LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for December 11: Stay on track with God’s GPS

Our lesson this week draws three principles out of the ninth chapter of Numbers. The first principle is to obey the clear commands of God.

Numbers 9 records a situation in which God gave a clear command to the Israelites: “celebrate the Passover” (v. 2). In verses 4 and 5, we read, “Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so … .”

This pattern of faithfulness should be evident in the life of every believer. We receive the clear commands of God, and we do them. When we confess Jesus is Lord, this is the pattern we are seeking to establish in our lives—hear and obey.
    
It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Hear and obey. It doesn’t get much more simple than that. Yet our selfish natures often rebel against this pattern. We often want to hear God’s will, and then we want to hear some other options. We like choices. We want multiple options. We want these options even when God’s clear commands are pleasant and we aren’t feeling particularly rebellious.

We especially want options when God’s commands are costly or require a significant change from us. If hearing and obeying God’s will were as easy as it sounds, none of us would struggle with the commands to love our enemies, to forgive as we have been forgiven or to make disciples of all nations.

Examine your own life in light of this principle. Would you rather participate in a Bible study where you seek to learn God’s will, or would you rather cultivate a relationship with someone so you might encourage them to live for Christ? Would you rather worship with someone who has hurt you, or would you rather worship only with your friends?

Such questions reveal our need for faith, commitment and the power of the Holy Spirit if we are going to live as obedient children. As a class, you might make a list of some of the clear commands of God and then encourage one another to obey those commands.

Obedience is the principle if God’s commands are clear, but what if God hasn’t given a clear command about a particular situation? This is the question in our passage this week.

God had commanded all the people celebrate the Passover, but some were unclean ritually and therefore unfit to participate in other religious activities. What about them? Could they participate in the Passover, or did their obedience to another command of God mean they should not participate in this event?

Moses’ response: “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you” (v. 8).

This is our second principle in seeking the Lord’s guidance: Prayerfully seek the Lord’s will.
    
When we seek the Lord’s will, we do more than seek for specific commands. We also seek after the Lord’s values. In some situations, many different actions may be acceptable as long as those actions reflect the Lord’s values and work toward God’s greater purposes of redemption. In other situations, only one action may be acceptable, but it too will be guided by the underlying values of God.

In Numbers 9, God reveals the divine priority lies with communal celebration and remembrance rather than with an individual expression of piety. Those who ritually were unclean in normal circumstances were included in the community Passover (v. 10). Those who were aliens and foreigners could likewise join the celebration if they so desired (v. 14). Through prayer, Moses discovered that community, inclusion and remembering the great salvation of God were of utmost importance.
    
We draw the final principle about seeking God’s guidance from the end of the chapter where the emphasis is no longer on the Passover but on the cloud that covered the Tabernacle. The arrangement by which God led the Israelites was that when the cloud moved, they moved, and when the cloud stayed, they stayed.

Sometimes staying can be as much of a challenge to us as going. This especially is true when we get enthusiastic about something. We want to turn our energy loose. Thinking we know the way, we risk running ahead of God. Has this ever happened to you? This is the final principle this week: Stay when God says “stay.”
    
Consider some of the times we want to go when God might want us to stay. Sometimes, as I mentioned, we positively are passionate about something. We love doing some work of ministry, but we sense God is telling us not to over-extend ourselves. Will we rein in our passions and be patient, or will we rush forward in well-intentioned rebellion?
    
Sometimes it is not our positive passions that tempt us, but our negative passions. We want to go because a relationship is hard. We want to leave because the church does not please us like it once did. We want to leave some place, some ministry or some person because our feelings have changed for the worse, but God says, “stay.”

In staying, we learn lessons we might not learn anywhere else. We learn about forgiveness. We learn about love. We learn about the power of God’s Spirit and the sufficiency of God’s strength. We learn these things because we stayed where God wanted us to be rather than following our initial inclinations.
    
Will you obey when God’s commands are clear, pray when complications arise and stay when God says “stay?”