Keeping it fresh
This week is on Numbers 9:17-23:
The Israelites didn't start their relationship with God in a stone church. They were without a home, traveling across the wilderness between Egypt and Israel. They met with God in a portable structure: a giant meeting tent, called a tabernacle. We often picture them as being in constant motion, picking up every morning, moving a few miles, and then setting up camp again. According to these verses, though, they sometimes set up camp for as long as a year at a time. It was pretty random, by our standards.
The interesting thing to me is that they based their decision of whether to stay put or head out on whether God's presence was over the tent. It was simple. It wasn't like they didn't have a long term plan. They were on their way to the promised land. It's important to make that clear. This isn't a bunch of hippies sitting around on a couch with a guitar, never existing outside of the moment. They had goals, direction, plans, and momentum. They were just willing to remain when God wanted them to remain, and to move on when God wanted them to move on.
I think our modern civilization has sort of dulled our sense of this when it comes to following God. Some of us seem to be of a mindset that if we just throw enough granite into our endeavors that God will be trapped in them like a prison, and we can remain right as we are, where we are, forever. We buy the house, sign up for car payments, school loans, and so on, and retire the decision to move. Often that's the right decision, but not always. It gives us stability and allows us to focus on investing time and money in others, but it can also lead to stagnation.
What if the Israelites had decided to build the temple right at the site of their first campsite? Or maybe at the rock that gushed water? God obviously was there, and moved powerfully on that spot, right? God moves, though, and is alive. If they'd decided to hoist big blocks of granite and put their anchors down on one of those spots, they'd never have reached the promised land. And that was the purpose of them being in the wilderness in the first place! They would have just grown old going through the motions, following the order of worship on worship day, taking care of themselves the other days, and never finding God again, because he'd moved on.
In our relationship with God, we need to be willing not only to stay but to move. Maybe God wants you to pick up a new routine today. Maybe he wants you to continue in what you've been doing for some more months. Maybe he wants you to stop doing something which had produced fruit for years. There's always that dynamic aspect to our relationship with him. We can't just arrive, put our bags down, and fall asleep forever. We're alive, and being alive means moving and occasionally being conscious.
If you feel God is calling you to change, and what you're changing seems good enough as it is, don't be afraid. He's done that before. Abram had to leave the land of his ancestry to do what God wanted. Moses and the Israelites left a land where they had steady jobs, food on the table, and a roof over their heads. And in these verses, once section of the wilderness was probably as good as another. Why get up and move? Why stay for weeks or years? Sometimes you need God to make that distinction for you. If you start with where he is, you'll always be in the right place.
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 till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. 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.
The Israelites didn't start their relationship with God in a stone church. They were without a home, traveling across the wilderness between Egypt and Israel. They met with God in a portable structure: a giant meeting tent, called a tabernacle. We often picture them as being in constant motion, picking up every morning, moving a few miles, and then setting up camp again. According to these verses, though, they sometimes set up camp for as long as a year at a time. It was pretty random, by our standards.
The interesting thing to me is that they based their decision of whether to stay put or head out on whether God's presence was over the tent. It was simple. It wasn't like they didn't have a long term plan. They were on their way to the promised land. It's important to make that clear. This isn't a bunch of hippies sitting around on a couch with a guitar, never existing outside of the moment. They had goals, direction, plans, and momentum. They were just willing to remain when God wanted them to remain, and to move on when God wanted them to move on.
I think our modern civilization has sort of dulled our sense of this when it comes to following God. Some of us seem to be of a mindset that if we just throw enough granite into our endeavors that God will be trapped in them like a prison, and we can remain right as we are, where we are, forever. We buy the house, sign up for car payments, school loans, and so on, and retire the decision to move. Often that's the right decision, but not always. It gives us stability and allows us to focus on investing time and money in others, but it can also lead to stagnation.
What if the Israelites had decided to build the temple right at the site of their first campsite? Or maybe at the rock that gushed water? God obviously was there, and moved powerfully on that spot, right? God moves, though, and is alive. If they'd decided to hoist big blocks of granite and put their anchors down on one of those spots, they'd never have reached the promised land. And that was the purpose of them being in the wilderness in the first place! They would have just grown old going through the motions, following the order of worship on worship day, taking care of themselves the other days, and never finding God again, because he'd moved on.
In our relationship with God, we need to be willing not only to stay but to move. Maybe God wants you to pick up a new routine today. Maybe he wants you to continue in what you've been doing for some more months. Maybe he wants you to stop doing something which had produced fruit for years. There's always that dynamic aspect to our relationship with him. We can't just arrive, put our bags down, and fall asleep forever. We're alive, and being alive means moving and occasionally being conscious.
If you feel God is calling you to change, and what you're changing seems good enough as it is, don't be afraid. He's done that before. Abram had to leave the land of his ancestry to do what God wanted. Moses and the Israelites left a land where they had steady jobs, food on the table, and a roof over their heads. And in these verses, once section of the wilderness was probably as good as another. Why get up and move? Why stay for weeks or years? Sometimes you need God to make that distinction for you. If you start with where he is, you'll always be in the right place.
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