Another Psalmist,
Asaph, describing God's very character, assures us of that fact
too! "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that LEADEST Joseph
like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine
forth." Psalm 80:1
And historically
the whole Old Testament gives illustration after illustration of
God's leadership and care of Israel, His people.
For example, when Moses and the
Jewish nation were leaving Sinai and heading for the Promised
Land Scripture records: "And they
departed from the mount of the LORD three days' journey: and the
ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three
days' journey, to search out a resting place for them."
Numbers 10:33
The verb "departed" ("nasa") means
to "pull up," especially tent pegs it seems! It is a word
picture for starting a journey.
The "mount of the Lord" is Sinai,
the place God gave the Law to Israel.
But notice What is leading them!
The "Ark of the Covenant."
Now, as you all know, that little
piece of precious furniture was a Type of the Lord Jesus Christ!
It, being made of acacia wood,
typifies Jesus' perfect humanity. This is a wood that grew in
the desert. Jesus sprang as "a root out of dry ground"
according to Isaiah 53:2. This is wood that would not rot! It
was durable! And Jesus is "the same yesterday, and to day, and
for ever" according to Hebrews 13:8. This is fragrant word and
Jesus smells heavenly! He is a "sweet savour" to His Father!
And this is wood that grew thorns too! So did Jesus wear thorns
on Calvary, bearing our curse!
The wood of the Ark was overlaid
with gold as well! Gold, a picture of Deity, symbolizes Jesus
... God the Son ... Who came to earth as a Man ... to die for
sinners! Wood = humanity yet gold = Deity!
Inside that Ark were three things!
A pot of manna, an emblem of Jesus as The Bread of Life! (John
6:35) Aaron's dead almond limb that budded, a clear picture of
our Lord's Resurrection! Plus it contained the Law of God, the
very tables of stone! In the "heart" of the Ark was the Word of
God! Need I say any more? Jesus internalized the Word of God!
In fact, He IS the living Word of God!
On top of that Ark was a Mercy Seat,
made of pure beaten gold! This is the Place the blood of
atonement was sprinkled year after year, covering the sins of
Israel! Jesus, God in flesh, was beaten on Calvary! He too was
Blood spattered and stained, dying for you and me!
And attached to the Mercy Seat were
two golden angels, cherubim! They are looking at the Mercy
Seat! And, yes, for all eternity the angels of God will be
gathered around Jesus ... worshipping and adoring Him Who
redeemed His people!
By the way, the very size of the Ark
is amazing! It was to be 2 1/2 cubits long and 1 1/2 cubit
wide! Also the height was 1 1/2 cubit! Why this unusual size?
Most everything else in the Tabernacle was an even number of
cubits in dimension! I'll tell you one reason. Jesus, of Whom
this Ark speaks, cannot be described by one, although lovely,
piece of furniture! It can only inform us of maybe half
His Glory! The "half has never been told," folks! It's like
the Queen of Sheba told Solomon: "Howbeit I believed not the
words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and,
behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity
exceedeth the fame which I heard." 1st Kings 10:7
All I am saying is that, when Israel
set forth on their journey to Canaan, the ARK led the way!
Again, "And they departed from the mount
of the LORD three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of
the LORD went before them in the three days' journey, to search
out a resting place for them." Numbers 10:33
Don't you also see the "three days'
journey" phrase too? It "sounds" like Resurrection ground to
me! Jesus promised, then performed this miracle: "The Son of
man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be
crucified, and the third
day rise again." Luke 24:7
I am glad to announce today that the
One Who leads us is a Living Saviour! Alive forevermore!
And what is that Ark doing? Why is
It leading? For what is It searching? "A
resting place!"
To "search" (in Hebrew = "tur")
means "to spy," or to find that which is hard to locate! Jesus
can find "rest" in hard situations! Remember Matthew 11:28,
where our Lord said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." One Hebrew Lexicon
suggests that "tur" means "to meander" along the path, looking
for something! I am again thinking of Psalm 23!
And the "time" sense of "tur" is
that of constant action! Jesus is always providing His Own with
Rest! He is the good Shephered!
Lastly today, "resting place"
translates "manuchah" which means a quiet settled location!
Genesis 49:15, the first time our word here is used in
Scripture, says "rest is good!" Once in the King James Version
of Scripture "manuchah" is rendered "ease!" Once again it is
"comfortable!" Solomon, in 1st Chronicles 22:9, is called "a
man of REST!"
By the way, our Lord today is
resting at the right Hand of God! Even the Tabernacle was
called that! "Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and
said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I
had in mine heart to build
an house of rest
for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool
of our God, and had made ready for the building." 1st
Chronicles 28:2
And in Psalm 23:2 ..."manuchah" is
worded this way: "still" as in still waters! "He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still
waters."
What a journey Moses and the
Israelites began in Numbers 10:33. "And
they departed from the mount of the LORD three days' journey:
and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the
three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them."
And even more so ... what a journey
we New Testament Believers walk day by day! With Jesus as our
Saviour and the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and the Bible as
our Textbook and God the Father as our Provider and Protector
... how blessed we are!
Praise His Name!
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
walk with Him today!
Galatians 5:16 clearly promises: "Walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 2:
It was called
"the cloud of the Lord." It was often a pillar shaped
cloud and at night it glowed with fire!
The Cloud virtually led Israel from
the Red Sea to the land of Canaan!
Numbers 10:34 tells us:
"And the cloud of the LORD was
upon them by day, when they went out of the camp."
This miraculous Cloud was an emblem
of the Presence of the Holy Spirit of God. It also was a
visible manifestation of the "shekinah" Glory of God! The noun
for "cloud" is "anan" and of its 87 appearances in the Bible it
always is translated as "cloud" (81 times) or "cloudy" (6
times). It seems to have no secondary meaning.
The little preposition "upon" (in
Hebrew = "al") means above or beside or towards as well as
upon. The Presence of the Lord was all around them!
Even when Israel traveled, the Cloud
accompanied them. No, I worded that wrongly. The Cloud LED
them! They did NOT travel without It moving first! The verb
"went out" is "nasa" in Hebrew and means "to depart or to
journey or to set forth."
The noun for "camp" ("machaneh")
actually means an army settlement! We are talking in
battlefield terms! "Onward Christian soldiers!"
From the paragraph which comprises
the context for Numbers 10:34, it is apparent that the Cloud
moved first, the Ark followed, then the whole host of Israel
fell into place and the journey began! They followed until the
Cloud stopped and the Ark rested! Now that's letting the Lord
direct your steps! "The steps of a good man are ordered by the
LORD: and he delighteth in his way." Psalm 37:23
Let me mention a few things about
that Cloud.
1. The Cloud was not given to the
people of God until they had shed the Blood of the lamb and
eaten the Passover Meal in Egypt! The applied Blood is a
picture of salvation! Until one is saved by the Grace of God, he
or she has no lasting personal relationship with God the Holy
Spirit.
2. The Cloud was God's idea, not
man's! So with the Holy Spirit too! Man just isn't that smart!
3. The Cloud was a Gift of God! No
price was exacted before its arrival!
4. The Cloud then, as does the Holy
Spirit today, guided them through the wilderness of life! Read
Exodus 13:21. "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar
of a cloud, to lead them the way."
5. The Cloud covered and protected
Israel from the hot desert sun! Psalm 105:39 tells us: "He
spread a cloud for a covering." The Holy Spirit in our lives
yet protects us, not from sun-strokes necessarily, but from
sin-strokes!
6. Then at night, when the air got
cold, the Pillar of Cloud was a Pillar of fire to warm them! Of
course It also gave them light! "And the LORD went before them
by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and
night." Exodus 13:21 again!
7. God spoke to Israel from the
Cloud! He still communicates to us through His Word as
illuminated by the Holy Spirit! Psalm 99:7 says: "He spake
unto them in the cloudy pillar."
8. The same Cloud that was light to
the Israelites was darkness to the Egyptians! Here the Cloud is
protecting God's people from their enemies! The Lord yet does
that today! Exodus 14:20 reminds us: "And it came between the
camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud
and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to
these: so that the one came not near the other all the
night."
9. The Cloud, once given, was never
taken away from Israel all the years of their journeying! So
is the Holy Spirit a permanent Gift for this Church Age of
Grace! "Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in
the wilderness: the
pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to
lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to
shew them light, and the way wherein they should go." And the
precious Holy Spirit is given to us ... for ever! Jesus
prayed: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you
for ever."
10. And, apparently, during the
Millennium, the Cloud will again be physically visible on the
dwellings of Israel! Isaiah tells us: "And the LORD will
create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her
assemblies, a cloud
and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night:
for upon all the glory shall be a defence."
These ten points about the Cloud
have been gleaned from the writings of a preacher of yesteryear,
A. W. Pink. That man loved the Word of God!
Believing friend, thank God today
for your relationship with the Holy Spirit!
Yes, it's permissible to talk like
that. Paul, in 2nd Corinthians 13:14, talks about the "communion"
of the Holy Ghost!
And the Apostle John repeatedly
cautions us to "HEAR what the Spirit saith!" Seven times
he uses that clause in the Book of Revelation!
We today do not have a visible
manifestation of the Spirit leading us! No, we have something
far better! We have the Holy Spirit personally abiding IN each
of us who is truly saved! The Holy Spirit was "upon"
those Old testament saints. He is "IN" the New Testament
saint! He could come and go from them! He abides within us
continually! Thank God we live on the "after" side of the
Cross!
Praise be to God!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 3:
It is a prayer.
Apparently Moses prayed it often!
Scripturally speaking, one could
just call it "the prayer of Moses."
He seems to have prayed it
unselfishly ... for the people of Israel.
Furthermore, it appears that he
asked this of the Lord in the mornings.
Yes, it is a morning prayer.
The Israelites had several of
these. One of them, Psalm 63, begins with these words: "O God,
thou art my God;
early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water
is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary." The implication is that "seeking" the
Lord is the first order of the day!
Moses' morning prayer is revealed in
Numbers 10:35. Here it is word for word:
"Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them
that hate thee flee before thee."
The full verse reads:
"And it came to pass, when the ark set
forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies
be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee."
The "ark" (Hebrew = "aron") of the
Covenant moved each morning when the Cloud of Glory set forth on
a new day's journey.
At this crucial beginning point of
each segment of the trip from Egypt to Canaan Moses prayed!
Each of us too must begin our days
with prayer. It's a good idea to begin every trip that way too,
even a drive to the grocery store.
The Ark is said to "set forward."
This verb, "nasa," literally means "to pull up!" That's exactly
what happened! The Cloud lifted and began to move! Then the
Ark was reverently hoisted upon the shoulders of the Men of God
who were ordained to carry it, the Israelites followed tribe by
tribe ... and the trip for the day had begun!
The verb "said" (Hebrew = "amar") is
framed in such a way that it indicates ongoing action,
incomplete action. The prayer was repeated often! This was a
daily habit of Moses.
Now to study the precise prayer:
"Rise up," in Hebrew "qum," means
"to stand up." To "come upon the scene." Even "to establish or
impose!" Here it is an imperative! Often Old Testament prayers
are framed this way! As if Moses were telling God what to do!
(Such a thought would be extremely irreverent if God had not
taught His people to pray in such a manner! "Thus saith the
LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to
come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands
command ye me."
Isaiah 45:11) I have electronically found 9 times in the Psalms
where God is asked "to rise up!" (Psalms 3:8 and 7:6 and 9:19
and 10:12 and 17:13 and 35:2 where it is "stand up!" Also
Psalms 74:22 and 82:8 and 132:8.
God's "enemies," in Hebrew "oyeb,"
mean those to "hate" the Lord! Yes, the Lord has enemies! By
the way, if you are saved and loving the Lord, in all likelihood
His enemies are your enemies too!
That hate you because you love the Lord!
Moses' petition to God is that those
enemies "be scattered!" This Qal imperfect verb, "putzs," means
to be "dispersed" or even to be "shattered" or "broken to
pieces!" It's "imperfect" quality teaches us that the goal
Moses had is not a one-time scattering here ... but a constant
one! Each day Lord, scatter those who hate Thee and Thy work!
Do not prosper them! The first time this verb is used in the
Bible, Genesis 10:18, it is translated "spread abroad!"
Those wicked men who built the Tower
of Babel had one goal: not to be "scattered!" Genesis 11:4
tells us: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a
tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make
us a name, lest we be
scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." But,
God "scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and
they left off to build the city" anyway! Genesis 11:8
Three times in the Psalms this word
picture appears, one apparently being a direct reference to
Moses' prayer here in Numbers 10.
Psalm 18:14
--- "Yea, he (the Lord God) sent out his arrows, and scattered
them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them."
Psalm 68:1
--- "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also
that hate him flee before him."
And Psalm
144:6 --- "Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out
thine arrows, and destroy them."
Then the prayer
draws a parallelism, further emphasizing its lone request:
"and let them that hate thee flee before
thee."
Those who "hate"
God (in Hebrew = "sane," pronounced saw-nay) do so violently!
This verb is in the Piel stem and depicts intensive action! It
means "to hold in aversion." To despise!
They are asked to
be made "to flee" before the Lord and His now marching,
approaching people ... the Israelites! About 2,000,000 of them
it seems! A crowd like that ... with women and children and
infants and elderly folks too ... would have been an "easy"
target.
"Flee" ("nus")
means to depart, to disappear, or even to hide! Its first use,
Genesis 14:10 twice has the enemy retreating from a godly
advancing army!
The ending words,
"before Thee," refer of course to
God. They say literally "before Thy Face!" God's Face often
portrays His powerful Presence!
The Face of God
drives away the enemy!
Paul puts it this
way in Romans 8:31 --- "If God be for us, who can be
against us?"
Amen!
Folks, I've been
thinking today ... why can't we pray this prayer of Moses each
morning too?
God is still able
to "scatter" those who hate His Name!
Can't we live
days of enemy-free life too?
Why not pray the
"enemies" away from your wife ... or husband today?
Or your whole
family, especially that weaker son or daughter?
Include those
precious Grandchildren too!
Again, Moses'
very words, his exact prayer: "And it
came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise
up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that
hate thee flee before thee."
Try it!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 4:
The Bible is a
Book filled with prayers!
Both Old and New Testaments!
Even Moses, the Lawgiver, was a
mighty man of prayer.
Often do we see him interceding
before the Lord.
For
example, every morning ... or at least every morning that the
"Pillar of the Cloud" lifted and led the Israelites forward
toward the Promised Land ... Moses prayed these words:
"Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be
scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee."
Then in the evenings, when the Cloud
and the Ark of the Covenant stopped ... signaling "rest" time
... Moses prayed again!
One could almost call these brief
prayers by two titles, Moses' morning prayer and Moses' evening
prayer.
And I am suggesting to you today
they still make great prayers for us to use in the 21st century!
How powerful this petition would be
before Almighty God: "Lord, first thing this morning I would
ask of Thee to scatter the enemies that would today hinder and
detain us from loving and serving Thee! Worldwide I ask that
Thou wouldest put to flight all those who hate Thy Name. That
dope dealer who wants to ruin the life of my grandchild, that
evolutionist who wishes to destroy believing faith in the
Creator, the Judge who actively seeks the removal of every
vestige of Christianity from our once great nation, the liberal
preacher who fights the Word of God ... scatter them all! Thy
Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven!
Deliver us from evil! In Jesus' Name, Amen"
And then, for the evening prayer ...
Moses' additionally asked: "Return, O
LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel."
The exact verse reads:
"And when it rested, he said, Return, O
LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel." Numbers 10:36
The "it" has reference to the Ark of
the Covenant. This special Item, God's earthly seat in Old
Testament times and the place where the Blood of the lamb was
sprinkled every Day of Atonement, moved (carried by specially
appointed men of God) when the Cloud of Glory lifted and began
the daily journey.
The verb "rested" is spelled "nuach"
and means to "let down" or "to settle" in place.
The verb "said," indicating Moses'
praying habit, is framed so as to indicate "incomplete" action.
Moses did not just pray this once and quit! He prayed it every
evening when the day's travel was declared finished by the Lord.
"He said,
Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel."
Numbers 10:36
The verb "return" translates "shub"
and means "to restore" or "to turn again." In other words ...
"Lord, gather around Thy children again this evening please!" It
is a request for the glorious Presence of Almighty God!
And for whom is Moses praying?
"The many thousands
of Israel!"
We earlier learned that the total
population of Israel at that time included 603,550 young men of
fighting age, the army! That does not count women and children
and elderly men either! See Numbers 1:46.
I would call that
"many thousands!"
"Lord," asked Moses each night,
"snuggle close by us again tonight! We need Thy Presence! Be
close to each of the multitude Thou hast called Thy people,
Israel!"
That's just like us praying each
evening: "Lord, we are going to bed now. Overshadow our family,
all _____ of them (put the number here), with thy Power and
guard us through the darkness! We trust Thee for protection,
including the salvation of our yet unsaved members. In Jesus'
Name, Amen"
Now ...
What have we done this Saturday, the
last day of the year?
We've just let the Old Testament in
general and Moses in particular be our "ensamples" on how to
live ... and pray ... in our regular daily (and nightly) lives!
Do remember what Paul said: "Now
all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are
written (in the Old Testament) for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come." 1st Corinthians 10:11
Amen!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
