Numbers 9:15-23 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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the Cloud upon the Tabernacle

Numbers 9:15-23

We cannot decide on the shape of this cloud; whether it was a great cumulus, or spread out over the camp like an umbrella, so as to shelter the people from the sun glare. As the night fell, the shekinah-fire, that burned at its heart, became apparent. But whether it sheltered by day or illumined by night, it was always the symbol of the divine presence. All this prefigured the guidance and shelter that are afforded to His people by our Lord. Compare John 8:12.

Friends may urge you to change your sphere. The scarcity of your resources and the pressure of your foes may appear to force a move. A nameless fear may suggest that you will never hold your ground. But so long as the cloud doesn't move, you must tarry where you are. Where the cloud broods, the manna falls. “My soul, wait thou only upon God!” Never go in front of God, nor lag behind, nor hesitate to strike your tent, if He leads on.

Related Commentaries of Numbers 9:15

Numbers 9:15-23

15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.

16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

18 At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.

19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not.

20 And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed.

21 And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.

22 Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.

23 At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.