Read to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Numbers 8-10
Numbers 9:18
At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.
As a reminder please remember. Today our souls abide in a tabernacle. On this the New Testament is clear. Paul wrote about this in II Corinthians 5:1, Peter also wrote of this truth in II Peter 1:13-14, Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. (Jesus told Peter how and when (he would be old) he would die, John 21:18-19).
By studying the tabernacle in the wilderness, we can learn much about living in our tabernacle. One thing we can learn is this: God has the right to change things in our lives at a moment’s notice. During the time of the wilderness wanderings Israel would camp as long as the Lord was stationary. When the Lord moved, they moved. How did they know when He moved? The cloud. When the cloud moved, they were to move, when the cloud stayed put they stayed put. Let’s say the Israelites were in a comfortable camping spot, good grass for their flocks, good water, plenty of fuel for their fires, perhaps a valley where the weather was temperate (pleasing). Maybe they were in that place for a year, or two. They liked it, grew accustomed to that place, and desired to stay, but then on a certain morning the cloud moved.
This is the way it is in our tabernacle. Without being dogmatic about it, think of the Holy Ghost of God as a cloud. After all, in the New Testament the voice of God came from the cloud. That Holy Spirit (same as the Holy Ghost) is the voice of God in the lives of true believers leading them, teaching them, warning them, chastising them, and empowering them. This is not conclusively proven through Scripture, but it is an illustration helping us to understand the cloud that dwelled in the tabernacle and the Spirit that dwells in us. When He moves, we move; or should.
The tabernacle was a temporary dwelling place for God and the place for Israel to worship God. It was ended and the great Temple was constructed. The Temple was ended and replaced. Today the body of believers in Christ is the New Testament temple. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19 Our bodies are temporary, a dwelling place for God through the Holy Spirit, and the place of true worship (in spirit and truth).
May we be as sensitive to the moving of the Spirit of God in our bodies as the Israelites were in the moving of the cloud in the wilderness wanderings.
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