Lessons begin to flow from this typical church, including: the cloudy pillar shows the way but they must watch for localised dangers. The daily prayer of Moses provides a profound plan for our petitions. Satan infuses gloom that quickly turns to lust - plus remedial thinking.

According to the Bible, death is every person's greatest enemy, and is personified as a seemingly invincible ruler over us. But Christ is the opposite of death, and here the help He offers us is compared with the hostile activities of death. To whom will we yield?

Realisation of God's love for us is given by the Spirit first through a profound sight of Calvary, and the price paid for contemptuous sinners. Such great love, we see, can never be withdrawn. Then we receive melting insights of His love during reflection, prayer and praise.

The chief and distinctive purposes of Numbers seen through NT eyes, the Israelites being a type of the church. Here is the 'working church' concept, seldom followed today, the call-up to war and activism, faith, holiness, order, and the centrality of worship in everything.

The priceless benefits of justification are here described and amplified. So great is the 'fortune' of believers, how can we fall into sorrow, or not share it, for the worldling has nothing. It is all by faith, progressively refined in the tests of life.