“A Divine Cloud!” – FBC Morning Light (2/22/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today, in our Bible reading schedule, we're reading Numbers, chapters 8 through 10.

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And just as a reminder, this year we're reading chronologically through the

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Scriptures, and so we're just focusing on going through the

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Bible as events occurred, if you will. So, Numbers 8 through 10.

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And I want to focus in chapter 9, verses 15 to 23, to this cloud of cloud and fire.

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Must have been an incredible scene, don't you think? It says in verse 15 of chapter 9, On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony.

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From evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.

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So it wasn't fire, but it was like the appearance of fire. So it was always.

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The cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. When the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey.

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And in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.

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What a convenient means of guidance, right?

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They knew. The cloud has just ascended off the tabernacle.

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All right, time to pack up and head on out. And you could just kind of picture this.

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The cloud ascends into the sky a little bit, and then the Lord gives time for the

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Levites to do their job of tearing down the tabernacle and getting everything packed away, getting it prepared to travel.

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And everybody breaks down their camp, their tents, and so on and so forth. And then when all of the packing is done, the cloud starts moving forward, and then the tribe of Judah leads off following the cloud, and then the rest of the tribes follow behind them.

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And then they keep marching until the cloud stops. When the cloud stops, hovers above the ground, and they know, okay, we set the tabernacle up right underneath this cloud, and everybody knows where to set up their camp around that, and so forth.

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How convenient, what a convenient thing to do. And so in verse 18 it says, at the command of the

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Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp. As long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

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Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the

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Lord and did not journey. So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days, according to the command of the

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Lord they would remain encamped, according to the command of the Lord they would journey. It says in verse 22, whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey.

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But when it was taken up, they would journey. At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the

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Lord they journeyed. They kept the charge of the Lord at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

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We may read this and say, man, I wish we had this kind of a thing where there was this very physical, tangible way of getting direction from the

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Lord. We don't have a cloud that looks like fire at night, but we do have the

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God who gave the cloud, the God by whom this cloud represents.

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This cloud represents the presence of God. If you know Jesus as your

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Savior, we're told that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within you.

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You don't need a cloud above you, or a pillar of fire at nighttime above you. You have the

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Holy Spirit dwelling within you. How does he guide you? What does he use to guide you?

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He doesn't use a cloud, he doesn't use a pillar of fire. He uses the Word, the

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Word of God. You have to keep in mind that when all of this occurred in the book of Numbers, in the wilderness wanderings, the children of Israel didn't have what you and I have.

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We have the completed Scriptures, the whole counsel of God. We have it, and the

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Holy Spirit uses that Word to guide us.

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We don't need a pillar, we don't need a cloud. We have the Word, and we have the

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Spirit dwelling within us. Let's give thanks for the guidance that he gives to us through the clearly revealed

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Word. Our Father and our God, we marvel at times when we read of these events of the

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Old Testament, and how there was very tangible, physical ways of experiencing your presence, and in some cases we pine for that.

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But Lord, we thank you for the Spirit of God dwelling within. We have so much more revelation.

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I pray that we would act upon it, we would receive it, we would listen to your

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Spirit as he applies it to our hearts and our lives, and we would follow his direction, even as the

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Israelites followed the cloud. We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.