Presence Of God

There are not many studies of the great cloud that protected the Hebrew people during the years of their desert wanderings. I think that is surprising, and for two reasons. It was a striking phenomenon. There has never been anything like it in history before or since. And not only was it striking, it’s mentioned many times in the Bible. There are fifty-eight references to it in the Bible, scattered across ten different books. It appears more often than place names like Bethlehem and Nazareth, or the names of Herod, Joseph, Mary, Cain, Abel and Satan.

Now we have to ask something about this cloud and try to figure out what it was like. They called it a cloud but the only reason they did so was because they really didn’t have any word in their vocabulary to describe it.

God’s revealing Himself in the cloud culminates in the coming of Jesus Christ. You may recall that at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, John uses this very language, harkening back to Exodus, to talk about the incarnation. Speaking of Jesus, John writes, “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). Revelation 21 gives us the fulfillment of this idea of God’s dwelling among us. In verse 3 the apostle John wrote, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.’” Through the appearing of the cloud in Exodus, God was teaching them about His presence in a preliminary, rudimentary, visible, and dramatic way for the people of Israel.

The cloud was also God’s means for guidance. That was clear from some of the passages we read. When the cloud rose up from over the tabernacle and began to move off, the people were supposed to move off, too. When the cloud stopped the people were to stop. As Nehemiah says, “By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night, to shine on the way they were to take” (v. 19). Another passage that gives more detail is Numbers 9:15-23.

The Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to follow as God leads and as we follow, to know that we are protected from all enemies. Nothing will ever happen to us that does not first pass through the will of God, and that whatever happens according to the will of God is ultimately for our good. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28). To follow the Lord in obedience to His commands, knowing that He always watches over and protects us, is our opportunity and our joy.