Day 105 of 365
FOLLOWING JESUS
God made it clear how the people were to follow him in their journey from the wilderness to the promised land. They would not have to guess as to where God wanted them to dwell and when he wanted them to move. During the day, a cloud covered the dwelling of God in the tabernacle. There, God communed with his people. At night, this cloud turned to fire, and the entire nation saw the all-consuming presence of the Lord. When God was ready for the people to break camp and set out to a new location, the cloud moved, traveling ahead of the people to the place God wanted them to go next. God's instructions were simple: Stay put as long as the cloud and fire are there. When they move, you move. When the people did this, they could rest assured that they were following God and moving in the path he ordained.
The same simple message inaugurates Jesus' earthly ministry. "Come, follow me," he says to his newly commissioned disciples (Mt 4:19). Over the next three years, they accompanied the Son of God as he boldly proclaimed the availability of the kingdom of God and performed many miraculous signs that demonstrated the dawning of a new age. Following Jesus had much in common with the way in which the nation of Israel followed God in the wilderness. Where Jesus went, the disciples went, and there they received the blessing of his presence and provision.
Following his death and resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to provide all subsequent believers with guidance for how they can also follow Jesus. As believers are filled with God's Spirit (Eph 5:18) and refrain from those practices that may quench his Spirit, they can follow the path that God has purposed for their lives. This path may seem less clear than following a cloud and fire in the wilderness or walking the earth following the Son of God. However, believers are now indwelt with God's Spirit - meaning that the power to obey and follow Jesus now comes from within. Rather than following external signs, God's people have the Spirit of God living within them and directing their steps to follow his ways.
Jesus, I thank you and praise you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Help me to be sensitive and obedient to his urgings. I want to fully follow you with every step. Amen.
Numbers 9:15-23 NASB
15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle, until morning. 16 So it was continuously; the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 Whenever the cloud was lifted from over the tent, afterward the sons of Israel would then set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel would camp. 18 At the command of the L ord the sons of Israel would set out, and at the command of the L ord they would camp; as long as the cloud settled over the tabernacle, they remained camped. 19 Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the sons of Israel would keep the L ord ' s charge and not set out. 20 If sometimes the cloud remained a few days over the tabernacle, according to the command of the L ord they remained camped. Then according to the command of the L ord they set out. 21 If sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, when the cloud was lifted in the morning, they would move out; or if it remained in the daytime and at night, whenever the cloud was lifted, they would set out. 22 Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud lingered over the tabernacle, staying above it, the sons of Israel remained camped and did not set out; but when it was lifted, they did set out.
Matthew 4:19 NASB
19 And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
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