Category Archives: Numbers

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Remind Me Again

It Helps To Keep First Things First

What do you do to remind yourself of what’s important? Those of us who are married wear a wedding band to remind us of the sacred covenant we made with our spouse before God. In my church tradition, our spiritual community receives communion once a month to remind us of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to redeem us, parents go through a child dedication ceremony as a reminder that the child in their arms is on loan from God, and converts go through the waters of baptism to remind themselves and the world that they now belong to Jesus. Reminders are a holy thing. Not that the symbol or the ceremony is in itself holy, but the act is holy in the sense that it reminds us of God’s right over all that we are and all that we possess. Keeping that perspective is arguably the most important spiritual priority that we as believers have. Reminders help us to keep the main thing the main thing, namely, that the Lord himself is our life.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 15:37-41

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!”

What do you do to remind yourself of what’s important? In the days before smartphones with pings that remind us of calendar events, some people would tie a string around their finger as a reminder of an upcoming appointment. Those of us who are married wear a wedding band to remind us of the sacred covenant we made with our spouse before God. In my church tradition, our spiritual community receives communion once a month to remind us of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to redeem us. We also take people through membership classes to remind them of their commitment to God and their part in Missio Dei of our church; parents go through a child dedication ceremony as a reminder that the child in their arms is on loan from God; converts go through the waters of baptism to remind themselves and the world that they now belong to Jesus.

Reminders are a holy thing. Not that the symbol or the ceremony is in itself holy, but the act is holy in the sense that it reminds us of God’s right over all that we are and all that we possess. Keeping that perspective is arguably the most important spiritual priority that we as believers have. Reminders help us to keep first things first, the main things the main things, namely, that the Lord himself is our life.

And reminders are not just human inventions, mnemonic devices that we, either by being legitimately creative or patently corny, conjure up to assist our faulty memory. Reminders are God invented. Throughout Scripture God called his people to set up reminders of his covenant, his provision, his intervention, his holiness and his grace-filled love: stones of remembrance, holy days and sacred feasts, sacrifices and ceremonies. In this particular story, God called his people to do something that we might consider quirky, if not silly, with their clothing: they were to attach blue tassels to the hem of their clothing.

Now in our day and age of high fashion and advanced textile processes, this doesn’t impress us. In fact, it seems rather cultish, typical of what those strange orthodox Jews do. But keep in mind the time and setting of the people of Israel. Attaching blue tassels was no simple thing. It required extra effort and skill. It also offered the one who made the garment a chance to display some fashion artistry, and the one who wore it to be a bit of a fashion plate—all in the best sense of artistry and fashion. But mainly it was a reminder of something special.

For one thing, wearing the blue tassels reminded the people that they were special. In the ancient world, clothing was essentially plain, unless you were a person of standing. It could have meant that the wearer was a priest or royalty. The tasseled clothing identified that person within their communities and to the outside world as something special. In this case, the Israelites were being distinguished by God as his very special and treasured possession.

But for another reason, the tasseled clothing reminded the wearer and the watcher that God was special. While we wearing clothing to draw attention to ourselves, in this case, God wanted them to wear clothing to draw attention to himself. Specifically, the effect that it was to produce in drawing their attention to God was that he had ownership over their lives, and as a result, deserved their complete and continual obedience and demanded from them a lifestyle of holiness. Listen to how God himself instructed them:

The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!

The point being, God still wants our obedience and our holiness. He still desires and deserves that we live in continual awareness that we are his, that we belong to him. And furthermore, times have not changed since the days of the wilderness journey in the sense that we still forget this most important truth, and therefore still need to set up regular reminders that God is special, and since he has chosen us to be his own, has called us serve his purposes on earth, and has consecrated us in holiness to be his distinct people, we are special, too.

So the question is, as much as you have good intentions not to forget this, what can you do as a regular reminder that you are God’s and God is yours? I am not suggesting blue tassels or a string around your finger or a ping on your smartphone, but it might be as simple as using your weekly worship attendance to recalibrate your thoughts toward what makes you so special.

If you don’t like my idea, and can’t come up with your own, go get some blue thread!

Going Deeper: Give some creative thought to how you can set up ongoing reminders of how special you are to God, and how special he is to you.

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If You Are A Chronic Complainer, Then Your Issue Is With God!

Trust Your God—You Give Him No Greater Gift

The underlying spirit of complaint is that we don’t trust God’s sovereign plan that has allowed us to be in the undesirable state about which we are protesting. It indicates that we don’t trust his power to see us through and accomplish his purposes by those circumstances. Even if complaining is directed at people or situations, it questions his rule over us, and it is sin. And it can spread like a wildfire in the spiritual community, leaving the ashes of doubt, distrust and irreparable damage. In every circumstance, we must reject whining for worshiping the God who does all things well. There is no greater gift that we offer him than our trust, especially when times are difficult, enemies are great, and resources are few.

The Journey// Focus: Numbers 14:1-3

Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voice rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. ‘If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!’ they complained. ‘Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle?”

As the children of Israel neared their Promised Land, their leader Moses sent out twelve spies on a reconnaissance mission. They were to probe enemy territory for weakness in order to enable the Israelites army the best place to invade the land and the best strategy to conquer the inhabitants that held “their” land. Of course, it was expected that these twelve spies, having seen the mighty hand of God time and again extended on their behalf, would come back full of faith for the challenge ahead.

But when the twelve spies returned from their mission with a first hand report of the land, ten of them were of a pessimistic perspective, and they turned the whole community into complainers. Their field reports start off well—it was indeed an incredible land their God was giving them—but it quickly turned from the promise of fruit to the problems they would face, namely giants and warriors. And it quickly threw cold water on the faith of the Israelite community.

That is so true of negativity—it can spread with the ferocity of a wildfire.

In spite of all that God had miraculously done up to this point, the people focused on how difficult things were in front of them rather than on how awesome the Power was behind them. The people got down, then they got mad, then they complained about their leader. Then, unbelievably, they complained about God. Then, incredibly, they whined about going back to a life of slavery in Egypt.

In essence, they were saying, “God, we don’t trust your sovereign plan, nor in your power to pull it off. We don’t think you know what you’re doing and we don’t like one bit this mess you’ve gotten us into.” Though they didn’t say it quite that directly, that was the underlying spirit of their complaint.

The underlying spirit in all complaint is that we don’t trust God’s sovereign plan that has allowed us to be in the undesirable state about which we are complaining. Likewise, our complaining indicates that we don’t trust his power to see us through it and accomplish his purposes by it. That is why complaint, even if it is directed at another person or a situation, is really a complaint against the Sovereign Lord; it is a sin. Worse yet, complaining spreads like a wildfire, leaving the ashes of doubt and distrust throughout our the spiritual community. At all times and in every circumstance, we must reject spiritual temper-tantrums for tempered trust in the One who does all things well.

There is no greater gift that we offer to God than our trust—even when, or more accurately, especially when circumstances are difficult, enemies are great, and resources are few. In contrast, nothing disappoints God more than when his children complain, since it is in essence the worst form of distrust in the Lord’s goodness, wisdom, power and love. And this is precisely why God judges so harshly the deep and persistent complaints of the ones who should deeply and persistently lean into him.

As a friend of mine says, you are either a lean in-er or a lean out-er. I hope you are the former!

Going Deeper: Are you a lean-inner or a lean-outer? Do you trust or do you complain? Do you worship or do you whine? Re-read Numbers 13 and 14, then determine to offer yourself to God in complete, unshakeable trust.

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Giants

Giant: Whatever Stands Between Your Obedience and God's Promise

Are you facing a giant in your life? A giant is anything or anyone that stands between your obedience to God and his promise to you. If you are, you will face the same two choices the Israelites spies faced as they scoped out the Promise Land: fear or faith. You can either be consumed by fear and retreat (and wander in mediocrity, missing out on what God has in store for you), or you can step forward in faith and give God a chance. If you will choose the courageous faith that it takes to face your giant, God will show up — and a testimony will be born!

The Journey// Focus: Numbers 13:33

There we saw giants.

Giants—they are a common experience for each of us in life. Like the little boy in the movie The Sixth Sense says to the psychologist, “I see dead people,” we open our eyes and there we see them—BHAG’s: big hairy, audacious giants.

I remember the first time I saw a giant—a literal one. I was in seventh grade, playing a football game against Fleming Jr. High in Grants Pass, Oregon. I was all of about five feet two inches tall, 120 pounds and they had a guy on their team who was a walking pituitary gland. He stood six feet, four inches tall and weighed in at a whopping 230 pounds—in the seventh grade for crying out loud.

Furthermore, he was their running back! This guy was a freak; he was huge—a man among boys, a giant among grasshoppers. And we were going to have to tackle this behemoth.

We looked over at him during pre-game warm ups and lost the game right there! We were intimidated. All except for one guy: the smallest guy on our team, a boy by the name of Lee. He was fired up and ready to go after this big lug. Lee figured that even though he was big, he’d be slow and easy to tackle if you hit him low. Sure enough, during the game, Lee was all over this guy, and he gained a testimony that day. He “made his bones” as a hard-hitting tackler and fierce competitor.

Lee went on to be a state champion wrestler, though he never weighed more than 120 pound all throughout high school. I always wanted Lee around in a tight squeeze because he refused to be intimidated by anything!

Well, sure enough, during that game, the giant came running to my side of the field. I was a defensive end, and here came Goliath lumbering my way on an end sweep. I took Lee’s advice and hit him low. The guy didn’t have a chance. The bigger they are…

That was my first giant, but certainly not my last. Throughout my ministry I’ve seen them take the form of a medical diagnosis that sucks the wind out of you, as turmoil that threatens to destroy a marriage, as a family crisis, as an overwhelming financial challenge and as open hostility to ministry. Everywhere there are giants!

What I’ve learned is that giants never get any smaller, nicer or less intimidating. Everywhere you look, there are giants. But that is not what is important. The important thing is what you are going to do about them.

The context for this verse comes from the story of the twelve Israelites that Moses sent in to spy out the Promised Land. The writer points out that ten of the twelve were afraid when they saw these giants and retreated from possessing the land. They lost the game before it even began. They never gave God a chance! And they wandered in mediocrity for 40 years because they gave into intimidation and fear.

But the other two, Joshua and Caleb, had a different spirit. They were like my friend Lee. They saw the same giants, but their response was, “Let’s go take the land.” They made their testimony that day and they got to go into the Promised Land while the others wandered in mediocrity.

They gave God a chance—and the rest is history!

I think this story is really interesting not just because it explains the Israelites forty years’ of wilderness wandering, but because giants are just as real today for you and me as they were back then. Giants still stand between you and God’s promises for your life. You and I face giants every day in our family, relationships, job, church, physical bodies, emotions and even in our own hearts.

And we face the same two choices that these twelve men faced: Fear or faith

We can either be consumed by fear and retreat—and wander in mediocrity, missing out on what God has for us. Or step forward in faith and give God a chance. We can trust God for great things, experience the mighty hand of God that brings victory in our lives and get a testimony to boot!

Here’s something interesting: When Israel moved forward, they faced giants. When they retreated, they faced no giants. The fact is, the life of faith means facing giants, but that’s okay, because it means you are just one giant away from a spectacular testimony of faith. David would have no testimony without Goliath! Joshua and Caleb would have no testimony without their giants! And you will have no testimony without your giant.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.” Take heart in that because it is likely you are facing a giant today as a challenge at work or a difficulty in your marriage or a crisis in your family or as a war with fear, doubt or perhaps sin in your personal life.

Just remember, God always goes before the one who steps forward in faith to face their giant—and a testimony gets born!

Going Deeper: you If you are facing a giant, offer this prayer: “God, there are giants along the journey of faith I’ve been called to walk. But I choose not to see giants. Instead, I look to the God who goes before me, the One who gives strength to the weak and turns them into giant-slayers. So as I face my giants, I will do so with courage. And I pray that the result will bring great glory to you and a testimony of faith from my life.”

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Can God Trust Me?

Nothing Matters More

The most important benchmark for spiritual leaders is that they have gained God’s trust. If you aspire to influence with God, and by that, influence with people, then you must make it your prayer that God will find you trustworthy. And not only in your praying, but you must give conscious and continual effort to be a man or woman of unquestionable dependability, wisdom and integrity with the things God has entrusted to you. Nothing matters more.

The Journey// Focus: Numbers 12:7-8

Of all my house, my servant Moses is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?

Time and again, Moses, hands down the greatest leader the world has ever known, faced challenges to his leadership. Even from within his inner circle there were people, who for a variety of reasons—all of them wrong—tried to take him down. Particularly disappointing was the uprising of his own brothers and sister against his God-given authority.

Miriam, with her brother Aaron’s support, became jealous of Moses and criticized him. God had been doing marvelous things among the Israelites, revealing his presence in ways not seen nor heard before. Most satisfying to the nation of Israel was that God was revealing himself to them as a very personal and powerful Deity. Of course, up to this point, Moses had been God’s point man. God spoke through him to the people in unheard of ways. But Moses was just one man, and the nation was exceedingly large, so God instructed Moses to expand the base of spokesmen so the word of the Lord could be spread more effectively among the two million Israelites. In Numbers 11, seventy elders of Israel were selected for that role. And even these men had gotten into the act and were prophesying as the Spirit of God came upon them. God was showing up, revealing his presence, revealing his word, revealing his power and revealing his provision.

Something else was showing us, too. Pride! Miriam and Aaron, too, had tremendous encounters with the Lord, and had been used in outstanding ways, but they wanted more. But when they saw Moses getting so much recognition from God and from the people, they were critical because, as his sister and brother, they knew he was flawed. And the perfect opportunity to bring him down a notch or two came in the form of his wife. They focused their criticism on the fact that he had married a non-Israelite woman, and used that as their justification to diminish him while seizing more recognition for themselves.

Amazingly, God stepped in to defend Moses: “Listen carefully to what I’m telling you. If there is a prophet of God among you, I make myself known to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But I don’t do it that way with my servant Moses; he has the run of my entire house; I speak to him intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles: He ponders the very form of God. So why did you show no reverence or respect in speaking against my servant, against Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8, MSG)

If you are a spiritual leader, how awesome would it be that God would literally come to your defense? Would to God that he would do that today when his human leaders are under unfair criticism and flesh-inspired attack!

But what is even more powerful is God’s evaluation of Moses as he sets Miriam and Aaron straight. God acknowledges that he speaks through others prophetically, but Moses is on an altogether higher plain—God trusts him, so he speaks to him face to face; Moses received the Lord’s direct communication; Moses sees the Lord as he is.

What a testimony! And as a spiritual leader, that should be the benchmark I set for both my life and ministry—that God trusts me.

That is my prayer, that God will find me trustworthy! How about you? In whatever role of influence God has given you, whether great or small, whether others respect your leadership or you are facing challenges, make it your aim to humbly, submissively offer yourself to the One you represent, and allow him to put his divine affirmation upon your leadership.

Going Deeper: Do you desire to be like Moses? Try offering this prayer: “Father god, make me Moses-like in my attitude, in my service to you, and in my influence with people. Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering me when I call out to you. What a gracious, merciful and loving Father you are.”

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Romanticizing The Past

The Good Old Days Weren't Always So Good

In a very real sense, sin is an attempt to fill the emptiness in our lives with the things that God will ultimately provide, but doing so apart from waiting and trusting through faith for him to give them in his way and in his time. The scary thing is, when we stubbornly persist in our fleshly attempts to satisfy the empty part of our soul, God may actually give us what we crave—but allow an even deeper emptiness within. We must be careful what we ask for, and rather learn to seek only what he desires to give.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 11:4-6

The foreign rabble within the Israelite community began to crave other food, and again the children of Israel started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

The children of Israel were a couple of years into their wilderness experience, and God was developing their faith by testing their trust. And on several occasions, the people failed the test. This was just such an occasion. The “rabble” among them—likely a non-Israelite group that followed them out of Egypt, for whatever reason—were a constant source of trouble. In this case, they influenced God’s people to complain about his provision by romanticizing “all the wonderful provisions” they so enjoyed back in Egypt. Of course, they wouldn’t have left Egypt if those were truly the good old days. But undisciplined desires began to taint their memories, and they started longing for a return to the “pleasures” of Egypt, which of course, were sinful pleasures.

Is sin pleasurable? You bet it is—that’s why it works so well. Hebrews 11 refers to this very thing: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (Hebrews 11:24-26)

To be sure, sin is attractive. There is a certain “value in its treasures”, as we see in the case of Moses’ rejection of sin’s seasonal satisfaction. There is an enjoyment of the “pleasures of sin for a season”: the buzz from that alcoholic drink, the high from that illicit drug, the thrill of crossing that sexual boundary, the emotional release of that angry, hurtful tirade, the general freedom of that life controlled by sinful desires rather than by the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is pleasure in sin—for a season.

But seasons end and sinful pleasures are fleeting: they are short-lived, and they are progressively destructive to everything that God intends for us: a healthy body, harmonious relationships, and a holy life. And sinful pleasures dull our sense of reality—we begin to romanticize what we once had. In that sense, when we long for the good old days where sin reigned in our lives, we need to snap ourselves back into reality and admit that the good old days weren’t actually that good; in truth, they were the bad old days. Listen to how author Larry Osborn talks about this very thing:

Almost every generation looks back and wonders what happened to the “good old days.” It’s human nature. The evils of the past tend to fade from memory, while the injustices and evils of the present stand out in bold relief. Perhaps that is why Solomon wrote, “Do not say ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)

Whenever we are tempted to ask, “why were the old days better than these?”, that should be a red alert that we need to do as Moses did and compare the short-lived benefits of sin with the long-term reward of trusting God. When we fail to trust in God’s promise to fully meet our needs and satisfy our desires, we will end up romanticizing the past’s sketchy track record of fully pleasuring our heart’s desire. The things we once depended on for satisfaction and security, the pleasurable sensations that money or power or attention or relationships or possessions or food or sex produces, apart from God, are what C.S. Lewis referred to as the “sweet poison of the false infinite.” These are what we might call substitute sacreds—the surrogates we desperately use to fill the emptiness of our dissatisfied lives.

In reality, however, no substitute sacred ever fulfills what it so brazenly promises. Only the one true Sacred can do that! St. Augustine said, “Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God…All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.” God longs for us to come trustingly to him with our needy souls so he can graciously and abundantly and unendingly satisfy our deepest longings and most powerful passions—in his way and in his time. As Augustine said, God has created us for himself, and we will only find satisfaction when we find our satisfaction in him.

In a very real sense, sin is an attempt to fill the emptiness in our lives with the things that God will ultimately provide, but doing so apart from waiting and trusting through faith for him to give them in his way and in his time. The scary thing is, when we stubbornly persist in our self-centered attempts to satisfy the empty part of our soul, God may actually give us what we crave—but allow an even deeper emptiness within. Psalm 106:13-15 offers this sad and sobering commentary on our undisciplined desires:

The children of Israel soon forgot God’s works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
And tested God in the desert.
So He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their soul.

To get what we want, yet end up with leanness in our souls—what a sad possibility. Let the Israelites in Numbers 11 be a continual cautionary tale that we must be careful what we ask for. Rather, we must learn to seek only what God desires to give and be grateful for what he has already graciously provided.

Going Deeper: Read and reflect on Psalm 106, then do two things: First repent of your fleshly desires and cry out to God to lead you not into temptation. Second, practice gratitude for what you’ve got. Doing that will cause you to focus on the rewards of following God and reject the false infinites of what you left behind in your life of sin.

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Pray Bigly!

It Never Hurts To Ask

We should pray about every issue in our lives — big, small, medium. We should boldly take them to God. It both honors him and pleases his heart because it reveals our trust in his goodness and generosity. Mark Batterson rightly notes, “Why do we mistakenly think that God is offended by our prayers for the impossible? The truth is that God is offended by anything less!” So why not pray audacious prayers for victory! Why not shout — yes shout, that’s what Moses did — shout out your prayer when you open the front door as you leave for work in the morning: “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered! Let them flee before you!” It might freak your neighbors out a bit, but if it came down to it, I would rather have God’s favor going ahead of me into my day than my neighbors’ approval.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 10:33-36

The Israelites marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the Lord, with the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest. As they moved on each day, the cloud of the Lord hovered over them. And whenever the Ark set out, Moses would shout, “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered! Let them flee before you!” And when the Ark was set down, he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the countless thousands of Israel!”

Should we pray each day for protection and victory? Do we need to daily ask God to watch over our children, our work, our homes? Should we be bothering him to give us success in what is out in front of us as we leave the house? Doesn’t God already know what we need; doesn’t he already have us covered?

My response to that is, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Besides, Jesus taught us to pray, “keep us from the evil one.” It seems that the Lord’s Prayer Jesus urged us to pray had a sense of dailiness to it: “Give us today our daily bread.”

These kinds of prayers for protection and victory aren’t so much to remind a God who may have forgotten about us. He never forgets. How could he? We are his own special people. Isaiah captured the Lord’s tender watchfulness over our lives when he said, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne. Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.” (Isaiah 49:15) No, these kinds of prayer are not to shake God out of his lapse of memory, it is to remind us that he has us continually covered. They are to bring us back to a daily acknowledgment of our utter but joyful dependence on him for provision, protection, and victory.

So I say why not pray these audacious prayers for victory! Why not shout—yes shout, that’s what Moses did—shout out your prayer as you open the front door: “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered! Let them flee before you!” It might freak your neighbors out a bit, but if it came down to it, I would rather have God’s favor going ahead of me into my day than my neighbors’ approval. And at day’s end, why not offer a prayer before your family wraps up and heads to sleep, “Return, O Lord, to the people in this house!”

Some think these kinds of prayers are pointless, even showing a lack of trust in a God who already knows. Others say when we pray prayers like this, we are using prayer like a magic charm to gain the favor of the gods. I disagree. Scripture would lean less toward those opinions than the one expressed by author and pastor Mark Batterson. Let me offer some insights from his book, The Circle Maker,

Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations. In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever.

God won’t answer 100 percent of the prayers we don’t pray.

Why do we mistakenly think that God is offended by our prayers for the impossible? The truth is that God is offended by anything less! God is offended when we ask Him to do things we can do ourselves. It’s the impossible prayers that honor God because they reveal our faith and allow God to reveal His glory.

God won’t answer 100 percent of the prayers you don’t pray. If that is true, I say why not ask, and ask bigly! Ask him daily, and nightly, for protection and victory and anything else you have in mind. God can handle even the prayers that are kind of ridiculous. He doesn’t get offended by your praying. In fact, my guess is, since he is your Father, that he likes it when you as his child believe enough in his generosity that you are willing to ask early and often for anything that is on your heart.

Going Deeper: Pray about everything—big, small, medium. Take it to God. Be audacious in praying. It both honors God and pleases his heart because it reveals your trust in his goodness and generosity.

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The Wonderful Unpredictability of the Great Predictable!

He Can Be Trusted

We do not have utter prophetic clarity as to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but we can still be certain that in his wonderful unpredictability, he is still—and always will be —the Great Predictable. He can be trusted. That was true for the Israelites in the wilderness, and that is true for you. When you follow the Cloud, at the end of the day, your testimony will be that God has led you all along the way.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 9:15,17-10

On the day the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the Tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire. …Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp. In this way, they traveled and camped at the Lord’s command wherever he told them to go. Then they remained in their camp as long as the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle. If the cloud remained over the Tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites stayed and performed their duty to the Lord. Sometimes the cloud would stay over the Tabernacle for only a few days, so the people would stay for only a few days, as the Lord commanded. Then at the Lord’s command they would break camp and move on.

I cannot predict the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life, but I know with certainty that where he leads, there I will find God’s purpose is fulfilled, God’s provision is revealed, and my heart is filled with God’s peace. Of course, I would love to know exactly what the Spirit of God is up to at all times—I’m a bit of a control freak in that regard. I bet you are, too! But we are not the Holy Spirit, and that is a very good thing.

Many Biblical writers spoke of the wonderful unpredictability of the Great Predictable. The Great Predictable; by that I am referring to a God who is always good, loving, wise and kind, but whose ways are inscrutable.

Isaiah said, “Who has known the mind of the LORD, and who has instructed him as his counselor?” (Isaiah 40:13) Paul wrote in Romans 11:34, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” Again in 1 Corinthians 2:16, Paul says, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The wonderful unpredictability of the Great Predictable!

We don’t fully understand the movement of the Holy Spirit, but we can fully trust that his movements are perfect. He never makes a mistake, never leads us into a box canyon with no exit, never takes us along a path that will destroy God’s work in our lives. We may not understand his ways, but we know that “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36) We can have complete confidence that he “works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). And we can unequivocally trust that where he does lead us the journey will be to produce the character of Christ within us. (Romans 8:29) We can rest in the care of the unpredictable Predictable.

Perhaps that is the greatest application for our lives today as we consider the story of the Israelites inexact but inexorable journey to the land that God promised them. What an amazing grace God provided for their journey: The Cloud of Glory. By day, the Cloud rested over the Tabernacle. By night, the Cloud lit up the sky above it as a pillar of fire. Could it be, in the practical terms, that the Cloud provided much needed shade in the hot desert sun and a night light in the deep darkness of the wilderness night for the people of God? But mostly, the children of Israel were led along the way for forty years in the wilderness as the Cloud lifted and journeyed on. As it did, they broke camp and followed. When the Cloud stopped, they set up camp. Sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for several months.

But one pattern was discernible in the movement of the Cloud: There was no discernable pattern. Why? Precisely because God wanted to remind the Israelites—and by extension, you and me—that God is God and we are not. His ways are inscrutable. And perhaps this was God’s exact plan; he was intentionally demonstrating for them that that it was God himself who was leading them, and that he who had led them faithfully to this point could be trusted to lead them faithfully to the next.

Again, because we do not have utter prophetic clarity as to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can still be certain that in his wonderful unpredictability, he is still—and always—the Great Predictable. He can be trusted. That was true for the Israelites, and that is true for you. At the end of the day, your testimony will be that God has led you all along the way.

One more insight from this passage: When the Cloud is not leading you in any discernable way, stay put and be obedient to the last thing God showed you. Our text says, “If the cloud remained over the Tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites stayed and performed their duty to the Lord.” Too many Christians get restless as they wait for a “word from the Lord” as to what they are to do next. Until you get a clear sense that the Cloud is leading you, stay put and perform your duty to the Lord. What is your duty? The last thing God gave you to do.

God can be trusted—whether leading you to stay put or to move on. After all, he is the wonderful unpredictable Great Predictable!

Going Deeper: Are you wrestling with uncertainty about your future? Wrestling where God is going to guide you? Quit wrestling and begin resting. God will lead you clearly where you need to go. And if he doesn’t, stay put and perform your duty to the Lord—the last thing God gave you to do.