Fickle Cloud...Constant God

I have been reading through the book of Numbers and have seen the journey of following God at any cost, at any time, in any way.  It sounds great, but if you've had a chance to read through many of its stories, you find that the people didn't like that cost, as often we do not.  Much of their journey was marked by the need to be completely reliant on God.

God is such a God of order and of great detail!  As I am reading, it seems as though God's great detail was set to purify the people of the camp and teach them to rely on Him.  Often that purification brought about uncomfortable circumstances or strange tasks.  These people were "inconvenienced" by western standards.  They were walking to a land that they knew nothing about.  They were eating manna EVERYDAY and they were moving all the time.

Numbers 9:15-23 tells about the cloud that God used to settle on their tabernacle in their camp.  Whenever the cloud settled over the tabernacle, the Israelites knew to stay; but whenever the cloud lifted they knew they were to pack up everything and leave to wherever the cloud was to settle next.  Sometimes the cloud settled for a year; other times not even for a night.  When the cloud moved, they moved.  I can imagine how weary the people must have gotten by some point, getting direction from a cloud that seemed fickle as to when or where it might lead them next.  They had no physical Jesus to follow, only the hope of the coming Messiah and a hope that who they were following was worthy of everything they had.

However, God used the cloud as a sort of "physical" thing to lead them.  This fickle cloud was the product of a holy and unchanging God.  James 1:17 says "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Our God of order had perfect control over that cloud.  What made complete sense to God, seemed baffling to the Israelites (sounds familiar?)  The people did not know why it moved when it did, but God expected them to follow in obedience and trust. 

As I prepare to go to India, I am challenged to see God's movement.  He may have me in one place for a season, and in another shortly thereafter.  For a season of 2 1/2 weeks, He will have me in India.  I don't know the details, I'm not sure what we will see or what the Lord will do while we are there, but I do plan to be ready to move when He moves and see what He sees, and that is so exciting!  Even apart from physical location, we need to see and be obedient to God's leading in every task.  We need to pray when he lays something or someone on our hearts, we need to serve people when we feel the Lord prompt and we don't feel like it.  Sometimes we need to stop our work and our lives long enough to listen, see, and watch the cloud.

In just a few short months, I am going to a country that I have never been to before filled with people who are broken and lost.  Even in America, in our churches and neighborhoods and schools and families, there are people who have their clouds mistaken.  They know there is a cloud out there, but they see it as everyone and everything besides what it actually is...the one true God of heaven who has the power to change their lives.  My prayer is both for you and myself that God would allow us to see the cloud move when we are to move to action.  Not only that, but that that cloud would be so unmistakable and clear. 

I love you all!