Numbers 10:11, commentary and pictures

The twentieth day of the second month in the second year was the moment the cloud was lifted from off the tabernacle of the testimony as the signal to break camp and resume the journey from Sinai. The cloud resting over the tabernacle governed the whole encampment by showing where to settle and when to set out, so that when it moved the time to journey had come. All eyes were turned anxiously to learn in what direction it would lead.

As it moved toward the east there lay only piled, black, desolate mountain masses, and at the sight sadness and doubt arose in many hearts. Then at the trumpet signal the entire camp advanced together in fixed order, each tribe in its appointed position under its own standard and banner. The tabernacle was borne in the midst, carried in the center of the host, with the Levites bearing the ark, while the trumpets sounded to regulate the movement of the people.

The movement was directed by Christ Himself as the unseen Leader and Instructor of the more than one million people His own hand and His own right hand had freed from Egyptian bondage. The lifting of the cloud and the step-by-step advance was the higher education He gave, a lesson in order and unity and discipline and practical obedience to all the commandments. In that instruction every person had an assigned part with no idlers in the camp, the people were to follow where their instructors and educators led the way, and the commandments set to song were to be taught to the children as they sang along the way. The very tread and walking through the wilderness, with its exercise of brain and bone and muscle of mind and body together, trained physical and mental and moral powers together for pure and clean and holy service to God.