Numbers 9 verses 15 through 23, these are God's words. Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. From evening until morning, it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always, the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that, the children of Israel would journey. And in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of Yahweh, the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of Yahweh, they would camp. As long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped. Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, The children of Israel kept the charge of Yahweh and did not journey. So it was when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days, according to the command of Yahweh, they would remain encamped, and according to the command of Yahweh, they would journey. So it was when the cloud remained only from evening until morning. When the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey, whether by day or by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. Whether it was two days, a month, 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. At the command of Yahweh, they remained encamped, and at the command of Yahweh, they journeyed, they kept the charge of Yahweh, at the command of Yahweh, by the hand of Moses. Amen, this ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. One of the things, dear children, that is a clue to you of what mom and dad think is important is when they repeat themselves, when you've heard it many times. which is one of the reasons why, as you condition, by the Lord's grace, seek to have your heart conditioned to honor your father and your mother. You should never think, yeah, yeah, dad, yeah, yeah, mom, we know, we know. You should never think that, let alone say that back to your mom or dad. But you should think, as one who honors your father and your mother, they are saying it again. It must be important. Well, one of the ways that the Lord underlines to us things that are important, one of the ways he emphasizes to us things that we need to pay attention to is by repeating them in his word. And we have in this passage a repetition of what he told us from at the end of the book of Exodus. So in Exodus chapter 40, in verse 33, he says, and he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and he hung up the screen of the court. So Moses finished the work. And in the beginning of our passage, he says, now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up. So this is the same day. The first day of the first month is telling us that we're at the same time as the beginning of chapter seven, that we're actually a month before. all the censuses with which the book of Numbers begins. Exodus 40 continues, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of Yahweh was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. And that sounds very familiar, doesn't it? Because it is in substance the same thing that we have here in Numbers chapter 9. There's also in our passage significant internal repetition about keeping the charge of Yahweh. And several times it tells us that when the cloud went up, they journeyed. When the cloud remained, they didn't. And that they kept the charge of Yahweh according to the command of Yahweh over and over again. And so the Lord, by this repetition from the end of the book of Exodus, and by this repetition, even within the passage, is drawing our attention that we might say, what is this that he is teaching us, especially here, that is so important that he wants to press home, not just for them, they did not yet necessarily have, the book of Numbers, probably the book of Exodus either, since this is the same day as that described in chapter 40. But remembering that 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 through 11, refer in the first place to the people there, or to the people of Israel here, as those who are under the cloud. 1 Corinthians 10 beginning. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all, sorry, and all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And so the description of the waters on the sides of the Red Sea and particularly of the cloud above them being described as a sort of baptism, being in the church where you can see the Lord displaying his presence to you and his glory to you, and also having marked you as one who belongs to his church. This marked them. And of course, baptism, the water of baptism does the same to us. It marks us and identifies us as part of the church. And he says, these things happen to them but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages has come." We'll come back to 1 Corinthians 10 and pick that up, especially in the last point, since that's the point at which in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians, they were written down for our instruction. that he transitions into verse 11 and says, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So it's very helpful to us that the Holy Spirit has already given us authoritative exposition and application of at least one part of the teaching of the text. in that way. But what is so important, then, that it is highlighted by this repetition as we really close a great chapter in the dealing of the Lord with his people? The people arrived at Sinai in Exodus 19, and by the time we are done with the next chapter, chapter 10, they will have departed Sinai. The whole thing takes place at Sinai. Well, the things that we see in this passage especially then are the keeping of the Lord's promise, the communication of the Lord's presence, confidence in the Lord's power, and then, as we have already mentioned, by Scripture's own use of this passage, a call for our perseverance. First then a keeping of promise. What a blessing that the tent would be in the midst of the people and the cloud would be over the tabernacle that had been built. You remember a time, I hope, from the book of Exodus where the tent of Moses was actually pitched outside the camp. The people had sinned against God, and Moses was interacting with the ward, and the cloud would come down upon Moses' tent whenever Moses went in. And whenever that happens, it said, the Lord having brought the people to repentance, the people would come out and stand in the doorway of their own tent and look and weep. over the fact that they had been chastened by the Lord and rejected by Him. And you remember then in Exodus 33, and then again in response to God's display of His glory in Exodus 34, Moses asking the Lord to still go up with them. In chapter 33, Moses says to Yahweh, verse, Verse 12, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you and that I may find grace in your sight and consider that this nation is your people. And the Lord responds, and he says, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. And Moses responds to the Lord. And he said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us? So we shall be separate your people and I from all the people who are on the face of the earth. So Yahweh said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name. So the Lord relents, the Lord has mercy. He says, I will go with you, I will go in your midst, I will lead you. And that's the point at which Moses is emboldened. The very next verse he says, please show me your glory. And we have this wonderful display of God's glory to Moses, which is not so much the visual display, God making the trailing of his glory to pass by as he hides Moses. in the cleft of the rock, but as is consistent with all of the Lord's revealings of himself to us in the scripture, it's especially a verbal display. Yahweh proclaiming his own name, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful. And the Lord pronounces his name. Yahweh proclaim the name of Yahweh, and Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed. Yahweh, Yahweh, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then he said, Okay, so this is when the Lord had revealed himself, this wonderful revelation of himself that John tells us we find fulfilled in Jesus. The word was made flesh and we beheld his glory. That glory is beheld by faith, not by sight. Many who saw the Lord Jesus visually and did not behold his glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Using the same phrase, in the Greek translation of the end of verse six in Exodus 34. Now Moses is on his face, and in the very next verse, then he said, if now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance. And he said, behold, I make a covenant before all your people. I will do marvels and so forth. The Lord promises that he will go with them. And now this is in Numbers 9, verse 15, describing what? It's describing the Lord going with them. It's describing them, the Lord leading them. How did they know when to break camp and leave? Well, the cloud. of the Lord's presence rose up from above where it was, above the tabernacle. And how did they know what direction to go? Well, the cloud moved in that direction. So that even when God's priests, as we'll hear about next Lord's Day, Lord willing, in the beginning of chapter 10, even when God's priests blew the silver trumpet, the whole nation of Israel knew they weren't obeying the priest. It wasn't the priest saying it's time to break camp. The priest was given a charge of blowing the trumpet so they would know exactly when and they could be orderly in their marching and their procedure. But they would know that it was the Lord. The Lord not only who was commanding them to part or commanding them, halt, but the Lord who was going with them. He was keeping his promise. He was displaying himself to be in their lives and in the life of them in their life corporately as a church, what he had proclaimed himself to be in his words. Gracious, merciful, patient, long-suffering, forgiving, full of covenant love and covenant faithfulness. So the Lord is keeping his promise. He is a promise keeper. And now we have come to the time for the going with you, for the going part of the going with you to be enacted. You remember that one verse from Exodus 40 that we read that is not repeated here, that when the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, what couldn't Moses do? He couldn't enter, could he? But the whole book of Leviticus has answered that problem, it's gone. So now we have this repetition in Numbers 9, 15 through 23, and the bit about Moses not being able to enter is not repeated here. Because even though the book of Leviticus took place after the day referred to in verse 15, The Lord has told us about the solving of that problem. He has made the way of his people coming near. So the Lord is faithful to keep his promise. And he is no less faithful now than he was then. He never changes. His promises are not more sure in the past than they are when they are still to be kept in the future. That which the Lord promises is a historical fact, even if it's future history and not past history, because he is faithful. He is faithful to keep all his promises to you, dear believer. And he's not given you a cloud to see by day that looks like fire by night. He has given you a ascendancy. who became flesh as a fact of history, and who lived obediently, and died atoningly, and not only rose again from the dead, but appeared to many, and 40 days later ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God, where he still sits now, so that even when we eat and drink in remembrance of him at the table, we are remembering not someone who is back there, but someone who sits upon the throne of glory and someone who is coming again. We show forth his death until he comes. And so in Jesus, all of the promises of God have their yes. In Jesus, all of the promises of God have their amen. So God carrying you, and not letting the fire or the water harm you. Carrying you like a little lamb in his bosom, held up to his chest as it were. God working all things together for your good. God working all things according to the counsel of the same will in which he has determined that you will be his heir, his adoptive child who inherits with the Lord Jesus. God completing the work that he has begun in you. God working in you, both the willingness and the working that is according to his good pleasure. God not allowing, even if you are killed by your enemy, for you to be defeated, but rather to make you more than conquerors. Not separating his love from you, but granting that by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony from Scripture, that by those things you would overcome even the devil himself, as you love not your life unto death. And many other such promises, all of them you can be sure of, not because you see cloud and fire above a tent, Israel should have been sure of the faithfulness of God, because they had heard about those promises from Exodus 33 and Exodus 34, and the cloud by day that looked like fire by night, it sure enough would get up and go when they were supposed to leave, and it would stop when they were supposed to stop, and they would see the Lord is going with us, he's faithful to keep his promises. You have even better than they do, don't you? the finished work of a currently seated reigning savior whose enemies are being put under his feet. So there's the keeping of the Lord's promise, there's the communication of the Lord's presence. Very interesting name given to the tabernacle in verse 15, the tent of the testimony. the tent of the testimony. Now, this is a unique name in scripture and probably indicates the particular place, the particular part of the tabernacle over which the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire would hover and remain when they were to remain encamped. It's reminding them that God has especially made his presence to be known upon the Ark of the Testimony. So you have the Ark of the Testimony, which is sometimes called the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of the testimony with its lid, the mercy seat, and built into that lid the two cherubim and God describing himself in multiple places in scripture as the one who sits enthroned upon the cherubim. Communication of the Lord's presence. And of course, God is present everywhere, his being, penetrates all of existence and is possible for anything to exist apart from his existence permeating, penetrating everything. He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being. But it is especially for them, isn't it? That he communicates his presence in a particular way by that cloud and that fire so that it would be called the tent of the testimony. And He doesn't just communicate then that He's present with them, but the one who, in what the Bible calls the third heaven, especially makes His glory known, not above that golden cherubim, but above real cherubim, where your Savior sits. He sits enthroned above burning angel, Seraphim, who hide their faces from him. Because John tells us that Isaiah said what he said in Isaiah chapter six when he saw Jesus' glory. And so your Savior also has his presence. And he communicates to them that his presence is not intermittent. It is never interrupted. He never takes a nap. There's the cloud by fire. There is a cloud by day and a fire by night. God is not like Baal. who takes time off and goes on vacation and has to use the potty and gets really sleepy and is unavailable and you have to wake him up. No, he who keeps Israel, he neither slumbers nor sleeps. The moon shall not strike you by night nor the sun by day. His presence is a continual presence and is now an incarnational presence to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and this means that not only is God with us in that aspect of his divine nature in which his being penetrates all things, but he's also with us by virtue of our being united to a flesh and blood Lord Jesus Christ. Though although we are not presently physically with him, we are still united to him. He says of us, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. I know one of you were telling me recently how helpful Matthew Henry's commentary has been in opening up the Song of Songs about the great love of Christ for his bride, his love for the church, and his love for every member, every part of his church. And we just sang that synopsis here, Psalm 45, cliff notes of the Song of Songs about the beauty of the bride and the king's delight in her and the glory of the king in the first half, which we less often so far have sung in our congregation. We are united to him. Although we are not physically, geographically present with him, We are as near to the man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus, as his own heart, as near as a wife should always be to her husband's heart. We, of course, are imperfect, but he is perfect. We are always united to him. So that even when he was departing from them physically, what did the Lord Jesus say? He didn't just give them the charge that we call the Great Commission. under his authority, upon his authority, of which he has all that is in heaven and on earth, they were as they went to make disciples, especially by two means, by baptizing them and by teaching them to keep all that he had commanded. But how does he conclude it? And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so that continual presence of the Lord that was a reality that was communicated to them, even by the varying appearance, cloud by day, fire by night. It is a reality to you. The risen Lord Jesus always lives. And what does he do continually with his indestructible life now? always lives to intercede for us by the power of his indestructible life. That's what Hebrews says. And so he will surely save us to the uttermost because his presence with us is continual and uninterrupted. And it's also a presence, therefore, that is designed to protect us. Since he is God and man, and he does in his divine nature penetrate all things, and as man, he counts us as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, then he who works all things according to the counsel of his will works all things for our good. What we quoted from Psalm 121, the moon shall not strike you by night or the sun by day. This was something that was already communicated to them by means of the cloud. You remember when the cloud by day and the fire by night first appeared to them. It was in Exodus 13. They had just left the land of Egypt. They were an untrained people. They were not a warrior people. And the Lord was leading them, and they thought, protecting them. But as the Lord led them, he led them to the shores of the Red Sea by this little place on the shore of the Red Sea called Pi-Ha-Hi-Roth, one of the most indefensible positions possible. And to make things worse, Pharaoh changed his mind. and sent his army out after them. So now they're backed up to the Red Sea. They don't have any way to escape. They're in an indefensible position. Why? Well, in part so that the Lord can teach them that he is their defense. And the pillar of cloud and fire rises at that point in Exodus 14, verses 19 through 20. It moves from the shore of the sea where it had stopped from in front of them to behind them. And God actually made that pillar to be darkness to the Egyptians and light to the Israelites. so that the Israelites had safety and had security. He communicated to them that his power is protecting them. So there's not just the presence of God and the fellowship of God and knowing that the wisdom of God is leading us through life because we have God in Christ. There is also the power of God protecting us. There is no indefensible circumstance. There is no powerful enemy. that can prevail to harm you if you belong to God in Jesus Christ. So just as he taught his people here, that his power was protecting them. So also in that wonderful benediction at the end of Ephesians 3, he blesses God, praises God as the one whose power is at work in us. Now he has not given us cloud and fire, but he has given us word and sacrament. And the Lord Jesus comes near in his worship. And he communicates to us, he strengthens our faith and makes us to know his reality, makes us to know his presence, makes us to know his power, makes us to know his faithfulness by his word and by his sacrament. It is much simpler than before. but it is much fuller and more glorious because the one who addresses us by the word is the one who speaks from heaven, as Hebrews 12 says. The one who addresses us by his word is the one who is shaking heaven and earth and is preserving us. And so we come in the last place then to the call for our perseverance. Verses 19 through 23, if only it could have remained that way. Over and over, by repetition, he talks about how they kept the charge of the Lord and how they obeyed the commandments of the Lord. Now, if you're familiar with the rest of the book of Numbers, you might be scratching your head. Because the rest of the book of Numbers does not describe a people who are really meticulous and careful to keep the charge of the Lord and obey the commandments of the Lord. It describes a people who are continually grumbling, continually anxious, continually insubordinate, complaining about wishing that they could go back to Egypt, accusing God of bringing them out into the wilderness to kill them. And so we know that grumbling is about to overtake any contentment, that insubordination is about to overtake their submission, and that fear is going to overtake their faith, and rebellion is going to overtake their obedience. So what are we to do with that? Well, we're to see a people about whom the things in verses 19 through 23 could be said, about how obedient they were and how well they kept the charge of the Lord. and were to realize that we have the same flaws in our remaining sinfulness and our original nature that they did. Now, my dear brothers and sisters, I wish I could tell you that it was impossible for word and sacrament to become so familiar to you that familiarity breeds contempt. But that's not the case. You would think it would have been impossible for the familiarity of the cloud and the fire to breed content, that it was impossible that they would get so used to it that they would be unaffected by it. But the cloud and the fire were there in all of their grumbling. The cloud and the fire were there in all of their insubordination and rebellion. The cloud and the fire were there in all of their anxiety and doubting. that the Lord would actually take them into the land and give the Canaanites into their hands. They were there the whole time. And so when he describes the various flaws and rebellions and chastenings that they received, and then he says, now all these things, sorry, it's verse 11 and 12, not verse 10 and 11, Now all these things happen to them as examples, but they were written down for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. He says immediately, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And so he gives us this in verses 19 through 23 so that we can say, I am of like nature, my original nature in myself, I am of like nature, to them, and if they could have that cloud, and if they could have that fire, and they could have gone through a season of such careful obedience to the Lord, let me not think that just because I have the word, and just because I have the sacraments, and just because he has brought me through a season of careful observance of what he says to do, that I am therefore immune to stumbling, and I am immune to falling. Let me, let myself, let you, dear congregation, who think you stand, and praise God. God is the one who makes you stand, like we've been hearing in Romans 14. But let us take heed, lest we fall. Don't let the presence of the Lord to us, week by week, suffer the consequence of familiarity breeding contempt. Seek by the Lord's grace to engage and notice and regard the greatness of what he has done in coming near to us in word and sacrament. Seek the grace of the Holy Spirit to know the Lord Jesus as the one who is living and reigning and sitting, not back on the cross, certainly not in a manger, not in a tomb, but sitting on the throne of glory above the cherubim, so that everywhere is for you a tent of the testimony, for you are united to the Christ who has entered the holy of holies and brought you into heaven with him. If this knowledge of the Lord Jesus were to become commonplace to us, and we were to take it for granted, this would produce in us anxiety, for we would not know his presence and power with us. It would produce in us rebellion. For we would be able to reject him and disobey him, even aware of his presence like they did under the cloud and under the fire. Instead, let us receive the tokens that he has given us of his faithfulness, his presence, and his power. And God grant that we would take those tokens to heart. Amen. Lord, we thank you that in the Lord Jesus, all of your promises are yes and amen. You are the infinitely, eternally, unchangeably faithful God. And you have not only communicated to us your faithfulness, but also your presence with us, Christ's presence with us. We pray, Lord, that you would make us to know that the Lord is at hand, so that our gentleness would be known to all. that you would make us to live conscientiously before your face and before his face. Uphold us by your grace. Grant that we would stand because you make us to stand. And give us, we pray, to take heed by faith, by your grace, lest we fall. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.