They camped at the Lord’s command, and they set out at the Lord’s command. They carried out the Lord’s requirement according to his command through Moses.
What is it about men and directions? I know this is not universally true, but many men do not like to stop and ask for directions. Even when they’re hopelessly lost. And this isn’t even true only of hard-driving—pun intended—“type A” personality men. I know a true gentleman, a soft-spoken man, who has had a pleading wife and a back seat full of sobbing children begging him to stop and ask. And he didn’t stop.
Perhaps the gene connected to this trait came to some of us from the early ex- plorers who would be knighted by some queen, then sent out toward the horizon to find new lands. Even Christopher Columbus thought he was bound for the West Indies, but because he didn’t stop and ask a flounder in the mid-Atlantic, he wound up on an island in the Bahamas. Thank goodness he didn’t ask. America still mightbe undiscovered.
This has clearly been a problem with men for centuries.
Now I want you to imagine this. For forty years the Israelites lived out of suitcases. They had no itinerary, no idea where they were going next. Except for a large cloud cluster that hung over the tabernacle during the day that turned to fire at night, they were completely lost.
Can you imagine how these people must have felt? They had no idea where they were going. Sometimes the cloud/fire would hang over the tabernacle for a year, and sometimes it would only stop for a day or two. The men in this huge Israelite family discovered what millions of wives would discover in the centuries to follow—what it was like to ride along without the driver asking for directions. God didn’t seem to have a plan. “I’m tired of wandering around here,” even the men must have said to one another. “Why doesn’t God make up His mind?”
A principle here cannot be missed. Please listen carefully. A thousand years later, God’s Son would look into the faces of ordinary men and summon them: “Follow Me.” And the Scripture tells us they did exactly that. They left their businesses and their familiar, safe surroundings and followed Him. They had no idea where He was going. They did what He asked them to do. They went where He went.
Do you know where God is taking you? You don’t? Has He revealed His exact plan for you, your career, or your family? He hasn’t? And will there probably be a few surprises around the corner that will cause you to wonder where He’s taking you? Yes, probably.
But this is exactly the point. God knows. He’s not lost. Trust Him. Follow Him.