Numbers 1:1

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"In the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation" Num 1:1

The wonderful conjunction of names and situations in life. Here we have "wilderness" and "tabernacle." We cannot be blind to the "wilderness"; sometimes a teacher is required to point out the "tabernacle." The "tabernacle" is always to be found by the earnest searcher. The wilderness, as to mere space is incomparably larger than the tabernacle, but the tabernacle as to its quality and radiance destroys the unhappiest aspects and influences of the wilderness. The wilderness may represent what nature can do for man; the tabernacle is the peculiar and distinctive work of God, showing how the supernatural subdues and glorifies everything with which it comes in contact. Sometimes the tabernacle is in the man's heart; if indeed its spirit is not there no outside building can supply its place or offer such security as cither reason or feeling can really enjoy. Be afraid of no wilderness in which there is a tabernacle. By setting up his tabernacle God means to make the wilderness blossom as the rose. Life itself may often assume the desolation of a wilderness; this it must do in the absence of supernatural influences; decorate it as we may, scatter upon it all the wild flowers that hands can gather, it is a wilderness still: in such circumstances the traveller must cry out for the living God, and yearn for a dwelling place not made with hands. The tabernacle may be some quickening thought, or sacred memory, or inspiring promise, or the companionship of a kindred soul; the tabernacle of God has a thousand aspects, and is consequently different in its representation according to the circumstances in which every man looks upon it. The tabernacle is never so beautiful as when seen in contrast with the wilderness. As the weary night makes the dawn doubly welcome, so the great wilderness develops in the tabernacle a beauty and a splendour which would be otherwise unrecognised. As in darkness we see the stars, so in the wilderness we ought to see the spiritual glory of the tabernacle.