^ The world is very much what you and I choose to make it. God intends it to be a place of discipline for the heirs of glory ; a place of preparation for heaven ; a place in which we may be trained and fitted for the high destiny to which He has called us — just what the wilderness was to Israel. Now, if we use the world in this way, we shall find it to be a very good world for its purpose. And the discipline will not be all painful. We shall have, as Israel had, our Marahs, where the waters are bitter. Disappointments, bereavements, sicknesses, temptations, painful and prolonged conflicts with evil — these we shall have, and they will be hard to bear. But, like Israel, we shall have our Elims also, with their seventy palm trees, and twelve wells of refresh- ing waters. God will give to us joy, comforts, peace, rest, to cheer us on our way. Yet, just as no schoolboy counts school his home, but longs for the holidays, and the happy meeting with relatives and friends ; so we, placed in the world as a school for
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a while, should not regard it as our home ; but should look forward to the day, when, our training complete, we shall enter heaven, and dwell there with Jesus for ever.^
Elim, Elim ! Through the sand and heat
I toil with heart uplifted, I toil with bleeding feet;
For Elim, Elim ! at the last, I know
That I shall see the palm-trees, and hear the waters flow.
Elim, Elim ! Grows not here a tree. And all the springs are Marah, and bitter thirst to me; But Elim, Elim ! in thy shady glen
Are twelve sweet wells of water, and palms three-score and ten.
Elim, Elim! Though the way be long,
Unmurmuring I shall journey, and lift my heart in song;
And Elim, Elim ! all my song shall tell
Of rest beneath the palm-tree, and joy beside the well.
ii. Who is to be the Guide?
1. €hd. — The true leader of the children of Israel in their wilderness journey was not Moses, but the Divine Presence in the cloud with a heart of fire, that hovered over their camp for a defence and sailed before them for a guide. "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way." When it lay on the tent, whether it was for " two days, or a month, or a year," the march was stayed, and the moment that the cloud lifted " by day or by night," the encampment was broken up and the long procession was got into marching order without an instant's pause, to follow its gliding motion wherever it led and however long it lasted. First to follow was the ark on the shoulders of the Levites, and behind it, separated by some space, came the " standard of the camp of the children of Judah, and then the other tribes in their order."
It would seem as if Hobab's aid were rendered needless by the provision of guidance immediately promised. Up to this moment the position of the Ark had been in the midst of the host, in front of Ephraim, Benjaraiu, and Manasseh ; but henceforth it went three days' journey in front of the people, " to seek out a resting- place for them." We are left to conceive of its lonely journey as
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it went forward, borne by its attendant band of priests and Levites, and perhaps accompanied by a little group of princes and warriors, and especially by the great lawgiver himself. Far behind, at a distance of miles, followed the camp with its tumult, its murmur of many voices, the cries of little children, the measured tramp of armed bands. But none of these intruded on the silence and solemnity which, like majestic angels, passed forward with that courier group accompanying the Ark, over which cherubic forms were bending. That Moses was there is indubitable ; for the august sentences are recorded with which he announced its starting forth and its setting down. In the one case, looking into the thin air, which seemed to him thronged with opposing forces of men and demons, he cried, " Eise up, 0 Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered ; and let them that hate thee flee before thee"; and in the other he cried, "Keturn, 0 Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel" (verses 35 and 36). Thus God Himself superseded the proposal of Moses by an expedient which more than met their needs.
^ We have the same Divine guidance, if we will ; in sober reality we have God's presence ; and waiting hearts which have ceased from self-will may receive leading as real as ever the pillar gave to Israel. God's providence does still shape our paths ; God's Spirit will direct us within, and God's word will counsel us. If we will wait and watch we shall not be left undirected. It is wonderful how much practical wisdom about the smallest per- plexities of daily life comes to men who keep both their feet and their wishes still until Providence — or, as the world prefers to call it, " circumstances " — clears a path for them,