Westview Church

At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses. (Numbers 9:23 ESV)

Whenever I read this section of scripture I’m always impressed and jealous at the same time. Impressed because God’s people seem to be under complete submission to the Lord. Jealous because I wish God made it as easy for me to follow him as he did for them. It would be nice if all I had to do when making a decision was see where the cloud by day or fire by night was going.

There is a sense in which most of us live our lives at our own command. We do what we want when we want; figuring God will be passively standing by wherever we go and whatever we do. If there happens to be a big decision that we think we can’t handle on our own, we might consult God on the matter.

There is another sense in which we live our lives at the command of others. We do what others want when they want because we are seeking their approval and acceptance of us. There is a secret voice inside our heads that asks, “What will make my parents most happy with me,” or “what will my closest friends agree with?”

Still there is an even more subtle command from our culture that we live our lives by. This command says, “Keep up! You’re going to miss out! You can accomplish anything in life if you believe in yourself and work hard enough!” It’s a race to accomplish the American Dream; that imaginary life of euphoria filled with ease, comfort and pleasure. It demands a full time effort.

God’s people are called to complete abandonment of our own command, the command of other people and the command of the culture. To keep “the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord” has to do with place and function. Keeping “the charge of the Lord” has to do with place. It means they kept under guard; they kept to their rightful place of service and submission to the Lord. For God’s people, life is not our own. Jesus said whoever follows him must lose his life in order to save it and find a new one in him (Matthew 16:24-26). The Apostle Paul said if you are a Christian you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

Keeping the command of the Lord has to do with function. There is a sense in which it would be nice to have a visible cloud hovering above us so that when it moved at the command of God we could move too. But it still required looking up and being attentive to what God is doing. Though we have no cloud by day or fire by night to lead us, we do have a full revelation of God’s word to show us his command and we have God’s indwelling spirit to lead us into all truth! We have so much more than Israel did. We have such a rich and abundant revelation of who God is and what his will for us is.

If we would be honest we would admit that our problem is not with function as much as it is with place. We do not live under God’s charge. We enjoy being the god of our own universe. We do not exist by our very identity for his purposes. We have our own agendas that we are serving. And that is why we do not hear his command, we do not heed his command and if it were as easy as a cloud by day and fire by night it wouldn’t matter because we aren’t looking up.

The truth is, in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We need to rediscover the God who is near, who has revealed himself to us in his word and who abides in us by his spirit. The God whose charge is worthy of our submission and whose command is worthy of our attention for His glory and our good.