THE CLOUDY PILLAR
THE CLOUDY PILLAR From the day the tabernacle was reared in the midst of the Israelites till the day they crossed the Jordan, the cloud of the Lord was inseparably associated with this portable temple of the Most High, resting upon it right above the ark of the covenant while the pilgrim Hebrews encamped in the wilderness, and moving in the air above the ark while they were on the march, and as it was being carried in the journies through the desert. Of all the manifestations of God’s gracious presence vouchsafed to His ancient people, the cloudy pillar was the most striking and glorious. There was only one pillar—the same that was a pillar of cloud by day being a pillar of fire by night. In this respect resembling the smoke which, ascending the air from furnaces, has the appearance of cloud by day and of fire by night. A still better illustration, perhaps, is the contrivance adopted by some generals, and amongst them by Alexander the Great, of causing a lofty pole to be set up, and on its summit to be placed a brazier filled with combustible materials, kept ever burning over the general’s tent when encamped, and in the forefront of the moving host when on the march—”a cloudy banner by day, a flaming beacon by night.”
Besides being designated the cloudy pillar, it was occasionally called by the following names:—
1. The angel of God. —It was so-called as other inanimate objects serving God’s purposes are sometimes designated in the Bible (Exodus 14:19).
2. The Lord.—The pillar served the purpose of enveloping or enshrining the shekinah, a bright refulgent flame, the symbol of God’s presence with His people. The symbol, as it stood for God, is occasionally regarded as God and called by His name: “The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way” (Exodus 13:21).
3. God’s throne.—The cloudy pillar was God’s moveable throne while the Israelites were on the march; His stationary throne while they were encamped, resting, as we have already indicated, on the top of the sacred tent, right above the ark. A portion of the inner bright flame, the shekinah, penetrating down through the roof of the tabernacle, filled the space between the mercy seat and the over-arching wings of the cherubim that stood one on each end of the golden throne: “Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth” (Psalms 80:1). God, as represented by the shekinah, was thus enthroned in the cloudy pillar without the tabernacle, and on the ark of the covenant within the sacred dwelling. When the tabernacle had to be taken down, preparatory to the Israelites removing to a new place of encampment, that portion of the mystic flame resting on the ark of the covenant ascended into the cloudy pillar, which now enshrined the entire Shekinah. As soon as the Levites bearing the ark had taken their place in the forefront of the host, the cloudy pillar took up its position in the air right above this the most sacred of all the objects pertaining to the tabernacle. The cloud and the ark being thus inseparably associated, accounts for the people being represented as following sometimes the one and sometimes the other. The cloudy pillar served many useful purposes. First, It was a guide.—To lead was its main mission: “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and by night” (Exodus 13:20-22). Imposing in height, and having the ppearance of cloud by day and of fire by night, it rose conspicuous to view in the dark night and received the implicit obedience of the many thousands of Israel. When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Their father’s God before them moved,
An awful guide, in cloud and flame! By day, along the astonished lands,
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia’s crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery column’s glow. When it move forward they followed, and when it stood still they halted and encamped beneath its sheltering wings. It ever guided in the right way, however much it seemed sometimes to be otherwise. Apparently it led in the wrong direction when the Israelites began to march under its leadership, causing the people to encamp in a situation of extreme danger; thus tempting their enemies to pursue and all but overtake them (Exodus 13:20-22; Exodus 14:1-13). It was, however, the right way after all, as the pilgrims, when they saw the salvation of God, acknowledged in a triumphal song (Exodus 15:1-21). While the pillar was leading the Israelites to Pi-hahiroth on the Red Sea, and through that sea, and up and down wadies, and into the neighborhood of implacable foes, even all the way through the great and terrible wilderness, it was ever an unerring guide: “He led them forth by the right way” (Psalms 107:7), and “He led them on in safety, so that they feared not” (Psalms 78:53). The pillar was a striking illustration of the long-suffering kindness of our Heavenly Father. Neither murmurings, nor rebellions, nor idolatry, nor ingratitude, ever drove away the angel of His presence. “He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Exodus 13:22). The guidance vouchsafed was of the most gracious kind. It was like that of a shepherd. “He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock” (Psalms 78:52). Nor like the guidance of a shepherd only, but like that of a loving and affectionate parent: “The Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son in all the way that ye went” (Deuteronomy 1:31). The pillar led all the way from Egypt, and only disappeared when it had accomplished its mission by bringing the pilgrims safely and triumphantly to the end of their journey.
Second, It was alight, —Had the pillar not changed its aspect when the sable curtains of evening gathered around the Israelites, it would have become invisible. As soon, however, as day departed and night set in, it became a bright shining and resplendent column, a fiery pillar, visible to every eye; serving now not only to guide, but also to illumine, and whether the army camped or marched, ever gave a cheery light. The hours of night in the terrible wilderness would have been very dismal save for the friendly light shed around the chosen people by the fiery pillar: “The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light, and the way wherein they should go” (Nehemiah 9:19).
Third, It was a shade, —He spread, we are told, “a cloud for a covering” (Psalms 105:39). Only those who have wandered in deserts, exposed to the scorching sun of the East, can form an adequate idea of the comfort afforded by this grateful awning. The head of the pillar spread out to such a wide extent as to overshadow the Israelites when they were encamped as well as when they were on the march, so that the sun did “not smite them by day, nor the moon by night” (Psalms 121:6).
Fourth, It was a shield.—In Deuteronomy 1:30, we read, “The Lord your God which goeth before you, He shall fight for you.” Salvation was sure to the Israelites when the angel pillar interposed between them and their foes. The most signal instance of its acting as a shield occurred at the Red Sea. Soon after Pharaoh had allowed the children of Israel to depart from Egypt, repenting that he had permitted them to go, he followed with great armies, and came in sight of the pilgrims as they were camping at Pi-hahiroth by the Red Sea. When the Israelites saw the Egyptians they were greatly alarmed; the air was rent by their terror-stricken cries. They saw no possible way of escape—the deep, broad sea stretching out before them, their enemies seeking their immediate destruction close behind, and just about “to make of them their prey,” while high mountains bristling with frowning fortresses rose on this side and on that, rendering escape impossible in any direction. Their extremity was God’s opportunity, for at this awful and critical moment, enthroned in the cloudy pillar, He moved quietly, swiftly, and majestically from before the Israelites and went behind them, and there stood an impenetrable shield between them and the Egyptians. The side of the pillar towards the Egyptians was so black as to plunge them into total darkness, but the side towards the Israelites so bright as to flood them with glorious light, and to shed its golden sheen across the rippling wavelets. The cloud was thus both a sun and a shield to the people of God. The Egyptians could not reach the chosen people because of the pillar cloud. Though thus protected by this almighty shield, they could not continue where they were. They must proceed on their journey. “Speak,” said God to Moses, “unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” Forward through the great deep sea? Yes! Moses now stretched his hand, with his rod in it, over the sea, and immediately the waters divided and stood up like two great crystal walls, one on their right and one on their left, leaving a broad, dry road between. On that hitherto untrodden path the Israelites, lighted by the friendly pillar, passed over safely and triumphantly to the other side, while Pharaoh and his proud captains in their war chariots looked on in dread amazement. Hardening his heart yet once more, and deeming the dry road as good for him as for the people of God, with his captains and warriors he descended into the great gap between the solid sea walls in hot pursuit after the escaping Israelites. The Egyptians, however, had not gone far, when looking up they saw the pillar now in the air above them, assuming an awfully wrathful aspect: The Lord God of battles was looking down in anger upon them. They were troubled, and well they might be. Moses again stretched out his rod, and the congealed sea-walls, obedient to the mystic wand, at once melted, and, rushing impetuously forward to meet and embrace each other, engulfed as in a great whirlpool the doomed Egyptians. Not a single soul escaped: “they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” By nature we all stand on the margin of a great Red Sea, but as Moses by his rod, so Christ by His cross, has made a way through the great Red Sea of sin and guilt for His believing people to pass over to the better land.
Guided thus safely by the fiery pillar across the Red Sea, and on to the shores of Arabia, Moses and the saved people sang a song of triumph. The women were led by Moses’ sister. Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her with timbrels and with dances; and well might those feet dance on the dry land which had passed dry-shod through the mighty deep.
Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea! Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free; Sing! For the pride of the tyrant is broken, His chariots and horsemen all splendid and brave; How vain was their boasting the Lord hath but spoken, And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave; Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea, Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!
Thus the pillar was a shield. Had it not come between the Israelites and their enemies at the Red Sea, and guided them safely through the deep waters, instead of being thus gloriously delivered, they must have perished by the sword of the Egyptians or been drowned in the Red Sea.
Fifth, It was an oracle.—In the cloudy pillar, we are told in Exodus 33:9, “the Lord talked with Moses”—phraseology easily comprehended, when we take into account the close connection between it and the shekinah, somewhat analogous to that between the spirit and the body. It is not improbable when the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend, that the inner resplendent flame of the shekinah was manifested to him. In the ninety-ninth Psalm we are told, “He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar.” From this oracle sounded forth words necessary for the direction and instruction of the congregation. He who opened His mouth in the burning bush at Horeb opened His mouth in the cloudy pillar, and spake to Israel’s leader for Israel’s welfare.
Sixth, It was an avenger.—When the Lord wished to make known His displeasure, the cloudy pillar assumed a very wrathful appearance. The Lord, we are told, “looked through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:24). What an awful aspect it must have worn when flashes of fire went forth from it and devoured Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:2). And also when fire came out from it and consumed 250 men, as we are informed in the sixteenth chapter of Numbers. If the aspect of the pillar was thus at times such as to trouble those with whom God was angry, it wore a very pleasing aspect towards His obedient people. As they looked up to the pillar they beheld the shining face of their Divine Leader, cheering and encouraging them to go forward in their journey as He directed. He is called by this very name “face.” “If Thy presence (Heb. “face”) go not with me, carry us not up hence” (Exodus 33:15).
Such, then, were some of the ends served by the fiery cloudy pillar. It was a guide, a light, a shade, a shield, an oracle, an avenger. It led, it illumined, it shaded, it shielded, it spoke, it smiled, it frowned. It showed the way, and beckoned to the thousands of Israel to follow. It turned the darkness into light. It warded off the darts of the noonday sun. It was a bulwark of defense between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. It fought for the chosen people. When pleased it rewarded, and when provoked it punished. It continued it friendly guidance, its light, its protection, its counsel, and its encouragement, until it conducted the many thousands of Israel safely across the Jordan and into that good land and large, the promised land of Canaan. Of all the objects ever seen by the Hebrew pilgrims this was the grandest, the most imposing, and the most resplendent. Greatly privileged were the people to whom it was vouchsafed. To them, and to them only, pertained the “glory.”
TYPICAL AND SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE The Christian pilgrim is favored with no such visible manifestation of the Deity as he travels through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan. He must hold on his way without ever seeing with bodily eye “the glory,” and without ever hearing the audible voice of Him who spake in the cloudy pillar. Are the privileges, then of the children of God less under the gospel dispensation than were those of the Hebrews under the Mosaic one? By no means. In reference to this very cloudy pillar, there are glorious predictions respecting New Testament Israelites: “And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flame of fire by night; and upon all the glory shall be a defense” (Isaiah 4:5). “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1). The fiery cloudy pillar was the dispenser mainly of temporal blessings, and was itself temporary in its nature, and so passed away. But the blessings promised in the above texts are spiritual and everlasting.
Although the people of God in our day do not see Christ their Shekinah Pillar Cloud with the bodily eye, they see Him with the eye of faith.
Though now unseen by outward sense, Faith sees Him ever near. And He is even more graciously present now, than He was to the Israelites in the cloudy pillar, for the dimness of types and shadows has for ever passed away, and the true light now shineth. The Moon of the Old Testament is succeeded by the glorious Sun of the New.
CHRIST AND THE CLOUDY PILLAR
Christ is to the Christian pilgrim what the cloudy pillar was to the Israelites, 1. Like the Cloudy Pillar, Christ Is a Guide First, He guides by His example.—He says, “I am the way.” As long as we walk in the path made by His own blessed footsteps we shall not lose the road to glory. Christ, like the pillar, goes before this people, and says to them, “Follow Me.” Marching after Him, every step will bring us nearer the better country. When assailed by temptations, like Him, let us place the tempter behind our back; when badly used, let us like Him not revile again. Like Him let us go about continually doing good, for in being imitators of Jesus, we will make progress in our heavenward journey, and in our meekness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Christ prayed often. Before break of day He climbed the solitary mountain to have communion with His Father. Let us early in the morning follow His steps up the mount of devotion, and we shall be refreshed as He was with gracious blessings coming down upon our souls from Him who hath said, “I will be as the dew unto Israel,” and we shall descend as He did, renewed in strength for the work of the day, and resolving so to engage in its duties, that our souls may be benefited and God glorified. Spending the day thus, we shall at its close, “pitch our tents a day’s march nearer home.”
Second, Christ guides by His Word.—”Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalms 119:105). “When thou goest it shall lead thee, and when thou awakest it shall be with thee, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is a light” (Proverbs 6:22-23). The Bible, like the angel pillar, is an ever present and seen guide. We can see it with our bodily eyes, and even feel it with our hands, and open it where we may, discern it ever pointing onward and upward. If we follow its guidance, we will not miss the way, nor fail to reach at last the blessed shores of Canaan.
Third, Christ guides by the Holy Spirit.—Whom He has promised to send to His people in order to guide them into all truth (John 16:13). By these and other agencies Christ, our Pillar Cloud, leadeth ever in the right direction, even when like the cloud He may seem to be acting otherwise. Into whatever circumstances of difficulty, suffering, or danger He may bring His people they need not have the slightest fears, for He is a divine and unerring Leader. Be strong in faith ye whose believing eyes are fixed on Jesus, your Pillar Cloud; and even should unscalable mountains appear to rise between you and the land to which you are traveling, or should great and impassable deeps seem to intervene between you and it, be assured, that though the road looks like the wrong way, it is the right one after all. “Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me” (Psalms 23:4). “None can stay [Thy] hand, nor say unto [Thee], What doest Thou?” (Daniel 4:35). It is well for us that we cannot stay Thy hand, for if we could and did, we would be staying a hand that is always doing good, and never evil; doing good even when it seems to us to be doing evil.
2. Like the Cloudy Pillar, Christ Is a Light
“I,” says He, “am the Light of the World.” Till illumined by Him none can see. It is His office to pour celestial light on the eyes of the spiritually blind. It is the same great light that chases away our darkness, and enables us to see the first step of our spiritual pilgrimage, that brightens our path during all the succeeding steps of our journey to the heavenly Canaan. We can miss the way or stumble on the road only if we willfully shut our eyes, and refuse to admit His glorious rays. The way is dark, the storm is loud,
The path no human strength can tread;
Jesus, be Thou the pillar cloud,
Heaven’s light upon our path to shed.
John the Baptist, as well as all other burning and shining lights, only reflected the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, who “lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” and who is not only the light of the world, but of heaven as well. “The city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23, RV).
3. Like the Pillar Cloud, Christ Is a Shade To pilgrims traveling heavenward, he is “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:2), for while He screens from the burning sun of this busy, bustling, honor and pleasure-seeking world, they are preserved from being withered and scorched by its fiery and deceitful rays. Were this blessed shelter, provided by a gracious Savior to all who trust in Him, withdrawn, how soon would all that is lovely and pure and God-like in their souls be burned out. Favored by this gracious protection they may so engage in this world’s business and affairs as not to retard but promote their heavenward journey.
While within the shadow cast by a present and gracious Savior they are safe; it is only when wandering beyond into forbidden paths that their souls are in danger. But present still though now unseen
When brightly shines the prosperous day,
Be thoughts of Thee, a cloudy screen,
To temper the deceitful ray.
4. Like the Pillar, Christ Is a Shield He said to Paul, and still says to every one of His disciples, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Defended by His grace, the fruitful may ask, “Where are the enemies who can overcome the righteous?” If Christ come between them and the legion of foes ever seeking the destruction of their souls, are they not as safe from the assault as were the Hebrews from the Egyptians at the Red Sea, when the cloudy pillar stood between the pursuing and the pursued? Weak at the best are Christians in themselves, as the Israelites would have been had they been left to themselves at Pi-hahiroth. The Christian’s strength lies in his knowing his own weakness, which prompts him to lay hold of an almighty shield able to defense in every emergency. However many and strong the enemies may be that are bent on the ruin of his soul, he has but to look away from himself and up to Him in Whom “all fullness dwells,” and as he looks, trustingly to exclaim, “My sufficiency is of Thee,” in order to be effectually guarded, and to experience that when he is weak then is he strong. His soul is exposed to the darts of the enemy only when he neglects to interpose between it and them this almighty armor. Guarded by it, he may sing, “The Lord is... my buckler” (Psalms 18:2), “my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust” (Psalms 91:2).
5. Like the Pillar, Christ Is an Oracle
“He is the Word,” the grand medium of communication between God and man. No man hath seen God at any time, “the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18). “God who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Let us lend our ears to this great Oracle, our Savior Christ, and listen and give due heed to His commandments, and we shall become wise unto salvation, and receive all necessary direction for our journey through this wilderness world to the heavenly Canaan.
6. Like the Pillar, Christ Is an Avenger Christ, like the wondrous cloud, looks with a smiling face on His people; like it, however, he also looks with an angry countenance on His and their enemies. And while He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should repent, believe and be saved, He it is that shall pass the awful sentence of condemnation on the finally impenitent: “Depart from Me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Christ is thus as real as the fiery cloudy pillar that went before the Hebrews, a Guide, a Light, a Shade, a Shield, an Oracle, an Avenger, a fast Friend, and a constant Attendant. Like it He leads, He enlightens, He screens, He shields, He defends, He instructs, and He commands. The Israelites on the march to the land of promise are a type of the Christian on his journey through this world to heaven. Jesus is the glorious Shekinah Pillar Cloud that goes before him all the way to the better land. Fix but your eyes on Him, and you will find Him more precious to you than was the friendly pillar to the Israelites. It led them like a shepherd; and if you are led by Him you are following the Good Shepherd, and can claim Him as your own, and say: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It led them into pleasant places of encampment, and so will He lead you: The Lord’s my Shepherd,
I’ll not want,
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green;
He leadeth me
The quiet waters by. At the Jordan the cloud took its departure. It did not accompany the Israelites into Canaan, but Christ will never leave those whom He has guided through the wilderness of this world to the land of bliss. The Lamb which dwells amidst the throne
Shall o’er them still preside;
Feed them with nourishment Divine
And all their footsteps guide.
Once under the guidance of Jesus, Christian pilgrims have nothing to fear. His promise is: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Blessed Jesus, if Thou forsake us not, then be the way ever so beset with enemies, ever so impeded by barriers, and be the trials and sorrows and privations ever so many and great, we will not fear, for in spite of these and all other hindrances Thou will lead us on in safety, and we shall reach home at last. My Father’s house on high,
Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith’s foreseeing eye,
The golden gates appear. Not all who marched after the fiery cloudy pillar were privileged to enter the land of Canaan; many perished by the way on account of their sins; but none of Christ’s followers ever perish on the road to glory; all of them, the least as well as the greatest, the feeblest as well as the mightiest, hold on to the end of their Christian pilgrimage, and after crossing the Jordan, enter the heavenly Canaan in triumph, “with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads” (Isaiah 35:10).