Numbers 9:17-23

I detain the Reader in the perusal of these verses, only to remark to him, that those testimonies of the LORD'S pleasure, for the movement or detention of Israel, beheld with an eye to the wilderness journeys of his spiritual Israel now, are very striking. The whole pilgrimage of Israel through the wilderness, had it been pursued, even with a moderate pace, might have been completed in about eleven days; for from Mount Horeb to Kadish-barnea, the borders of Canaan, it required no more. And what are the movements of the LORD'S people up and down now, but of the same kind? And what were the uncertainties of their journeys then, but figures of our removals now; who know not whether tonight or tomorrow the LORD may not call upon us to depart. Reader, it is a delightful account, which the Psalmist gives of the people's sojourning state: who though they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, and not unfrequently found it to be a rough way, yet was it a right way by which the LORD led them to a city of habitation. Psalms 107:3.