Numb. ix. 21 — 23. So it was, whe?i 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. 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. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their 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.
THE conducting of Israel in the wilderness by a pillar and a cloud is often mentioned in the Holy Scriptures ; but in no place so fully as here. From the fifteenth verse to the end of this chapter is the same truth repeated again and again, with very little variation. It should seem, however, that the guiding of Israel was not the only use of the pillar and the cloud. These conductors appear, indeed, to have rested on the tabernacle ; but to have occupied at the same time such a space, as to give light to the whole camp of Israel by night, and to afford them a cooling shade by day ; so that the people might be protected from the burning rays of the sun, which, in that climate, nothing but a miracle could enable them for a continuance to sustain. This information we have from David, who says, that God " spread a cloud for a covering; and fire, to give light in the night a." But the regulating of their motions is that particular point to which my text adverts ; and to which there- fore, exclusively, I shall direct your attention. It is obvious, that the extreme uncertainty of the move- ments made by the cloud must keep the people in continual suspense. This was a state of discipline proper for them. And we shall find it a profitable subject of contemplation, if we consider, I. The use of this discipline to them —
a Ps. cv. 39.