THE PROMISE OF GUIDANCE (expository)

Numbers 10:11-36

Robyn is desperate. Her business has gone bust and she’s in serious financial trouble. She’s so desperate that she decides to ask God for help. She begins to pray, “God, please help me. I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lotto.” Lotto night comes and someone else wins.

Time goes by and Robyn prays again, with increased fervour, “God, please let me win the lotto! I’ve lost my business and my house, and I’m going to lose my car as well.” Lotto night comes and Robyn still has no success.

Again she prays, “Lord, why have you forsaken me? I’ve lost my business, my house, and my car. My children are starving. I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lotto this one time so I can get my life back in order.”

Suddenly the heavens open and Robyn hears the unmistakable voice of God saying, “Robyn, meet me halfway on this. Buy a ticket.”

Now, that is not intended as an endorsement of gambling, but an entry point into a discussion of guidance. Yes, we do need to pray for guidance. Yes, we should expect God to answer sincere prayers from righteous hearts. But God also expects us to use our common sense and our rational faculties in discerning his will for us. And God has left us with very rich resources for knowing his will.

DESERT GUIDES

In ancient times the people of Israel encountered the same kinds of struggles and needs as we experience. And God was there for them – often in unusual and awesome ways.

In Numbers 10:11ff, Israel departs Mt Sinai, destination: the Promised Land. It’s 14 months since they fled Egypt, and 11 months since their arrival at this bleak desert mountain (see Ex 12:1, 37; 19:1). Verses 11-12 record the moment when the huge crowd begins the long trek from Mt Sinai to the plains of Moab, where they would eventually camp “along the Jordan across from Jericho” (22:1). Verses 13-28 list the “order of march” (v 28; cf chs 2-4). Verses 29-34 speak of Moses’ request that his Midianite father-in-law Hobab assist Israel. And verses 35-36 again describe the actual departure from the mountain where God gave the Law to Moses.

Verse 35 begins, “So they set out .” Israel is moving forward into unknown territory. How will they know the way? Who will guide them? On what basis will they choose the right path, or the right direction?

God had certainly not left them to fend for themselves. He promised clear guidance, and he delivered – in various complementary ways. First, although not explicit in the passage, Israel was guided by the Law. Mt Sinai would forever be remembered as the place where the godless people made and worshipped a golden calf, and as the place where God gave Moses his servant the Law to give to the people.

The Law regulated their communal life, upheld justice and righteousness, enabled them to worship and serve God better, and helped them to understand the nature and character of God in ways that were previously impossible. The Law also guided them according to God’s will.

Second, and more specifically, God spoke clearly and directly through Moses (e.g. v 13). I suppose the people first heard the details of the Law by hearing Moses teach it. And there were no doubt many community issues on which Moses conveyed the mind and heart of God to the people.

Third, Israel was guided by the tangible presence of God – in the form of a moving pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night (v 11; cf 9:15-23). When the cloud lifted and moved, the people followed. Where it settled, they set up camp.

Verse 33 tells us that, at least for the first three days’ march, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them . to find a place to rest.”

Was this another form of divine guidance? I don’t think so. Where the cloud was, there the ark was, and there the people followed.

Fourth, Moses asked Hobab the Midianite to guide them through the desert (vv 29-32). The Midianites occupied the desert areas surrounding Canaan; they had been good to Moses 40 years earlier, and Moses had in fact married into Hobab’s family (Ex 2:15-22).

Hobab offered a wealth of practical assistance: he was probably familiar with the terrain and the inhabitants; he knew where Canaan lay, and the best route to take; and he possessed valuable skills for desert survival.

Initially Hobab refused Moses’ request (v 30). So Moses tried harder to persuade him (vv 31f). Did Moses demonstrate lack of faith in urging Hobab to guide Israel? No – on the contrary: with all his natural skills and supernatural gifts, Moses recognised the need of special expertise from others. He knew the value of shared human leadership. He knew that, especially in dangerous or uncertain situations, we dare not stand alone: we need each other.

If Hobab had given advice contrary to the guidance of the cloud, or to the direct command of God through Moses, I’m sure Moses would have followed the cloud! But Hobab seems to have been a true guide. Strangely, the Bible does not reveal whether Hobab acquiesced, but Judges 1:16 suggests that he did.

THE FATAL FLAW

At the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, his granddaughter Noa Ben-Artzi Philosof spoke these words of eulogy: “Grandfather, you were the pillar of fire in front of the camp and now we are just a camp left alone in the dark; and we are so cold and sad.”

She expressed what many Israelis felt at that time. Her words also have a chilling resonance for the history of Israel as they travelled from Mt Sinai to the river Jordan: “just a camp left alone in the dark . so cold and sad.”

It would have taken something like 11 days to march on foot from Mt Sinai to the place where Israel crossed the Jordan river into Canaan. But the tragedy of Numbers 13 and 14 changed their destiny, and it was 38 years before the glorious conquest began.

They became preoccupied with other dreams and visions, other wisdom, other gods. They turned away from the living God, and his holy Law, and his servant Moses. They grew tired of following the cloud, and eating the manna, and marching through the drifting sands. Their problem was not lack of guidance or unclear guidance. Their problem was disobedience. Their problem was self-absorption. They possessed a fatal flaw: they were unwilling to trust and obey God.

We are no more immune to this problem, this fatal flaw, than they were. We don’t always want to go where God leads, do what he commands, or live the way he wants us to. Or we’re simply confused.

BLIND FAITH OR OBEDIENT TRUST?

But God certainly does not leave us to fend for ourselves, any more than he left Israel without encouragement and guidance. There is hope for your journey, and light for your path. But divine guidance is a learned art.

Let me tell you about an early experience in the life of my friend, John Chapman. At the end of his eighteenth year he finished high school and applied for several scholarships in his matriculation examination.

He had become a Christian 18 months before and he was full of the wonder of sins forgiven. The presence of Christ in his life was overwhelming, and he had been taught that in all things he was to be obedient to God, and that whatever he did with his life he must do the will of God, and he desired to do it.

To his astonishment, and that of his parents, he won four scholarships at that exam. One would take him to Teachers’ College, one ensured him a traineeship in a bank, one in civil engineering and one in mechanical engineering.

John’s father, who wasn’t a Christian, was delighted, and said in great excitement, “Which of them do you think you’ll take?”

John, not knowing the mind of God, and not wishing to tell his father that he was waiting on God to tell him what to do, stalled and said, “I’d really like some time to think about it.”

A day went by, and it was as if the sky was brass, and the voice of God was never so quiet. And his father said to him again, “What are you going to do?” John said, “I’m still thinking about it.”

At the end of a week his father was nearly beside himself, and said, “John, if you do not make up your mind by tomorrow, I’ll make it up for you.”

In desperation, John fell to his knees and said, “Heavenly Father, what chance will Dad have of getting it right? Please, I beg of you, tell me.”

And in desperation he laid out a “Gideon-type” fleece: the wind was blowing from the south very strongly; he laid all four letters on the bed and said, “Heavenly Father, please blow the one off you want me to take.” All four took off like jet rockets and fell in a heap, one on top of the other.

“I cannot tell you of my despair,” John recalls. “I never have been through a blacker time, for I never wanted to do the will of God more at any stage of my life before or since, and I hadn’t the faintest idea how to discern the mind of God.

“And in utter desperation I said, (to God), ‘I will go to Teachers’ College, but if you don’t want it, please stop it.’ And I said at breakfast, ‘I’m going to Teachers’ College’ and my father said, ‘I cannot tell you what a massive relief that is – I was thinking of getting treatment for you.’ “

THE RARE ART OF OBEDIENCE

Perhaps your experience of trying to discern the will of God has not been as painful as that of John Chapman. But we all need to make decisions, and as God’s children we want to make the choices that please God.

How can we know God’s will today? This is a difficult question, because it is easy to give simplistic answers when in fact there are many ways in which God’s will becomes plain to us. And there are some popular methods for discerning the will of God that have nothing to do with God!

As I follow Jesus, I have found that the best way to know what is right and good is to absorb Scripture and allow biblical principles to permeate my being and guide me. Consider passages such as Ps 103:13; 32:8-9; 26:3-6; Pro 3:5-6; Jn 10:3; Rom 8:28ff, and live the kind of life they commend.

One of Michael Leunig’s wonderful cartoons has six frames with the following captions:

On the armchair, a book: “How to relax.”

Beside the bed, a book: “How to get sleep.”

Next to the window, a book: “How to see what’s in front of you.”

Next to the man seated at the table, a book: “How to be a man.”

On the desk, a book: “How to succeed in life.”

In hell, a book: “How you ended up in hell.”

There is another book that tells us how to end up in heaven. Read the book, and get to know the Author and his will for your life. Discover how to eclipse the fatal flaw of self-absorption, and learn to practice the rare art of obedience.

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E117 Copyright (c) 2003 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980). To talk with Rod about this message, email or write to P.O. Box 1790, MACQUARIE CENTRE 2113 AUSTRALIA. To subscribe, email with “subscribe” in the subject. To unsubscribe, type “unsubscribe” in the subject.