Just the other day I was reading in the Old Testament and was blown away by a passage in Numbers. Strange place for an epiphany, I know, as it has a reputation as one of the more boring books in the Bible. But there it was. The passage describes how, once the Tent of the Testimony was constructed, God covered it with his cloud, and the Israelites knew when and where to go and where to stop because the cloud would show them:
On the day the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the LORD's command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD's order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD's command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening to evening, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the LORD's command they encamped, and at the LORD's command they set out. They obeyed the LORD's order, in accordance with his command through Moses.
- Numbers 9:13-23
On the face of things, it might seem like a fairly simple description of how the Israelites traveled through the desert, but it's more than that. Several times throughout the passage it states "At the LORD's command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped" "at the LORD's command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out" "At the LORD's command they encamped, and at the LORD's command they set out."
Now, I may only have been a theology minor in undergrad, but I think it’s pretty clear that when something is repeated over and over again within such a short span of verses, it’s bound to be pretty important. What’s so important here is that it was “at the LORD’s command” that the Israelites broke camp and moved on. They didn't travel the way they wanted to, the way they saw fit, but they waited for God's leading instead.
Even more astounding is their readiness and their patience. "Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out." That's the part that blows me away. Even the Israelites, who had God and his guidance in their lives in a physical, immediate way, even they didn't know when he would call them to move—they just knew they had to be ready.
And they were in the desert. I've got to imagine that they were pretty eager to move on and get through the desert to the Promised Land, but still they waited and encamped in whatever spot in the desert God led them to, even for a year, as long as the cloud stayed. I wonder if they ever spent just one night at a verdant oasis and then had to move on, only to spend two months on a dusty patch of rock with barely enough water to live on. It’s like that old sci-fi show Sliders, on which the main characters had gotten lost in alternate dimensions and had to jump from one to the next at seemingly random time intervals determined by the technology that allowed them to travel between dimensions until they finally found their own reality again. I remember one particular episode in which they spent the opening scene in a world where money grew on trees and everyone was happy, then had to jump to a world full of drugs and suffering before the opening credits and try to survive there for the rest of the episode.
Not that God’s plan was for the Israelites to suffer—he was looking out for their best interests the whole time he led them through the desert (for some awesome thoughts on this concept, check out Jon Acuff’s post Refusing the Gift of the Desert Road on his blog Stuff Christians Like). But we can’t always see how God is providing, and as flawed humans, it’s easy for us to feel resentment if God calls us away from our oasis before we’re ready to leave it or if he calls us to stay in a hard situation longer than we want to.
I'm not always good at this whole patience and readiness at the same time idea. I want to know the plan now, and I want God to lead me down the path that I have chosen, because it looks easier from here. I want to stay where I am when it’s nice or run away when it’s not without waiting for his timing. But that’s not how it works.
I know so many people right now who are in the desert, waiting for the cloud to lift and lead them on: recent graduates searching for jobs, having left the academic oasis, still waiting for a clear direction to travel; professionals with their jobs at risk in our current economic trouble, asking the age-old question “should I stay or should I go now?” The only thing I know for certain is that none of us are in the desert alone. God is with us, and if we are patient and ready to move, he will lead us on to what he has prepared for us. I wish I could offer some advice on how to be that patient—I’m not good at it myself. But we can take comfort and strength from the example of the Israelites in the desert. God was faithful to lead them on, and he is just as faithful to us.
God's guiding hand in my life may not be a cloud, but so far I've been able to discern it well enough to get this far. So here I have encamped—in Boston, continuing in academia—but I don't know when the cloud will lift, when God will lead me on again. So all I can do is be patient and be ready. It's all any of us can do.
I pray that God's leading in your life will be as clear as a fiery cloud, and that you'll be prepared to follow, no matter the direction.
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