Human Partnerships and Godly Direction
Number 10 concludes the time Israel spends at the foot of Sinai. The camp is assembled, ordered and the tabernacle is filled with its instruments. The people are settled around the camp, the Levites have been given their responsibilities. All is set for Israel to wander along the path of God's leading to the Promised Land. Now in Numbers 10:11 Israel is making its first move following the leading of the glory cloud of God. Numbers 10:11–12 (ESV) In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, 12 and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. But in the midst of all this amazing God-directed movement, Moses has a curious conversation with one of his in-laws: Numbers 10:29–32 (ESV) And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lo...