While reading Numbers 10, I can’t help but be a little jealous of the clarity that Israel seems to have had. After all, where the cloud of the glory settles, that’s where you go and set up camp.
I’d love to have that kind of guidance! What I seem to get is a struggle to choose wisely based on advice of Christian friends and the principles that can be discerned in the Scriptures. (Even then, notice that little word ‘discern’! Sometimes the Scriptures themselves don’t seem all that helpful.) How do we make God-pleasing choices when we are confronted by an uncharted future, no clear path, and two or more possibilities each of which could be understood in some ways as God-pleasing and in other ways as not-so-God pleasing.
There are lots of decisions like that: live and work here or there? This school or that one? Keep on with this activity or try something new? An example from my own life is when I have had to consider Calls to other churches. On the one hand, it’s God’s call. Going would certainly be God-pleasing. On the other hand, maybe it’s a test and the Lord actually values faithfulness and perseverance over newness. I can find Bible passages to support both sides. And maybe what I think is God’s leading to try something new is really just a desire for a new field because I want to get away from past mistakes or to undo parts of my history that will influence me no matter where I go.
Oh, to have the cloud of the glory leading me to just where I need to go!
However, at the end of Numbers 10, there’s an odd little story. The camp is on the march and we find out that Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law has been staying with them. (Remember Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had joined them in Exodus 18.) Hobab decides that this would be good time to return to his own affairs and Moses begs him to stay with them, telling him, “You know where we should camp in the wilderness” (10:31).
Well, perhaps things aren’t so clear for Israel as we thought! Yes, the cloud of the glory is leading them, but they still need the help of a wise and experienced friend to get them to the specifics of a site. It seems to me that part of the wisdom the Lord calls us to is the wisdom to recognize the general directions He leads us in, to embrace His guiding presence in Word and Sacrament, and to seek the counsel of wise friends who might know more about the lay of the land than we do. The Scriptures do provide guidance, but it’s not a ‘do-this, not-that’ kind of guidance so much as a ‘I-value-this-sort-of-character’ guidance. We have the assurance of God’s presence in His Word and Sacrament, even when we are struggling with decisions. And it’s good to remember that serious decisions are often best made in community, since our decisions often affect others and since the Lord often offers His guidance under the guise of Christian friends.
--reposted from 2/14/2011
--reposted from 2/14/2011
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