A Pillar of Cloud by Day; Fire by Night!
One of the best adventures of all time was the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Steven Spielberg and all the other greats could not come up with the drama, the mystery, the surprise, the anticipation, the excitement, and all the other elements that make a good story – great! Moses was a perfect leading man – a leader of leaders and yet one who had felt the pain of being a fallen and rejected man – every man’s man – every woman’s hero! And the plots and sub-plots all seem designed to keep you on the edge of your seats!
Only the Israelites were not reading it in a Bible as we are today – they were walking it out one day at a time – not knowing what any of the outcomes would be. In fact the only thing they could be sure of was that God did indeed appear to be leading them, for we see in scripture:
“The Lord led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. That way they could travel whether it was day or night. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from their sight.” Ex. 13:21& 22
There was a visible sign that they were in the hands of a powerful God! So even though they didn’t know the way, or the destination, they could see that the waymaker was leading them somewhere!
God is still doing that today. We may not see the pillar of cloud by day, or we may not see the fire by night – but we have “a sure word of prophecy” which is the Word of God which has an answer for all things if we look for them- and even more so we have the Holy Spirit inside of us who serves as a kind of barometer to keep us on our path, with a built-in signal that buzzes “stop,”, “turn,” or “wait!”
I love the drama of the stories in Exodus, but I love the feeling I have when I’m walking through a wilderness and yet I feel the peace of God and know that He is my pillar of cloud by day and He is my fire by night. I can trust Him to let me know if I swerve off the path and I can trust Him that wherever my destination – it will be for His glory and my good. Just like Moses, I’ve had some history on the backside of a mountain – and it is finally beginning to pay off!
God Bless You,
Maria
Hallelujah for the pay off!
When we walk with God, preparation is inevitable. Being on the backside of the desert prepares us to walk through the wilderness with a blessed assurance that the God who promised has made a way to the Promise Land. No one asks for the wilderness but God has already given us the land, now we must possess it.