Mensa Otabil - Pillar of Cloud and Fire
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Exodus chapter 13, verses 21 and 22. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. The people were in the wilderness, going into their promised land. It’s a strange moment for a community that has never been on its own, has never had its own government, and has never had its own leaders, now moving out and exploring their future. And the Bible says that the Lord went before them.
When we’re going into places we don’t know or don’t understand, we have to trust God to go before us. The Lord always goes before us; He knows what lies ahead, even when we don’t see the future. We can trust Him, He who created time, who also knows the future to navigate us, lead us, and bring us to the place appointed for us. The passage says that the Lord led them by day and by night so that they could move day and night. They wanted to walk in the night; they had provision. If they wanted to walk in the day, they had provision. By day, the Lord gave them a pillar of cloud to lead the way. This pillar of cloud, by the scripture, was ahead of them.
I don’t know how it might have looked, but it was a symbol; it was a cloud that went ahead of them, and wherever it went, they followed. They saw it as God’s leading for them. The pillar of cloud guided them by day, and then the pillar of fire would guide them by night. Of course, fire was the primary way of providing light. In those days, there were no electric bulbs, and so if you wanted to move in the night, you had to use fire, either from torches, a candle, or a lamp. This fire was provided by the Lord. It probably looked like the same pillar of cloud, transforming into fire at night and into a cloud by day.
The important thing is that God led them by day and by night, and God leads us also by day and by night. He leads us in times when things are not clear, at night when we can’t see clearly. His light guides us. In the daytime, when we have an idea, when we know His will, and we know the path we should take, His pillar of cloud leads us in the way. There are times that God just leads you because you know what to do; He has shown you His will, and He has made it known to you, so He just encourages you to move on.
There are times you don’t know what to do, and you are in the night, nothing is clear, and God still shows you what to do. So when God is leading us, even when we know His will, He leads us. When we don’t know His will, He leads us. When we can see our way clear, He leads us; when we can’t see our way clear, He still leads us. That is what the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud show us: God leads us when we are uncertain, and even when we think we have clarity and can see clearly, He still leads us the way we should go.
I don’t know where you are in your life. Maybe you feel like the children of Israel; you feel you are in a wilderness. Maybe you look back at 2022 and say, «Oh boy, what a wilderness experience it’s been.» But God has led you, and you are here because He has led you; He’s guided you, He’s ordered your steps. May the same Lord who has brought you this far continue to lead you to your cross, your Red Sea, and you start moving on to the promise that He has shown you. Your life is going to work out well because God is going ahead of you.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, you are my guide. Light my path with Your Spirit, lead the way, and I will follow. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.