Numbers 9:22: “Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey.”

This phrase “the cloud remained” is repeated again and again throughout the book of Numbers; first because it was a supernatural miracle that deserved repeating, and second, to catch our attention. The cloud would remain, or stand still, when God wanted His people to also remain still.

Perhaps this catches our eye because most of us find it easier to do a job or activity, than to wait on God. The cloud moving or stopping was God’s method of speaking in a very clear and unmistakable way. No one could miss His message. And it would be particularly clear in a desert environment when sunshine suddenly started beating on a black-goat-hair tent. It would definitely get the attention of everyone inside. And it would be equally clear when the cool shade from the cloud came over them. Then they would know that God was leading them to stop and rest. The concept of rest was already plainly built into the structure of the week. At the end of each and every week, a Sabbath day of rest caused the cadence of the week to stop, and the people of God would take time out to rest. So it is safe to assume then, that at a very minimum, one day out of seven the Pillar of Cloud would stand still.

For most of us, it is during a time of quiet rest that we most clearly hear God’s voice. No doubt that is why the Holy Spirit said through the Psalmist to “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). How we need to hear His voice every day. How we need to set aside time to sit quietly before the Creator of the Universe so we can distinguish His voice from the clamor of all the other voices calling out to us. Years ago we heard Alan Redpath, the evangelist, warn us about resisting the “tyranny of the urgent.” The urgent is often a good thing but not the best thing. Too often we choose the good over the best and allow it to take over our lives. Perhaps the emptiest lives are those that are stuffed with daily activity from sunup to sundown. When the Pillar of Cloud stands still, we need to focus our attention entirely on the Lord.

“‘Word of God speak,’ the song writer cries. Please do, LORD.”

=============================================================

Numbers 9 KJV

¹ And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, ² Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. ³ In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.  ⁴ And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. ⁵ And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. ⁶ And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: ⁷ And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel? ⁸ And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you. ⁹ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ¹⁰ Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD. ¹¹ The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs . ¹² They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. ¹³ But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. ¹⁴ And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land. 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.