Exodus 13.22 22 And the Lord did not remove the pillar of
cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people. (NLT)
In all of Scripture the pillar of cloud and the pillar of
fire are only mentioned in the exodus of the Lord’s people from Egypt to the
Promised Land. There are no pillars once the people cross the Jordan into
Canaan. I find that oddly comforting but oddly odd.
Nowadays, there are no pillars at all; there is only
truth – the truth that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, has ascended into
heaven, and now sits at the right hand of God in glory in preparation for His
imminent return. (Of course, Jesus isn’t preparing for anything – He’s already
ready.)
I think about the presence of the pillars and think to
myself: I wonder what those people
thought of the pillars and why (it seems) they weren’t more awestruck than they
were. Of course, one has to factor in four hundred and thirty years of living
in a particular place and the generations of Israelites, who were born, lived,
and died in Egypt before there was the “present” Pharaoh (in the record) who
treated them so poorly.
So, here comes this Moses guy who says, “All right everybody, get ready, we’re
moving!” The nominal response being: Moving?
Where? Oh, and why!? The nominal answer being: “Yes, moving.” “To Canaan.” And, “Because God said so.” There must’ve been some historic cultural
belief in that fact because of the Patriarchs. You’d think.
So, the people are led out of Egypt by a pillar of cloud
(during the daylight hours) which turns into a pillar of fire (throughout the
nighttime hours). The Bible doesn’t say much about this other than the fact they
there and were never removed during their journeys. I just wonder what they
thought of that because, like us, they’d never seen such a thing before. (Of
course, they did see it, and we never have; but we today have other indicators of the Lord’s presence
with us… if we’ll accept them by faith.)
I get the feeling that after a while they took the
pillars for granted (the narrative sure seems to indicate so). But, I suppose, it’s
one thing to take the boy out of Egypt, it’s quite another to take Egypt out of
the boy. I wonder just what I’d do with pillars of cloud/fire if they showed up
today…
Faith is the divine requirement, pillars or no. They were given a tangible sign of God’s
presence which never left them in the days of their travels. We on the other hand have the testimony
of the Bible (which says there actually were
pillars) and the gift of faith (which the Bible says we are given, if we believe).
And we are to believe.
This morning, there are no pillars, but I do have the
record of the pillar’s existence. I also have my thoughts filtered through my
present existence that I might react differently with pillars if they were
around today – but I feel they were a once-in-a-universe deal, and I am left only
with the choice of believing they existed – or not. That is the demand of faith:
to accept the whole record as it is presented, and then to live a life of
belief in response from then on.
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