it directly, but that was not the case. Getting such a large number of people ready for the march was no easy undertaking. This should not come as a surprise to those of us who are parents. I find it a major challenge to get five children up and out of the door to school in the morning, let alone an enormous nation. What is more, as we saw in the earlier chapters, the people were not to progress forward as a disorganized rabble but as a disciplined body, an army arranged by tribes and families (see Numbers 2). Achieving this kind of order would have required significant coordination. For that reason God commanded that the actual instructions for the people to move out were to be mediated through the priests by means of the silver trumpets (10:1–7). These special trumpets were not employed as musical instruments but as signaling devices, just as the military used to employ bugle calls to direct the actions of troops on the battlefield. The priestly trumpet calls were the signal for the various sections of the camp to set out on their journey, so that everything could be done in good order, exactly as God had commanded them.
THE SILVER TRUMPETS
At the same time, we need to notice that the use of these trumpets was not simply a convenient signaling device, one that could equally well have been replaced by an alternative method of getting the word out, such as semaphore flags or carrier pigeons. The second part of the passage about the trumpets reminds us that these trumpets would continue to have an ongoing use in Israel: this was to be “a perpetual statute throughout your generations” (10:8). After the journey through the wilderness was over and the people had entered the Promised Land, these trumpets were still regularly to be used for two events: warfare and worship. They were to be sounded whenever the people went into battle (10:9) and whenever they gathered for their festivals (10:10). At the sound of the trumpet, the community would gather together either to fight or to fellowship in praise. The trumpets would issue a continuing call to exercise obedience to God’s demands.
The sound of the priestly trumpets was not simply a rallying cry to bring the people of God together either. The sound of the trumpets also brought them to the Lord’s remembrance (10:10). As well as being a call for the people to come together and act as one, it was a cry to God to come and act on their behalf. Whenever the Israelites faced their enemies, they could sound the trumpet and know that God would remember them and come to their aid (10:9). Whenever the people brought their offerings at the great festivals, the priests could sound the trumpet and know that God would hear from Heaven and pay attention to their offerings (10:10). Their sins would be forgiven, and their acts of worship would be received and accepted. So the trumpets not only called the people together to renew their obedience but reminded them and assured them of God’s continuing presence and favor toward them. It is not coincidental that these themes of presence and obedience are the same themes that we saw highlighted at the end of Numbers 9.
The note about the continuing function of the trumpets thus says something profound and enduring about the nature of the journey on which Israel was embarking: the wandering people of God were about to begin a pilgrimage that would revolve around the twin themes of warfare and worship. That pilgrimage would continue even after they had entered the land. What is more, God’s presence and their obedience were absolutely necessary if these tasks were to be carried out successfully.
THE WANDERING PEOPLE OF GOD
This observation points us toward the way in which this passage addresses us in our contemporary setting. For we too are the wandering people of God, as the book of Hebrews reminds us, located between our exodus from the bondage of sin and death and our entry into the promised land of Heaven. We too face a daunting journey through the wilderness, surrounded by hostile terrain and many enemies. We may not literally travel through a land without water and food as they did or face the prospect of fierce battles against well-equipped enemies, but we too have many struggles in this world. We should have no illusions about the difficulty of our pilgrimage. This world is not our home, and it is frequently not a hospitable environment for believers. Jesus puts it this way in John 15:18–20:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
Since this is the case, what is needed if you are to survive the pilgrimage and make it to the other side of the wilderness? You need exactly the same two things they needed: you need the presence and favor of God with you, and you need to obey his directions.
GOD WITH US
The first thing you need to endure this wilderness is to know God’s presence and favor with you. This presupposes, of course, the fact that God is not equally present and favorable toward everyone in this world. The Canaanites were religious people, many of whom doubtless sincerely believed in their gods. Yet the decisive difference between the two nations was ultimately this: God had chosen Israel and called them to be his people, while he did not choose and call the Canaanites. God certainly didn’t choose the Israelites because they were better than the Canaanites—that becomes clear enough as the book of Numbers unfolds. Nor were the Canaanites innocent bystanders, good people who wished they too could be included in God’s people but were excluded by a harsh decree. On the contrary, they were sinners whose sin had now reached its full measure (see Genesis 15:16). God had good reason for bringing judgment upon the Canaanites. What is more, those Canaanites who wished to switch sides and abandon their idols in favor of the true and living God could do so at any time, and by God’s grace and mercy some did. However, as long as the Canaanites remained faithful to their gods and were strangers to the Lord, they would receive no favor from God. For them, his presence was something to be feared, not something to be sought.
So too in our context God’s presence and favor is not equally bestowed on all. It is true that none of us deserve God’s presence or his favor. By nature we are all just like the Canaanites: aliens and strangers to the true God whose whole lives are committed to serving something or someone other than him. Yet in his mercy and grace God promises both his presence and his favor to those who come to him by faith in Christ. As Paul puts it in Romans 5:1, 2, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” What Paul is saying is that we didn’t always have peace with God or access to his presence, but now we have both of those things through Jesus Christ. As he goes on to say three chapters later, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). God’s wrath remains on those who are alienated from him, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. On the contrary, they now experience peace and fellowship with God.
Do we know God’s presence and favor? If God’s presence and favor are vital for life and if they are not for everyone, then that is a crucial question for which to know the answer. When we stand before God, are we trusting in whatever goodness and righteousness we can muster? There is no peace in that affirmation. Peace, the absence of condemnation, the experience of God’s favor—these things are only to be found by pleading the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our place. If our hope is resting on the righteousness of Christ, then we have the favor of God and the presence of God with us right now.
Jesus promised his disciples his presence and favor when he said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We often look to that verse as encouragement in the work of missions and evangelism, and appropriately so. It is the assurance that as we go and share the good news with those around us, God will go ahead of us, touching hearts and lives by his Spirit before we even open our mouths to speak. However, there is more to the verse than that. When we trudge through some of the weariest valleys of life, this verse assures us that Jesus is there with us. When we face uncertainty in relationships and are not sure if we can trust someone, Jesus is there with us. When we feel ready to faint and give up because of the painful difficulty of life, Jesus is there with us. The one in whom the glorious presence of God took flesh and dwelt on earth has promised that he will constantly be with us by his Spirit: he will never leave us or forsake us, no matter what life may throw at us.
OBEDIENT LIVING
The second thing you need in order to endure this wilderness is obedience to the Lord’s directions. The Israelites were to take their cue from the cloud and follow its leading. So, too, you and I are to take our cue from God’s Word, the Scriptures, and to follow its directions. Which directions? All of them! There are no commands in God’s Word that are irrelevant or negotiable; there are no proposals or suggestions, only commands. However, let me highlight two particular areas where we need to obey GodWord that are particularly relevant to this passage. First, we need to hear the trumpet call to come together for spiritual warfare instead of fighting as individuals. I’m not talking about declaring some kind of evangelical jihad on the non-Christian world around us. I’m talking particularly about the spiritual struggles that each of us faces individually and together as a society. Often we try to face our struggles on our own. We live after all in a culture that cherishes individualism. Yet we are to be a community of believers, a family of God’s people, a military unit that fights together and is committed to the policy, “No man left behind.” When one person hurts, we all hurt; when one person rejoices, we all rejoice.
In order for that policy to be a reality, though, we need to be involved with other believers outside the setting of church on Sunday morning. There are a variety of ways to build those connections. It could be an evening Bible study or singing in the choir or participating in the youth group. We all need to find a context in which we come together with other believers to build deep and strong relationships. We need to make a space in our life where we encourage them and they are able to encourage us in our daily warfare.
We also need to work together if we are to make an impact on the society in which we live. We are called to be salt and light in our community, acting as a preservative against rottenness, as well as communicating the gospel (Matthew 5:13–16). If we only act as individuals, our influence is limited; but when we come together, we can have a bigger impact for good. Once again there are a variety of ways in which we can have that impact on the surrounding culture. But in order to maximize our impact we need to be called together to fight as a unit, not as a disorganized group of individuals.
WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP
In addition to coming together to serve one another and to fight together, we also need to hear the trumpet call to come together for worship and fellowship. Perhaps the most important thing we do as God’s people is to come together to worship God. The world certainly doesn’t think so. The world thinks we are wasting our time when we come together to praise and exalt the Lord, and it asks us when we are going to get busy doing something useful. In reality, though, there is nothing more useful in all of the world than singing God’s praises and studying his Word. This is what reorients our thoughts in the right direction and empowers us for renewed service by filling us with an accurate understanding of who God is and what he is doing in this world. Activity is good, but it has to be activity that accomplishes something real. It is not enough simply to start marching and to determine the destination later: you have to know where you are heading before you get underway. Scripture is both where we receive our marching orders and where we are reminded what we are marching toward.
WHEN WANDERING DAYS ARE DONE
The third point we need to be reminded of, though, is that our wandering is not forever. Israel would one day hang up their marching boots and enter the Promised Land. It would take them a long time to get there because of their sin, but eventually they would reach the goal that God had set for them. One day, too, Israel would be able to hang up their swords and their spears, at least temporarily, when God gave them rest from their enemies all around during the reign of King David ( 2 Samuel 7:1). However, even when their wandering was done and their warfare was finished, they would never leave worship behind.
So too for us, the trumpets that we now hear summoning us to spiritual warfare and spiritual worship are not the only trumpets there will be. One day the final trumpet will sound, announcing the definitive arrival of God’s presence on earth (1 Corinthians 15:52). This time it will not be in the form of a fiery pillar or as a baby at Bethlehem, but in the triumphant return of Jesus Christ to establish the new heavens and the new earth. The final trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will rise, and those believers who are still alive will be caught up into his presence (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). Then our wandering and our warfare will finally be over, replaced forever by worship. But for all those who do not belong to Christ, that day of God’s presence will be a day of great fear and anguish. They will hear the dreaded words, “Depart from me, you cursed” and will be sent out of the presence of God into the blackest darkness forever (Matthew 25:41).
Now is the time to bow the knee to Jesus. Now is the time to hear and heed the trumpet call to worship him joyfully, trusting in his righteousness and rejoicing in his grace. Now is the time to celebrate his mercy, that he would choose a foul sinner like me and call me to serve him and fellowship with him forever. Now is the time to delight in the words of forgiveness and acceptance: “There is no condemnation; you have peace with God through Jesus Christ!” Now is the time to revel in his presence with us, and to recommit ourselves to full obedience to his leading and direction. Don’t wait until you hear the final trumpet: the trumpet sounds for you today to summon you to enter into his presence and bow down.
A Good Beginning
In life we can learn many extremely valuable lessons from the successes and failures of others. Over the course of my wandering years I have been part of many churches around the world. Each of them had its own distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and I would say that I have learned something from each church. The most valuable lessons, however, came from the churches at the extremes of the spectrum of health: I have learned most from the churches that were the healthiest and from those that were the most dysfunctional, while I learned rather less from the churches in between. In the healthy churches, I observed the shape of the faithful and skilled practice of ministry, while from those at the other end I discovered the painful consequences that ensue when ministry is not done well. Both lessons have been immensely useful to me in my own ministry!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
In this passage in Numbers 10 we receive our first impression of Israel on the march, and what we see is entirely positive. They began the journey so well. In fact, if they had continued in the same way that they started out, they would have been in the Promised Land within a few short weeks. First impressions can be deceptive though. As we will see, things began to unravel in short order as the journey continued. Nonetheless, it is important to notice the fact that Israel began well. This shows that the problems that subsequently developed were not due to ignorance on Israel’s part or a lack of clarity on the Lord’s part. God was faithful to do what he had promised, and the Israelites knew exactly what they ought to do. The problems that would soon emerge were thus entirely their own fault.
As we follow the wanderings of the Israelites over the next few chapters, we will encounter both positive and negative lessons. We will see their faithfulness and their unfaithfulness, and the consequences that flow from both attitudes. The first lessons we will see though—the ones we will look at in this chapter—are the ones that result from the good beginning that they made. These lessons provide a positive paradigm for us to follow in our own wilderness journeys.
A LIFE OF GOD-CENTERED PILGRIMAGE
The first point to observe is that at the outset Israel understood that the wilderness life is to be a life of God-centered pilgrimage. It is camping out, not coming home. This is perhaps an obvious point, but we should never overlook the obvious in the Bible. The Israelites were on the march from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. The Lord had brought them out of Egypt, but they had not yet received their inheritance in the place that God had promised to give them (v. 29). In the meantime they were not to settle down while they were in the wilderness, nor were they to expect to enjoy all the comforts of home there: they were simply camping.
Now, I have to confess that I am personally not much of a camper. My idea of enjoying the great outdoors is throwing open the window of my comfortable hotel room and taking in the stunning view and fresh country air. I find it difficult to understand why anyone would voluntarily give up a comfortable bed, properly cooked food, and easy access to drinking water. The whole idea is rather a mystery to me—unless, of course, you are going somewhere special and this painful inconvenience is the only possible way to get there.
So too the Christian life is rather a mystery to many people. Why would anyone endure the things that many Christians voluntarily endure? Some go on missions trips, paying good money to work hard for the sake of others in a hot and humid climate instead of lazing on the beach with a good novel. Many Christians spend their free time meeting with other believers to discuss the finer points of the Bible and theology instead of watching television or talking about sports. They give generously of their time and money to support the work of their church instead of using it to create a more comfortable lifestyle for themselves. In some countries Christians even endure time in prison and lay down their lives for the sake of the name of Jesus. Why would anyone do these things? Isn’t that a waste of your life? The whole idea is rather a mystery—unless, of course, we are going somewhere special and this is the only possible way to get there. We need constantly to remember that the Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage, which necessarily involves discomfort and suffering. It is a journey whose sacrifices only make sense in the light of the outcome.
On that journey the people were arranged around the symbol of God’s presence, the tabernacle of the testimony (v. 11). The tabernacle was the tent of their heavenly King, the Lord, a King who was not merely present with his people when they camped but also while they were on the march. Whether in camp or on the march, the tabernacle and its holy objects remained at the center of the community, carried by the Levites between the tribal groupings (vv. 17, 21). Calling it “the tabernacle of the testimony” reminded Israel that inside the tent were the most sacred objects from Israel’s sojourn at Mount Sinai, the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, the official treaty documents that ratified the covenant between God and his people. It drew their attention to the promises that they had made to God at Mount Sinai, as well as those that the Lord had made to them.
Nor were the people simply gathered around the tabernacle in an unruly mass. On the contrary, they were arrayed exactly as God had instructed them back in Numbers 2. The arrangement by which the Israelites camped was the same arrangement by which they marched, according to the Lord’s commandment. At the beginning of the journey no one among the Israelites said, “Why do you have to spend so much effort in telling us exactly where we should stand? Let’s just love the Lord and march however we like.” They understood that there is no conflict between love and careful obedience. If they loved the Lord, they would be eager to do exactly what he had said. Nor is this perspective simply an Old Testament view of what God expects from his people. Jesus himself said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Obedience in the Christian life is never an option for the exceptionally spiritual: it has always been a mark of the believer’s true love for the Lord. At this initial stage of the journey, this attitude also marked out the Israelites.
A LIFE OF CONSTANT WARFARE
Second, the Israelites also understood that wilderness life is a life of constant warfare that can only be won in God’s strength. This is evident even in the ordering of the march: the Israelites were arranged by military divisions under their various tribal standards, as if marching out to war (vv. 12–28). Leading them from the front on the initial three-day leg of the journey was the ark of the covenant, which represented not only God’s throne but his chariot as well (v. 33). God was going to be their advance guard in the forthcoming conflict.
As a reminder of the true nature of their wilderness life, every time they broke camp, Moses would say, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you” (v. 35). “Arise” here isn’t just a request to God to get up and get going, as you or I might shout, “Rise and shine” to our children in the morning. The Jewish commentator Baruch Levine translates it, “Attack, O Lord!” It is a word that is sometimes used in military contexts as a summons to begin the assault (see Judges 5:12).1 Moses is thus invoking the Lord’s warrior presence with them in the conflict with their enemies.
The same theme reemerges in the words that Moses would say whenever the ark came to rest because the cloud had stopped moving: “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel” (10:36). The New Jewish Publication Society translation renders the Hebrew more literally, “Return, O Lord, you who are Israel’s myriads of thousands.” When it came to fighting, the Lord himself was the countless thousands of Israel, the decisive contributor to their victories. As long as the Lord was fighting for them, Israel’s victory was assured, no matter how heavily outnumbered the Israelites were by the opposition.
This is a truth to which many of God’s people have testified. In the nineteenth century, the pioneer missionary Mary Slessor went undaunted through the dangers of the African jungle to bring the gospel to unreached tribes in the Calabar area of Nigeria. Many of those to whom she went had had little or no contact with white people. Some were cannibals, while on other occasions she physically stood between two warring tribes to keep them apart. When asked how a single woman, once described as “wee and thin and not very strong,” could go where she went, she simply replied, “God and one are always a majority.” It doesn’t matter who is against you if God is on your side—or, more precisely, if you are on his side.
The same principle also operates in the opposite direction, however. If God is not with you, then it doesn’t matter how many people you have fighting for you, defeat is inevitable. The psalmist stated this clearly: “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
A TRUTH TO BE REPEATED
This truth is not exactly a profound and obscure Biblical insight that can only be discerned after years of intricate research in the original languages. It is a central Biblical teaching. So why did Moses feel the need to repeat the formula in the people’s hearing so often? It is certainly not because otherwise God might forget to go with them on their journey! Rather, Moses asked God to go and fight for the Israelites every time they set out as a reminder to himself and to his people. He knew that God’s people constantly need to be reminded of this reality. Is the same not true of us as well? I know that it often is for me. I constantly forget that my pilgrimage is a fight in which, unless the Lord wins the victory for me, all of my best efforts are in vain. How many things in my life would be different if I remembered that truth!
If I remembered this reality, I would pray more and be more constant in invoking God’s aid in my struggles. I would awaken every morning crying out, “Rise up, O Lord! Protect me against my enemies and against temptation. Walk with me throughout this day!” I would go to sleep at night asking the Lord to remain with me, thanking him for his sustaining presence and power throughout that day. Moment by moment, in between rising and resting, my thoughts would return repeatedly to the Lord to invoke his presence and his power with me.
If I remembered this reality, I would be less puffed up with pride when life goes well. On the Sundays when my ministry is a blessing to people, I would recall that it is the work of the Lord’s Spirit that changes hearts and lives, not my carefully crafted words. When my life is relatively free from dramatic sin, I would be aware that this faithfulness is not the product of my matchless devotion to the Lord but his gracious preservation of my wandering soul.
If I remembered this reality, I would panic less when the struggles of life become intense and I feel myself to be utterly out of my depth. The truth is that I am constantly out of my depth in life and ministry, even when it comes to the tasks that are most familiar. I can easily put together a series of words that will fill up half an hour on Sunday morning, but in my own strength I am unable to write a sermon that will break the stony hearts of unbelievers and touch afresh the lives of the saints. Only God can do that. The same is true of my parenting. I can discipline my children and assure a certain level of outward conformity to polite moral codes, but in my own strength I can never show them the depth and gravity of their sinfulness and their desperate need of Christ. Only God can do that. Whenever I feel competent to cope on my own in this life, it is a delusion. Indeed, God in his mercy often chooses to take us through those deep waters where our lack of capability becomes most evident to our naturally blind eyes, in order that we may recognize what is always true: unless the Lord goes ahead of us and fights for us, we are utterly defeated. Like the Israelites, I need to be reminded constantly that this wilderness life is a conflict that only God can win.
DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY
At the same time, this truth does not mean that we simply sit back and wait for God to do everything. Sometimes people fear that a focus on the need for God’s work in our lives will lead to passivity on our part. If we believe in the sovereignty of God in all things, won’t that lead us to neglect outreach to unbelievers and the pursuit of holiness in our own lives? Nothing could be farther from a Biblical position. There is no conflict between absolute trust in God’s work and responsible human activity on our part, a theme that finds expression in this passage in the invitation to Hobab to accompany the Israelites (vv. 29–32). Commentators are divided over this little incident. Some see it as evidence of a lack of faith on Moses’ part. Why should he invite Hobab to be the eyes of the community, finding good camping spots for them in the wilderness, if the Lord had promised to do that for them?4 Isn’t that a sign of unbelief?
The text itself, however, doesn’t seem to place a negative light on the request of Moses. Rather, I think the commentators’ problems flow from the fact that they are placing a false dichotomy between divine guidance and human responsibility. Biblically, these things belong together. Trust in the Lord as divine builder and guard does not exempt the laborer from building or the watchman from keeping his eyes open (Psalm 127:1). In the same way, the request for Hobab’s assistance is not a mark of a lack of faith in God’s guidance on the part of Moses but simply the wise use of the gifts and abilities of another in service of the Lord’s people. Moses recognized that Hobab might be the means by which God’s provision for their needs would come to expression. In this life of warfare, even though victory can only be won in the Lord’s strength, sometimes his strength is ministered to us through the very ordinary means of the people he has placed around us with exactly the combination of gifts and abilities that we need.
FINDING REST
The third truth that Israel needed to remember on their march is that even though the wilderness life is a pilgrimage and a war, the goal of the pilgrimage is neither constant traveling nor constant conflict, but rest in the land God had promised. The reason the ark went ahead of them on their travels was not simply to protect Israel from dangers and enemies but to find for them “a resting place” (v. 33). This was the goal of the whole pilgrimage, to find a place of rest in the land that God had promised to give them.
This loss of perspective is what so often discourages us in life, isn’t it? We forget that we are only camping here, only passing through on our way to eternal glory. We start to believe that this world really is all there is, and so we grumble about our accommodations and our food here. The conversation between Moses and Hobab shows us what it means to keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Moses didn’t invite Hobab to join him on a miserable trek through the apparently endless wasteland that stretched out before them. No, he invited Hobab to look beyond the wilderness and join Israel in coming to the land where the Lord had promised good things for his people. What is more, when Hobab initially declined, saying that he would rather return home to his own land and his own people, Moses continued to press him, affirming that Israel would share with him whatever good things the Lord gave them (v. 32). In effect, he invited Hobab to join the spiritual descendants of Abraham, who left his home and his people by faith, seeking a city with foundations that God had promised him.
Is that where our eyes are fixed? When someone asks us why we are followers of Jesus, what is our response? The answer is certainly not because since the time we became Christians our lives have begun to work out more successfully. I cannot say that God always gives me everything I want or think that I need, nor does he always make my life run smoothly and easily. What I can say, though, is this: God has promised me eternal life in his presence, a place where I shall stand before him forever and do what I was created to do, which is to worship him. God has promised us that in view of the glory set before us, this is the very best life we can experience in this world. Eternal life will make worthwhile whatever losses we have to suffer in the present. What is more, the Lord has promised his presence with us in the midst of all of the present difficulties of life. Eternal life in Christ has already begun, but only in part. Even for the most fortunate, rest is only partially tasted in this world: the best is always yet to come.
INVITING OTHERS TO SHARE GOD’S REST
This should not only be where our eyes are presently fixed but also where we endeavor to get others to fix their gaze. Moses really cared about what was best for Hobab, and so he boldly invited Hobab to join the covenant community on their journey. Hobab was not an Israelite. Moses could simply have said, “You go your way, and I’ll go mine,” especially when Hobab initially declined his invitation. Hobab did not respond to Moses’ words by immediately pleading for the opportunity to come along with Israel. He was certainly no Ruth, crying out, “Where you go I will go.… Your people shall be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). In fact, we never do find out for certain whether Hobab came along with the Israelites or not.6 What we do see, though, is Moses’ passionate desire that the Gentile next door should be included in the family of faith.
We need to have the same passion for our “outsider” neighbors. Moses knew that to be in the wilderness with God’s people was better than enjoying the comforts of home and family because of the rest that God had promised to his people. We should be able to say the same to our family and friends. We must have a passionate desire for them to come to know God and walk with his people, a desire that keeps on inviting them to become part of God’s people. We should long for them too to join us on our pilgrimage. If we do not, it is most likely because we have lost the conviction that God’s rest is the only true good in this world. If God’s rest is indeed the best this life has to offer, then even though it may be costly for someone to acquire it, it is worth the price. That is the point of Jesus’ parable in which he compares the kingdom of heaven to a pearl of great price. Whatever it costs, the pearl is worth the price (Matthew 13:45, 46). So too, if you and I believe passionately with all of our hearts that God is the only good in this world, and if to be in his presence for all eternity is our supreme desire, then that belief will spill out of us into all of our conversations and our relationships. Friends, neighbors, family—yes, even our in-laws—all will know what is most important to us, and by the grace of God some may be added to the pilgrim people of God.
THE TRAILBLAZER
Yet there is a problem with this picture, isn’t there? The people of Israel began well, but they couldn’t keep it up. Moses himself began well, but even he did not make it all the way to the Promised Land. So what good is holding up the ideal beginning of the Israelites and saying, “Be like this” if even they couldn’t carry it off? If they sinned and grumbled, led as they were by the ark of the covenant and the fiery cloud of God’s presence, what hope is there for us? If the lesson of this chapter is, “Be like the Israelites,” that simply leaves us depressed and condemned by our own inability to do what we ought. A perfect model is of no use to radically imperfect people like you and me.
What we need is someone to journey through the wilderness on our behalf and to be faithful throughout the journey. That, according to the book of Hebrews, is exactly what we have in Jesus. He is “the trailblazer and perfecter” of our faith (12:2). As God, we could truly say that it was Jesus who led Israel on their journey through the wilderness.8 However, it is in becoming man that Jesus has most profoundly traveled the road through the wilderness before us as the ultimate pilgrim and warrior. After his baptism, Jesus went out into the wilderness, where he bore all of Satan’s temptations in full force—a force we have never known because we always give in long before the real test comes (Matthew 4). In his humanity, Jesus faced the wilderness test and passed it by faith. He confessed his dependence upon his heavenly Father moment by moment, even though he was himself God in human flesh. He kept his eyes fixed on the rest that was set before him, the joy that would arrive through bearing the cross. Jesus sought constantly to bring others too into this rest, crying out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He has demonstrated and accomplished the life of faith in this fallen world, all the way to an obedient death on the cross. He didn’t just begin well; he ended well, seated in triumphant victory at the Father’s right hand.
The result of his obedience is that now my rest is won. He blazed the trail and lived the perfect life of faith in my place. Now when God looks at me, he sees the perfect obedience of Jesus, not my flawed efforts. If my salvation depended on my own best obedience, then I would be utterly lost. I might start well, but I would never carry it through. It wasn’t enough for God to bring Israel out of Egypt, give them his Law, point them in the right direction, and say, “Now go, capture the Promised Land.” They might begin well, but they would never carry it through. A trailblazer alone would not be enough. More still is necessary: God needed to do everything required for my salvation, and that is exactly what he has done in Jesus.
What is more, Jesus took on the wilderness “for the joy that was set before him,” the writer to the Hebrews tells us (12:2). Think about what love that demonstrates! What was “the joy that was set before him”? It was the prospect of our salvation! It was the glory that would redound to God himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—through redeeming lost humanity. God loved you enough that he sent his Son into this wilderness world, into the realm of temptation and sin, into the arena of sickness and death. That thought was what sustained Jesus through his darkest hours of suffering—the knowledge that his suffering would mean your salvation. How awesome is God’s grace!
Fixing our eyes on the rest that God has promised thus means nothing more and nothing less than fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the beginning of our faith and its end. He is the one who has accomplished our salvation and the one who now applies it to us by his Spirit. He is the one who promises to go with us on our journey and the one who has already gone ahead of us, scouting out the next steps in our lives. He is the one who fights our battles for us and assures the victory of all those who are in him. He is the one to whom we are to point our neighbors and our friends and say, “Here is rest for your soul. Come with me and meet this glorious Savior. Come and share the good things he has promised to all those who belong to him.” He himself is the joy that is set before us, the joy into which we will finally enter in fullness and completeness when our wandering days are done.
Duguid, I. M., & Hughes, R. K. (2006). Numbers: God’s presence in the wilderness (pp. 129–146). Crossway Books.
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