And Jehovah went before their face by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them [in] the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; so that they could go day and night.
Israel has just walked out of Egypt as a free people, and ahead of them lies open desert with no roads and no map. The verse shows how they found their way — not by landmarks or signposts, but by God going ahead of them Himself, day and night.
God did not just mark out a route and leave Israel to manage it:
The Lord not only selected a path for His people, but He also came down to walk with them in it, and make Himself known to them according to their need. He not only led them safely outside the bounds of Egypt. He also came down, as it were, in His travelling chariot, to be their companion through all the ups and downs of their wilderness journey. This was divine grace. They were not merely delivered out of the furnace of Egypt and then left to make the best of their way to Canaan. Such was not God's manner toward them.
The desert itself created the need that the pillar met:
They are about to enter a trackless waste. No one lived where Israel was soon to travel. There were no landmarks, no signposts there. Its barrenness would demand bread from heaven, and its drought water from the Rock. But its pathlessness would just as surely need a Leader. He who was to open angels' stores for them, and rivers in rocks, would raise for them a Pillar — cloud by day and fire by night — so that they might still be on their way, whether by night or by day. So they would not need highways or signposts in the trackless desert, any more than they would need cornfields or vineyards in the barren desert.
The pillar took two forms, one for each half of the day. One writer reads this as a picture of the Holy Spirit with the believer:
Notice too how He makes His presence known — always in contrast with the surroundings. By day a cloud casts its shadow over them. In the dark of night a bright pillar of fire shines through the surrounding gloom. So it is with the Spirit and the believer. In the daytime of life, when the sun of prosperity shines bright, the Spirit would always remind us not to trust in these uncertain things. The world is a place of change, and its brightest scenes only announce coming sorrow. But in the night of affliction, sorrow falls like a dark covering, and we see nothing here to rest on. Then how bright the Spirit shines, always leading us on to the home of God who is light.
The pillar came down only after the blood had met God's claims. One writer reads that order as a pattern for the believer:
The sealing of the Spirit takes place at once when we receive this forgiveness — when we believe in Christ. This is quite different from the work of quickening, which makes us see our need of forgiveness. It is the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies. This truth comes out very wonderfully in the picture of what happened to Israel. The moment the blood had met God's claims, the pillar of cloud and of fire came down.
A pillar shows the next step, not the whole route:
They could not see beyond the cloud or beyond the pillar of fire. Their one task was to follow. So faith realises that we do not need to know what may await us even at the end of a day. We simply follow the clear leading of the Lord right now. He will take care of all that may be future.
Israel's own sin turned a short trip into forty years of wandering. The pillar went with them anyway:
The camp brought a pilgrimage of forty years on itself, when they might have had only a journey of a few months. Their sin and provocation send them back from Kadesh-barnea to the Red Sea, but the Pillar will surely go back with them. It will go round one barren mountain after another. It will take the road from one wilderness to another, if the people have brought these desert wanderings on themselves. And it is untiring.
- Redeemed — the blood came first; the pillar came down only after the blood met God's claims.
- Accompanied — He did not just give directions; He came down and travelled with them.
- Suited — cloud for the day's heat, fire for the night's dark; His presence fits whatever you are in.
- Followed — they could not see past the pillar; guidance is for the next step, and He takes care of the future.
- Untiring — when their sin turned months into forty years, the pillar turned back with them and never gave up.
The pillar of the cloud did not remove [from] before the people by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.
Israel has just walked out of Egypt. The chapter ends with a fact, not a command: God's pillar stayed in front of His people, day and night. So what was the pillar for, and what does it tell us about the God who sent it?
God could have marked out the path and left Israel to walk it alone.
The Lord did not only choose a path for His people. He also came down to walk in it with them, and to make Himself known to them according to their need. He did not merely bring them safely outside the borders of Egypt and then leave them to make their own way to Canaan. That was not His manner toward them. He knew they had a hard and dangerous journey ahead. It ran through serpents and scorpions, snares and difficulties, drought and barrenness. And He would not let them go alone.
The desert gave them nothing to steer by.
That mysterious Pillar went with the camp the whole way, from the very heart of Egypt to the very borders of Canaan — from the moment it was wanted until it was wanted no more. They are about to enter a trackless waste. No one lived where Israel was soon to travel. There were no landmarks there, no signposts. Its barrenness would call for bread from heaven. Its drought would call for water from the rock. But its pathlessness would just as surely need a Leader.
The two forms were not only alternating with day and night. At the Red Sea the same pillar showed both faces at once.
The army of Egypt had come out and was pressing close behind the children of Israel. Then the Pillar put itself between the two armies. Instead of shining all through, it became darkness on the side turned toward the Egyptians and light on the side turned toward the Israelites, so that the one could not come near the other. It was a shield now, as it had been a guide before. It is simply whatever the people needed.
The verse tells us what God did not do. One writer hears the same promise repeated in the New Testament.
It is good to see how, at the close of the chapter, God went before them as the Guardian, the Guide and the Light of His people. How reassuring the words of the last verse are. The apostle's word to the Hebrew believers is only an echo of this: "Be content with what you have, for He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you'" (Heb. 13:5-6).
Israel's later failures put that constancy to the test.
Needs call for supplies, and weaknesses and wrongdoing call for forgiveness and healing. The Lord is present; He proves His resources and His grace. He feeds, He disciplines, He rebukes, and yet He pardons. Whatever the demands on Him may be, however often they are repeated, He never leaves them. If Israel brings a forty-year pilgrimage on themselves, the Lord will be in the wilderness with them for forty years.
One writer sees the timing of the pillar's arrival as a picture of the Holy Spirit given to the believer.
The sealing of the Spirit happens at once when we receive this forgiveness — when we believe in Christ. This is quite different from God's work of giving us new life, which makes us see our need of forgiveness. It is the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies. This truth comes out very clearly in the picture given by what happened to Israel. The moment the blood had met God's claims, the pillar of cloud and of fire came down.
The visible sign is gone; what it stood for is not.
In the pillar of cloud He was their guide by day. In the pillar of fire He was their light by night. And what He was, He was always. What they had in this visible way, we have in His word today and in the presence of His Holy Spirit.
Because Israel was led by an appointed sign, one writer warns against a common substitute for it.
But how? By circumstances? Never. He did not guide Israel by circumstances arranged for the occasion, but by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. These were His own appointed means. Anything less than this is not guidance in the proper sense.
- Given — the pillar came down as soon as the blood had met God's claims. God rescues, then at once comes to stay with the rescued.
- Guide — the desert had no roads and no signposts, so God became the Leader His people could not do without.
- Guard — the same pillar turned darkness toward Egypt and light toward Israel. It was whatever the people needed.
- Guaranteed — He never took it away. Whatever Israel's failures cost them, He stayed the whole forty years.
- Guidance today — what Israel saw in cloud and fire, believers now have in God's word and the Spirit who lives in them — not in reading circumstances.