Whenever the cloud was lifted up above the tent, the Israelites would set out; at the place where the cloud stopped, there the Israelites camped (9: 17). Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for [only] a few days…. Sometimes the cloud remained [only] from evening until morning…. Or… it [might remain] a day and a night or it could be two days, a month or longer (i.e. a year) (9: 20 – 22). Israel never knew how long she would be in one place. Perhaps there were places the Israelites were fond of and wanted to stay permanently. Maybe there were places they wanted to pass by and not even stop. The choice was not theirs. It belonged to a sovereign God. It always does. God chooses where we make camp and when we break camp.
You never know how long it will be when God directs you to one of life’s campsites. We often arrive at a given campsite rather unwillingly and suffer terribly while pestering God to move us. Some of life’s deepest disappointments come when God takes us against our will from some oasis we planned to retire in. The good may last only a day and the bad may extend for a year. Thankfully, it is also true that the bad may only last a day and the good may go on indefinitely.
The choices must remain with God because even the most spiritually attuned Christians plan no trips to the ugly places of life. We want the Vails, the Aspens, the Waikikis, the Bora Boras not the stark barrenness of Sinai’s Peninsula. Most of us would never go where we need to go to grow without the direct (and sometimes abrupt) hand of God.
Israel sometimes tried to second-guess God just like we do but it was no use. They were just burning up precious spiritual energy which would have been better employed in understanding what God was seeking to accomplish in them at each of their campgrounds. When the Cloud lifts in our life and God resettles us in some unexpected spot the best question is not “Why?” but “What?” What are you trying to teach me, Lord? What are you trying to teach us, Lord? We may have only hours to learn the answer to that question but then again, we may have years to learn. You just never know how long it will be.