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296 The Tabernacle God. Through the burning sands of the desert, in the enemies' country, through "the howling wilderness," God led His ancient people, Israel. It is always true that the Lord is a guide to those who crust Him. No matter what the danger or trial or sorrow, He still leads on, even as He said to David many centuries ago, "I wiU instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye" (Psalm 32:8). 2. "A Sun and Shield." The Psalmist must have been thinking of the Shekinah Glory when he wrote, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, saying, in another place, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God . . . For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand . . . For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84: 1, 2, 10, 11). The Lord is a Sun for the dark day, a Shield from "the fiery darts of the wicked." Israel had experienced the meaning of this truth. On the night when the nation had left Egypt, the cruel Pharaoh and his hosts pursued God's people. With the Red Sea before them, with the mountains and the wilderness beside them, and with the enemy be- hind them, Israel was afraid. But God spoke His reassuring, "Fear not"; and the pillar of cloud and fire moved from before Israel and stood between His people and the enemy. Moreover, the Shekinah Glory gave light unto Israel, but darkness and confusion to the Egyptians. "The Lord God" was "a sun and shield" to His redeemed people. And so He is to His blood-bought children in every age. So He is to us today!
The Tabernacle 3, "Rest." In words of unspeakable comfort and beau- ty, God wrote of His purpose in going before Israel throughout the wilderness journey, "And they departed from the mount of the Lord (Mount Sinai) three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them" (Nu.m. 10:33 ). In words of unspeakable comfort and beauty, our Lord Jesus said to a heart-hungry and sin-weary people nearly two thousand years ago: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy la- den, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30). 4. "Glory"-for all Eternity. It was the Shekinah Glory that led Israel for forty years from Egypt to Canaan. And it is the vision of the glory of God, now seen by faith, one day to become sight, that encourages the Christian to press on in the pilgrimage toward that "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." In His intercessory prayer, uttered before He went to the cross, our Lord said unto His Father on behalf of His own: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one . . . Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:22, 24). When the Levites exchanged their burdens for the rest and worship and praise in Solomon's temple, with all the
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