“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…Whether the cloud stayed above the Tabernacle for two days, a month, or a year, the people of Israel stayed in camp and did not move on. But as soon as it lifted, they broke camp and moved on. So they camped or traveled at the Lord’s command…”
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As my eyes traveled over these words, I felt prompted to pause. I think it was the specific break-down of time. Two days. A month. A year.
Since returning from overseas ministry for medical care and facing hospitalization after hospitalization, and scan after scan for both myself and my son, I have lived my life in those increments. For over two years now, I have not known whether it would be two days, a month, a year, or more. And I have watched for the day we can break camp and move on. I have waited for the day we can leave all this behind us and start to rebuild our lives.
But I love what this passage points out. Even when the Israelites camped in the exact same spot for an entire year, they didn’t camp aimlessly. They camped at the Lord’s command.
The location changed all the time. Sometimes it changed after one day. Sometimes after a week. They found themselves in lots of different camping spots. But the location was not what was most important. What mattered most to the Lord, what He highlights here, is so simple I almost read past it.
It’s that moment when they stepped out of their tent, into the morning air, and they looked over at the tent of meeting to see what the cloud was doing.
If it lifted, they broke camp and followed it. If it stayed, so did they. But the look was what was most important. They acknowledged, with a glance, that the decision wasn’t up to them. It didn’t depend on whether they thought it was a good day to travel or whether they wanted to stay longer at the current campground or whether they were tired of it. Day after day after day, the decision was made based off of only one question. What is the cloud doing today? Where the cloud went, they followed. Where it stayed, they stayed. And they started each morning ready to stay and ready to go.
That heart posture was vastly more important to Jehovah than their physical surroundings, situation, and circumstances. Funny, how easily I can get that reversed.
That peek out of the tent to lay eyes on the cloud is one physical example of what it means to
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your steps.”
-Proverbs 3:5-6
And as I sat with that truth, a deep rest sunk in and settled over my heart. God didn’t need me straining to see what the next day, week, or month held. He didn’t want me trying to predict and pack early or to give up and start construction on something permanent. He just wanted me to step out each morning and look at Him. And then respond to what I saw in that glance. To be ready to follow Him, whether that meant going somewhere or staying put.
And all this time, though my heart yearned to be moving, staying put WAS following Him. He had us here. And it was good to stay right here, where He had us, only because that was the instruction we had for the day, whether or not we understood why.
This month, I learned for the first time that I had developed a deficiency. It was a medical close call. Left unchecked, it leads to irreversible nerve damage, and sometimes a wheelchair. Almost three years after leaving Papua New Guinea, this is the first time it really hit me that as much as I wanted to help, I needed help. And God, in His firm love, held me here until I got all the help that I needed, even while I disagreed with Him. Even while I was willing to just deal with the symptoms and get back to our jobs.
I didn’t see the whole picture.
When He says “…My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
I mean…LITERALLY He is looking and thinking about everything from higher up than I am. And He sees pieces of the picture I have no idea are there. When He says to wait, I can bank on there being a good reason, however frustrating it is to me to keep staring at the same old campground.
He has this. And He has me. And just because He has me stay put, it doesn’t mean that what He has laid on my heart is going untended. He is often working on the very situation I’m so desperate to make a difference in, but in a better and higher way than I could, even if I could be there, hands-on, giving 100%.
Are you anxious? Are you frustrated? Are you tired of waiting? Are you straining to see what’s up ahead?
He has this. He has you.
So trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
For a moment, get quiet and stop trying to figure it all out. Set aside your goals for this situation and hone in on the posture of your heart.
Step out this morning and take a look at Him. And then respond to what you see.
“None of these things could have been foreseen twenty years ago. Our focus was and is on obeying God and responding to His voice…
We need to relax a bit, turn away from the noise…and listen to the voice of God because He has put everything together. He has prepared for us a place of service and ministry and will open the necessary doors, despite the obstacles and the confusion we may experience during the journey. I need to quiet my heart in order to hear God’s direction…
Every step of the way has been set by God, and one step leads to the next. Rarely do we see many steps ahead of us…But like God did for Israel, He prepares us for one step at a time…We never know what we will need, but God does and has made full provision. To reach that place requires a power not equal to but superior to the opposition.”
-A. W. Tozer, “A Cloud by Day, A Fire by Night”, excerpts from pages 17, 22, 28, 30
dig deep | draw close 