NUMBERS 10
“And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shalt thou make them; and they shall serve for the calling together of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps” (verse 1). These are the last things mentioned as being divinely ordered to be made in connection with the tabernacle. They are called “the holy instruments”, or “instruments of the sanctuary”, in chapter 31:6. They formed a very distinctive part of priestly equipment; God had in mind to direct the movements of His people in this way continually;
“[p. 125] they shall be to you for an everlasting statute throughout your generations” (verse 8). “Silver”, being connected with ransom and atonement (Exodus 30), symbolises divine grace and faithfulness. Every sound of the priestly trumpets carries the impression of this. Whether it is to gather the congregation, or the princes, or to set the camps in movement, in time of war, or in the day of gladness, the trumpets always sound forth in a priestly way the note of divine faithfulness.
“The calling together of the assembly” is the first purpose which the trumpets serve, and this is not to be “an alarm”. It is the normal summons of the assembly. It was a wonderful sound that went forth to the whole assembly when the Lord said in the upper room at Jerusalem: “This do in remembrance of me”. How it was designed to gather the whole assembly! We know how that call has been disregarded, and the precious supper of our Lord has even been perverted until it has become in Christendom positively idolatrous, and a chief means of maintaining the pretensions of a false priesthood. But what a true sound went forth from the silver trumpets about a hundred years ago, when it was brought home to many saints that the Lord could be counted on if His people came together to eat His supper without sanction from men, and apart from the official order which had come to be regarded as indispensable! The trumpets sounded, and have been sounding ever since, “for the calling together of the assembly”. It is not something new; it is the original divine order, restored in the grace and faithfulness of our God.
Then it is said, “the whole assembly shall gather to thee at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (verse 3). Moses represents the authority of the Lord, and this is to be owned in every gathering together of the saints. “The whole assembly” gathers to Moses in verse 3, and “the princes” gather to him in verse 4. This would imply an entire absence of lawlessness or insubordination; everyone says, Lord, to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. There is no gathering together according to God on any other footing. God would deliver us by the teaching of this chapter from the idea of a formal round of meetings going on mechanically. Priestly exercise is to precede each occasion of gathering together, so that a spiritual sense of having to do with God as of His assembly gives character to the occasion.
The normal assembly gathering together is to eat the Lord’s supper, but looking at this in relation to the testimony it has in view our being qualified for a mission here as sent into the world. This makes prayer a great necessity, as the Lord pointed out to His disciples (John 14:13,14; John 15:7,16; John 16:23,24; John 16:26); we can only carry out our mission in dependence. So that the “breaking of bread and prayers” go together (Acts 2:42). There is also the thought in Scripture of the whole assembly coming together in one place for edification (1 Corinthians 14). And in these last days the Lord has put special honour on the coming together to read the Scriptures. All such gatherings are the result of priestly exercise and the sounding of the silver trumpets. It is in divine faithfulness that they have been restored in a day of departure. Verse 4 gives scriptural ground for a care meeting, or a conference of brothers having a special care for God’s interests (see Acts 15:6; Acts 20:17; Numbers 1:16; Nehemiah 8:13). All this has part in the divine order which we have to learn.
Then when the camps are to “set forward” the priests have to blow “an alarm”. This means a re-adjustment of position and outlook. We have looked at things from a certain standpoint for some time:
[p. 127] now we have to move on and look at them from another standpoint. This involves definite movement of a collective nature. The people of God are to acquire new spiritual experience and a new outlook. The testimony remains exactly what it ever was, but we are now to see all connected with it in a different way. For instance, justification by faith was a great feature of the testimony in Luther’s time, and it is as much so today as it was then. But how differently do we see it now! How much more fully and clearly! And this applies to the righteousness of God, reconciliation, eternal life, the truth of the assembly, the truth of the Lord’s sonship, and many other things. They are just what they always were, but the movements of the testimony have brought us into a clearer view of them, which neither we nor our fore-fathers had before.
The cloud being taken up is a movement on God’s part which is spiritually discerned by the priests, who then blow the trumpets. As I understand it, this is not exactly levitical ministry, but a priestly summons which has divine authority. We read of “what the Spirit says to the assemblies”. No doubt He speaks through human vessels, but what He says has to be discerned by the spiritual ear as His speaking.
“And when ye blow an alarm, the camps that lie eastward shall set forward. And when ye blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie southward shall set forward” (verse 5). The orientation of the tabernacle, and of the camps, is a matter to be carefully noted; that is, the eastward position. We all know that it is imitated in a gross and material way in the building of churches and cathedrals, but we need to understand its spiritual import. It is “toward the sun-rising” (Numbers 3:38), clearly intimating that the testimony, and the movements of the camps in relation to it, have in view the coming of the Lord.
[p. 128] Every feature of the testimony will be brought in publicly when the Lord comes, and His coming is the goal towards which all spiritual movements tend. Everything in the testimony is really, like the Lord’s supper, “until he come”. Moses, and Aaron and his sons, encamp “before the tabernacle eastward”. The priestly company is on that side of the testimony, representing those who with spiritual intelligence and affection can serve in relation to it as understanding that it ever has “the sun-rising” in view.
Every movement of the testimony is in that direction. God has one thing before Him in relation to the world; He is going to bring the Firstborn into it (Hebrews 1:6), and His testimony ever moves towards that. It must be so if it is God’s testimony. So when an alarm is blown “the camps that lie eastward shall set forward”. The first movement is with those who are nearest to the sunrising, representing those who love His appearing, and look in the most distinct way for His coming. Such will be alert, and ready to “set forward” at the first blast of the trumpets.
Then when an alarm is blown the second time “the camps that lie southward shall set forward”. They represent those who occupy a favoured position in relation to the testimony. There are many such today. Persons who are privileged to see how God has favoured His people in placing His testimony amongst them, and who appreciate this favour. They have not the sun-rising so distinctly in view as “the camps that lie eastward”, but they have enjoyment of God’s present favour and blessing, and do not desire to lose it by dropping behind, so that they move when the trumpet is blown “the second tune”. Though not taking up the new exercise so quickly as their brethren who are “eastward”, they are ready to move at the second summons.
[p. 129] The camps westward and northward are not mentioned. They seem to represent those who stand in a less favourable attitude in relation to the testimony than their brethren in “the camp of Judah” or “the camp of Reuben”. “The camp of Dan” was the last to move, and it typifies those who are most tardy in spiritual movement, but who do, nevertheless, follow up eventually. The blowing of the silver trumpets precedes the movement of the tabernacle and the sanctuary, but when once they have moved there is no further need for the trumpets. The other camps have now to recognise that the testimony has moved, and that they must follow it, or be left behind.
Then in verses 9,10 the silver trumpets are blown for an altogether different purpose. It is now that God’s people in conflict may be remembered before Him, and be saved from their enemies; or, on the other hand, that in the day of their gladness their burnt-offerings and peace-offerings may be to them for a memorial before their God. So that the trumpets are to be blown Godward as well as manward. His grace and faithfulness are to be loudly sounded before Him in a priestly way both in time of war and in the day of gladness. Such a sound will ever secure His remembrance.
There are times of conflict with the enemy, even “in your land”; it speaks of an invasion of divine territory, an inroad of the foe. At such times “ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets”. In times of conflict our being remembered and saved is not by reason of our valiant fighting; it depends on the priestly alarm which regards the matter in its true character before God, and calls in His power. There will be no true spiritual conflict apart from the conviction that there is something at stake which is of God, and which He can and will defend. Spiritual persons discern in it an effort of the enemy, and realise that it is an [p. 130] oppression which has to be met by the power of God. Power comes in when opposition to what is of God is regarded as a work of the enemy. Nothing more falsifies the conflicts of the testimony than to regard them as mere disputes and differences between men who cannot agree. Satan would like the people of God to so regard them. But to “blow an alarm” before God signifies that His attention is called to it as something directly hostile to His interests, and to the peace and prosperity of His people; something is at stake which is of value to Him. God hears the silver trumpets; He has given them to His priests that He might hear them on such occasions. He will remember and save His people.
Then “in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over your sacrifices of peace-offering; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God” (verse 10). This is an additional feature to what we get in Leviticus; it sets forth the jubilant character of spiritual festivity. The service of God is no matter of cold and formal correctness; it is like the music and dancing of Luke 15: The joy of conscious acceptance is secured by the burnt offerings, and the joy of communion with God and with His people is connected with the peace offerings. But the silver trumpets are to sound a triumphal note in connection with both. There is such a thing as spiritual boasting (see Romans 5:2,11; 1 Corinthians 1:31; Galatians 6:14; Philippians 3:3). God loves to hear the memorial of the gladness of His people; He would have it sounded before Him in a prolonged and lofty strain.
It would appear that the cloud rested on the tabernacle for forty-nine days before it was taken up. There was thus a complete period of holy service in [p. 131] restfulness before the movements of the testimony began. God would have us to know the blessedness of His dwelling amongst us in conditions suitable to Himself, and the privilege of approaching Him, before He calls upon us to take up the exercise of spiritual movement in the wilderness.
The movement of the camps here is according to the order of chapter 2, save that we find now that “the tabernacle” was taken down and borne after the camp of Judah so as to be in readiness to receive “the sanctuary” when it followed after the camp of Reuben. It is an additional touch to bring out the care with which provision was to be made for all to be in readiness for “the sanctuary”. That is, the direct service of God is the important thing, and the outward order of things should always be looked at in relation to that. What is outward is important, chiefly because it is preparatory to the holy service of the sanctuary. There is a preliminary movement of “the tabernacle”, indicating preparation by levitical service for the housing of all that is to be served in a priestly way. I think we may say that in 1 Corinthians we see Paul serving in a levitical way to set up “the tabernacle”. He is putting all that is outward in order, as having in view that the holy service of the sanctuary should have its place amongst them. The service of God will always take character from the present position of the testimony, so that a certain re-adjustment is necessitated by every wilderness movement.
In what Moses said first to Hobab there was a fine sense of Israel’s calling, and of the blessedness of Israel’s movements. There was a place of which Jehovah had said, “I will give it unto you ... Jehovah has spoken good concerning Israel” (verse 29).
[p. 132] Moses addressed Hobab as one conscious of God’s great thoughts in regard to His people. He spoke of the place and the people and the journeying on the high level of divine thoughts, according to the elevation of what was in the mind of God.
He was also finely evangelical. “Come with us, and we will do thee good”. He was not narrowed up; the “good” of which Jehovah had spoken was there for a Midianite, if the wonderful things spoken, or the appeal of Moses in regard to them, had any attraction for his heart. But Hobab minded earthly things; he was not at all disposed to cast in his lot with the people of God. “I will not go; but to mine own land, and to my kindred will I go”.
It is interesting to see that one of Hobab’s kindred — perhaps one of his descendants — became an overcomer in regard to the influences which prevailed to divert Hobab from the blessing which was put within his reach. “Now Heber the Kenite had severed himself from the Kenites, from the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak of Zaannaim, which is by Kedesh” (Judges 4:11). He left his own land and his people, and obtained honour in Israel, peculiar distinction being acquired by his wife through her destroying one of the great enemies of God’s people.
As the propounder of the good which Jehovah had spoken concerning Israel, and in calling Hobab to come with them and they would do him good, Moses was honouring God in a most blessed way. Hobab would receive all possible good by coming with them! But Hobab had no heart for the good that is of God; he had his own interests and his own people; they were more to him than the blessing of God.
But how exercising it is to see how soon the most distinguished servant of God can drop down from the [p. 133] elevation of divine thoughts to the level of nature! We might think it strange, if we did not know our own hearts, to find that Moses could drop so soon from the high level of what he had preached so beautifully to Hobab. He had preached that all the good was on Jehovah’s part and with His people, and Hobab might participate in it if he would come! But then, thinking for a moment of the wilderness and its perils and perplexities (like Peter seeing the wind strong, and beginning to sink), he begins to feel that he needs Hobab, and that Hobab could do them good! “Leave me not, I pray thee, because thou knowest where we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou wilt be to us for eyes” (verse 31). How could such a man as Hobab know where they were to encamp? Was he in the secret of God’s ways? What about the cloud and the silver trumpets? How soon we can turn from the Fountain of living waters to broken cisterns! How soon trust a broken reed rather than the living God! What a warning to us!
The Midianites were a deadly influence later on in this book. They were children of Abraham by Keturah, and seem to typify the ensnaring influence of natural relationships. Even a Barnabas was entangled in this snare, at any rate for a time. It is humbling to think that Moses, of all people, a man honoured of God perhaps above all others, should be the first one to want a human prop to lean upon! It was a serious matter in God’s account, but He met it in a wondrous way of grace.
“The ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them” (verse 33). There was no thought of this in the original ordering. The ark would have been carried normally in the midst of the camps along with the other parts of the sanctuary. It would have preceded the camp of Ephraim according to Psalm 80:2.
[p. 134] But this sorrowful moment of failure on the part of Moses changed the order. The people were not, indeed, up to the high dignity of being the custodians and guardians of the ark. It had been, as it were, proposed that it should be their sacred trust. But the failure of Moses had brought to light that on their side, even as seen in the best sample, they were not fit to be trusted with such a charge. The ark in going before them was really taking its right place — the only fitting place. It would lead the people, and search out a resting place for them. It would be their Guardian and Guide, the Witness to them of divine faithfulness and care. God would take, in the ark of His covenant, the only place which it was suitable for Him to take with such a people. He would manifest His tender care and consideration in a marvellous way.
“The ark of the covenant of Jehovah” appears now under this title for the First time. God gives prominence to Christ as the One in whom He has engaged Himself to His people in everlasting faithfulness. The ark went before them “to search out a resting place for them”. There is something very touching in this. Christ, as the Witness and Pledge of divine love and faithfulness, goes before His flock as their Leader and Shepherd, charging Himself with care that they shall have a resting place even in the wilderness! And this is additional to “the cloud”.
“The cloud” expresses to us that God is with His people in a way of which definite account can be taken. It is even to be discerned by a simple person, or even an unbeliever (1 Corinthians 14:24,25). The movements of “the cloud” are to be discerned and followed by God’s priests and people. But “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah” speaks of Christ in the blessed service of His love, leading in every wilderness movement, and ever having in mind “a resting place”. It is by His own [p. 135] leading that His saints are brought together in assembly, to rest there in the love of which His supper speaks, to know the covenant love of God, and the place which we have before Him as sons.
Moses accepted the divine rebuke, for it was a rebuke, though without a word being spoken. God knows how to rebuke His servants without letting anybody else be aware of it, as the Lord did in the case of John the Baptist. How often God answers our weakness and failure in a way that gives us, through infinite grace, new apprehensions of Christ and of Himself! We learn to value in a peculiar way divine faithfulness. Verses 35,36 show how quickly Moses escaped from the influence which for a moment cast a shadow over his confidence. How suitably he could speak to Jehovah, both as to the movements of the ark and its resting!
“Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered;
And let them that hate thee flee before thy face”. Numbers 10:35
He sees the ark as moving forward through a hostile region in an irresistible power that can scatter every foe. Such is the power that leads in all the movements of the testimony. Every force of evil will oppose those movements, but when Jehovah rises up they are all scattered. Whatever conflicts there may be, God will not suffer the movements of His testimony to be checked.
“And when it rested, he said,
Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel!” Numbers 10:36
The movements and the conflicts have always “a resting place” in view, not only for God’s people, but for Himself. He loves to rest in the midst of the holy myriads who love Him. The wilderness experience is not all movement, not all exercise and conflict! There [p. 136] are resting places in which the saints can enjoy the blessing with which God has blessed them, and where God Himself can rest in the blessing which He has put upon His people.
Here the first part of this book ends. It has given us in wonderful detail the divine ordering of God’s people as set in relation to His service and testimony in the wilderness. The closing verses of this chapter are a grand climax in which we see the stately progress of the testimony according to its proper order and glory, as identified with “the cloud”, and with “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah”. It is as though God would give us a magnificent idea of what was in His mind in regard to His Israel, before He sets forth in the following chapters the actual and sorrowful conditions which soon manifested themselves.