Submitting to the Desert
At times desert warfare had many similarities to war at sea. The lines were fluid and ever changing. There were no forts and seldom even fixed positions, as there were few noteworthy terrain features to be held. The mission was usually to find and engage enemy units wherever found, with little regard to the land being fought over. A correspondent eloquently described the relationship of the army to the environment surrounding it:
As a ship submits to the sea by the nature of its design and the way it sails, so these new mechanized soldiers were submitting to the desert. They used the desert. They never sought to control it. Always the desert set the pace, made the direction and planned the design. The desert offered colours in browns, yellows, and greys. The army accordingly took these colours for its camouflage. The sandstorm blew, and the tanks, profiting by it, went into action under the cover of the storm. We made no roads. We built no houses. We did not try to make the desert livable, nor did we seek to subdue it. We found the life of the desert primitive and nomadic, and primitively and nomadically the army lived and went to war.119
We don’t usually think of “submitting” to our environment. Part of our nature as human beings is to try to shape events and overcome obstacles, as we plan and work toward a better future. Theoretically, we know that we are supposed to submit ourselves to God’s plan, but this is not practically possible unless we know what he wants us to do. We need to remember the biblical wisdom that there is “A time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). We submit to God’s will when we take time to pray, to listen, and to seek help in discerning his guidance. He will give us direction if we seek it. Our striving then takes on a new character. Only when we submit our efforts to his plan will we ever be able to fulfill our true purpose and find lasting peace.
Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out.
—Numbers 9:22–23