The March of the Cherubim
Numbers 10
The order of Israel's march from Sinai, through the wilderness, to the promised inheritance, was a parabolic prophecy of the development of spiritual Israel, the true Ecclesia.

THE parable was set out first in the divine pattern by which the tribes encamped around the Tabernacle, and then in the manner they moved from point to point. The four-sided encampment did not lose its inter-tribal relationship as it moved; rather it appeared to "unwind" itself as it took on the formation of a nation on the march. But it did so in accordance with the divine instructions as described in Numbers 10.

The order of march was governed by the priests sounding two trumpets made from a single piece of silver. A single trumpet note called the princes to assemble (v.4); a double sounding called the whole nation together (vv. 2-4).

In addition, the trumpets could sound an "alarm". When one "alarm" only was sounded, the eastern camps prepared to move (vv. 14-16), followed by the Tabernacle (the Mishkan v.17). At the sound of two "alarms", the southern camps followed behind the sons of Gershon and Merari (vv. 18-2(J). Then came the Kohathites, carrying the "Sanctuary" or the Most Holy things. Afterwards, the western camps moved forward (vv. 22-24); and the northern tribes brought up the rear (vv. 25-28).

This order foreshadowed the Ecclesial development.

1. The sound of the silver trumpets suggests the teaching by the priests of redemption through the atonement (sec Acts 15:14). As there was one note, so there is one Gospel (Eph. 4:3-6).
2. The Ecclesia, under the ensign of the Lion of the tribe of Judah commenced the march to the promised inheritance; so it does under Christ.
3. After a pause in Ecclesial development, the time came for the manifestation of the Tabernacle: Yahweh's dwelling place in the midst of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:4; John 1:14).
4. As the princes gathered to Moses at the sound of the trumpet, so Christ gathered to himself twelve Apostles, representatives of the tribes of Israel, the future princes of the Kingdom (Matt. 12:28). Through their work the Ecclesia has been established, whilst its "Ark" has gone before to seek out for it a "resting place" (Num. 10:33).
5. All now await the final blowing of the trumpet that shall sound throughout the whole encampment and call it together (1 Cor. 15:52; 2 Thess. 2:1; 4:16); then for the sound of the "alarm", and the march with the "Ark" in the midst to the promised inheritance (Deut. 33: 2-3). The Ecclesia of the future will move forward as the Cherubim of Yahweh entering into its inheritance. Then will be manifested all the antitypical vessels for the service and glory of Yahweh, in the midst of the multitudinous body of Christ (see 2 Tim. 2:21).

Brother Thomas explained this period as the "epoch of the sounding of the seventh trumpet". This will embrace the seven thunders, and the warfare of the saints in establishing the Kingdom. The scene is depicted in Rev. 7 as the four-sided Ecclesial encampment, comprising the symbolic 144,000 (vv. 4-8; Rev. 14:1).

Zechariah 9:14 associates the trumpet-blowing with Yahweh's manifestation in the "whirlwinds from the south", that is, from Sinai, Teman, and Paran (see also Hab. 3:3-5). Isaiah describes the act as "The Name of Yahweh coming from far, burning with His anger" (Isaiah 30:27).

So the Name, the Glory, and the Power of Yahweh, displayed in His Son and in His immortalized Ecclesia, will make its entrance into the promised inheritance. The "House of Prayer for all nations," the great antitype of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, will be constructed for the millennial praise and worship by the whole world. The glorious consummation of the Kingdom age is depicted in Rev. 21:1-3. The Ecclesial Kingdom described symbolically in vv. 9-26 will be the perpetual habitation of the Deity.