Tag: Fire by Night

46.k. “Wilderness” – 10.q. “According to the command of the LORD”

 

Num 9:15  On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.  And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped.

Num 9:20  Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they set out.

Num 9:22  Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out.

This cloud was appointed to be the visible sign and symbol of God’s presence with Israel. Thus we are taught to see God always near us, both night and day. As long as the cloud rested on the tabernacle, so long they continued in the same place. There is no time lost, while we are waiting God’s time. When the cloud was taken up, they removed, however comfortably they were encamped. We are kept at uncertainty concerning the time of our putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle, that we may be always ready to remove at the command of the Lord. It is very safe and pleasant going when we see God before us, and resting where he appoints us to rest. The leading of this cloud is spoken of as signifying the guidance of the blessed Spirit. We are not now to expect such tokens of the Divine presence and guidance; but the promise is sure to all God’s spiritual Israel, that he will guide them by his counsel. Ps 73:24, even unto death, Ps 48:14. All the children of God shall be led by the Spirit of God, Ro 8:14. He will direct the paths of those who in all their ways acknowledge him, Pr 3:6. At the commandment of the Lord, our hearts should always move and rest, saying, Father, thy will be done; dispose of me and mine as thou pleasest. What thou wilt, and where thou wilt; only let me be thine, and always in the way of my duty. In applying general precepts to particular circumstances, there should be good counsel and fervent prayer. When any undertaking is evidently wrong, or doubtfully right, and yet the mind leans that way, in such a case the moving of the cloud, as men sometimes miscall it, is generally no more than a temptation Satan is permitted to propose; and men fancy they are following the Lord, when they are following their own wayward inclinations. The record of his mercy will conduct us with unerring truth, through Christ, to everlasting peace. Follow the pillar of the cloud and of fire. Lay the BIBLE to heart, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (Henry)

36. Expectant Faith

Deuteronomy 1:19   “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

We can see how the Israelites did not believe God even after He had done many wonders with His mighty hand before their eyes.  I wonder if we are any different.  Do we have an everyday expectation with our faith for our lives that is fueled and sustained by His word and indwelling Holy Spirit?  Is it possible we have expectant faith when it comes to salvation and eternal life and deny the power of God’s presence to work in and through our everyday lives?  When God’s word is not daily important there is a high probability to confuse strong desire for faith.  A strong desire that is not rooted in God’s word faith turns into a desire coupled with cheerful optimism.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen.  The substance is what we continually grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding when God’s word is active and alive and desired and sought, and coveted more than the air we breathe.  We gain a vision to the unseen power, might. love, grace, mercy, strength, faithfulness, limitlessness, sovereignty, holiness and ….. of God, and where we have faith combined expectation that is founded and rooted in His word.

Tozer said this; “One characteristic that marks the average church today is the lack of anticipation.  Christians, when they meet, do not expect anything unusual to happen; consequently only the usual does and that usual is predictable as the rising and setting of the sun” – which of course is not faith.

The lack of God’s word in your life will always lead to a lack of faith and expectations in line with His word.  Faith is hard without knowledge and understanding that comes from God and through His word, coupled with an “all our heart, mind, and soul” desire/belief.  A belief that is founded apart from His word is nothing more than vain wishes – How many lives are empty, without purpose, and meaningless, because of neglect of His word and desire of serving Him over self.  Self will never satisfy the soul and will leave self with a filling of emptiness.

25. We must not put Christ to the test

Numbers 14:20   Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

Malachi 3:15    And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”

Matthew 4:7    Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

1 Corinthians 10:9     We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,

Hebrews 3:17-18    And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?  And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

Deuteronomy 1:31-35    and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’  Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God,  who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.  “And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore,  ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,

I saw a quote yesterday that said: “You may think you can live fine without Christ, but you can not afford to die without Him.”  Tozer had some thoughts on how we become what we love at the expense of following God.  “We are all becoming something.  We have moved from what we were to what we are, and are now moving to what we will be.  Our character is not solid but fluid and always moving toward what we are becoming.  The perturbing thought is not that we are becoming, but what we are becoming; not that we are moving but what we are moving toward.  We are never moving horizontal, we are either moving ascending or descending.  We are either moving toward the worse or the better.  Not only are we all in the process of becoming, but we are also becoming what we love, the sum of this love changes, molds, shapes, and transforms us. This Love is prophetic of our future.  It tells us what we shall be and predicts accurately our eternal destiny.”

God’s promises mean very little if they are not believed.  God’s word will never be active in our life if it is not loved.  God’s warnings of complacency and neglect will not lead to repentance if the heart and soul are walking in a different direction away from God and headlong into the way of the world.

Be mindful of your path and direction of your love.

Remember God

They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them

Nehemiah 9:8
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

It is good to be reminded of who God is and what He has done.  Do we believe it?  He created the heavens, earth, and everything on it.  He split the Red Sea and the people went across on dry ground. He gave mana from the sky each day.  He gave water from a rock.  He gave them good statutes and commandments.  He led them by day and night.  He made their 40 years in the desert so that that their clothes did not wear out.  These are a few of recorded acts of God that were communicated to the people in a time of confessing, worship and understanding.  It is good to be reminded of who God is and what He has done.  Over time families and then generations forget and do not remember God and drift away.  They forget who He is, what He has done, and the purpose of living for Him.  I don’t see much difference from the time of Nehemiah to now.  We don’t spend time in His word. We don’t live each day with awe and wonder of what His hands have made.  We don’t live in His power.  We worry about things rather than give them to God.  We are closer to the culture around us than to being a light for it.   God open our eyes to how far we are from living for you and guide us in a path that brings honor and glory to You.