02.38. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD
THE PILLAR OF CLOUD WHEN the Lord led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, He went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; as it is written:
“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22.) When Pharaoh awoke to the fact that the Children of Israel had taken up their line of march out of Egypt, he determined to pursue them and bring them back, He pursued them as far as the Red Sea and there found them encamped. At once the pillar of cloud changed its position. Instead of going before them it went behind them and stood between them and the Egyptians; so that they were unable to come after the Children of Israel; as it is written:
“And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.” (Exodus 14:19-20.) The LORD divided the waters of the Red Sea and the Children of Israel went over dry shod. When Pharaoh and his hosts endeavored to follow the Lord looked through the pillar and troubled them; as it is written:
“And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 14:24.) The Egyptians attempted to follow. The Lord commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea. The sea returned upon them, engulfed them, so that in the morning the Israelites saw them dead upon the shore.
Thus did the Lord that day save by the right hand of His power. From thence the pillar of cloud led them to Sinai and abode there during the dramatic and tragic hour in which Israel took themselves off the ground of grace and put themselves under the law. The cloud abode there during the absence of Moses in the mount, during the shameful worship of the golden calf, till he executed judgment upon them, obtained the second tables of the law and set up the Tabernacle according to the pattern and instructions given him in the mount. When the Tabernacle was finished and all things in order the cloud covered it; as it is written:
“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.” (Exodus 40:34-38.) The Pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, by and. through whom the Lord would manifest Himself to, in, on and with the Church in her journey through the world during the present age. Our Lord gave the promise of the Spirit before He ascended.
He said:
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not, leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18.) “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (age).” (Matthew 28:20.) “One of the distinctive titles of the Son of God is: “Emmanuel.” And that means:
“God with us.”
Matthew testifies the Lord will be with us by the Holy Spirit.
John corroborates this testimony and emphasizes it by saying He shall be—in us.
Pentecost demonstrated the Spirit is on the Church. As the Lord manifested Himself in the cloud by fire, so by fire He manifested Himself at Pentecost; as it is written:
“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as fire.” (Acts 2:3.)
Thus the Holy Spirit is to the Church as the fiery cloudy pillar to the Children of Israel; it was the medium of His presence with them and the seal they were His; so, likewise, the Spirit is the Proxy by whom the Lord is in, on and with His Church today. A study of Scripture will show that the persons of the Godhead efface themselves before one another, allowing each to manifest the other. In creation the Father manifests the Son, creating all things by Him and setting Him forth “in the form” and appearing of God. On earth the Son manifested the Father, testified of Him, declared the works He did were not His works, but the Father’s; so testified of Him that He said it was the Father who wrought the works by Him and that in seeing Him they were in reality seeing the Father. In this age the Spirit manifests the Son. He never speaks of Himself.
He is here to glorify the Son; as it is written:
“When the Spirit of truth is come . . . he shall not speak of himself.” (John 16:13-14.) “He shall take of mine and shew it unto you.” (John 16:15.) “He shall glorify me.” (John 16:13-14.) The Pillar of fire was the light of the Children of Israel during the absence of the sun and while they were deep in nature’s darkness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
During his absence the world is plunged into the depths of spiritual darkness. The very light of nature is spiritual darkness. The age in which we live is called—“the night.” (Romans 13:12.) To walk in the light of nature is to walk in the deepest kind of spiritual darkness, even in the night. The Church or individual Christian who seeks to walk by such light will stumble and fall and there shall be no remedy.
Read the Word of God in the light of mere reason (the only light nature can offer) the Church and its ministry will wander from the right way and the Christian will find himself in a darkness that becomes more and more impenetrable till doubt and unbelief like ill-omened birds fly in his face and smite him with their black and evil wings. The Church must have light, Heaven light, spiritual light, light radiated from Him who while He was here was the unfailing light of the world. The Holy Spirit is here to give that radiation. He gives it through the written Word.
He gives demonstrations of the truth; as it is written:
“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:4.) A “demonstration” includes proof, a revelation of the truth. The Spirit gives the light, the revelation, the conviction of the truth. The Cloud became the Guide of the Children of Israel throughout all the perplexities of the way.
It guided them by day and it guided them by night. Concerning the Spirit the Lord said:
“When the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and be will shew you things to come.
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you.
“All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:13-15.) The Cloud regulated all the movements of the Children of Israel.
“And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.” (Numbers 9:17-23.)
What supremacy, authority and power are here represented upon the one side; what obedience and discipline upon the other.
There was no opportunity for liberal thought and independence of opinions. The people had nothing to do with the journey, neither when they should march, nor when they should halt.
They had no choice as to the particular spot in which they should camp; neither had they any choice as to the circumstances under which they should pitch their tents, nor the conditions thereof, whether the water ran in crystal streams or the desert heaped its sands, they had no choice about it whatever.
They had no choice whether they should march at sunrise or break camp at the midnight hour.
They absolutely had no choice at all. They were not consulted whether they should tarry in anyone spot for a day, a month or a year.
All this was entirely regulated by the Cloud. The people recognized its authority. When it moved they moved. When it halted they halted.
There was unity, harmony and precision. The people recognized their dependence on the Cloud.
Coincident with the movement of the Cloud was the word or command of Moses, speaking a thus saith the Lord. The Cloud and the Word operated together. The Holy Spirit like the Cloud is here to regulate the movements of the Church.
He is here to operate, not through sentiment, mere feeling, or the judgment of man, but by and through the utterance of the written Word, and by the written Word alone.
He is here to direct the Church in the selection of her office bearers, in the establishment of the ordinances, in the method and manner of the assemblies and as the energy and urge without which there can be no spiritual efficiency.
He is here to be the supreme power in the Church. Continually the voice of God is saying to the Church:
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6.) The cloud taught the people to set aside their own initial action and wait on it.
What is the true attitude to take in respect to the operation of the Spirit?
Wait. This is the word the Lord gave to the Church concerning the Spirit.
He said:
“Wait.”
“Wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” (Acts 1:4.) Just as the Children of Israel waited for the movement of the Cloud, the Church waited for the movement of the Spirit.
O the immense grace of waiting on the Spirit.
What loss the Church has suffered, what loss the individual Christian has suffered, by not waiting on the Lord that He might reveal Himself through the Spirit; what loss by not waiting on the Spirit that He might reveal the Lord. In failing to wait on the Spirit, in our impatience we have had recourse to the flesh, then defeat, overthrow and disaster, as—the sure consequence. The Cloud was the evidence of the Lord’s presence with the Children of Israel and separated them from all other peoples. The Lord said to Moses:
“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the faced the earth.” (Exodus 33:14-16.) There you have it in all its fulness of immense truth. The presence of the Lord with His people was not only the seal they were His, but that they were a separated people, separated from all others on the face of the earth. The Lord’s presence is a separating presence.
If you have it, it will separate you from those who do not have it. The fact of the separating power of the Cloud was illustrated in Israel in that hour when it became darkness to the Egyptians and separated the people of God from them; as it is written:
“And it came between the camp of the Egyptians -and the camp of Israel: so that the one came not near the other all the night.” (Exodus 14:19-20.)
Just as definitely and distinctly as that, the Holy Spirit is between those who are genuine Christians and the people of the world.
Just as definitely as that, the Holy Spirit rails us off as believers from all other classes of beings in the universe.
We are the only beings in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. And He does dwell in us, as it is written:
“Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is—in you.” (1 Corinthians 6:19.) He does not dwell in the natural man. He does not dwell in angels.
He dwells in the body only of those who have been redeemed by the blood of the cross and to whom the risen Son of God has communicated His life and nature.
He dwells in us as the seal of the blood purchase of the cross.
He is in us as the pledge and guarantee of our resurrection or transfiguration into the glorious likeness and immortality of our Lord. His very indwelling makes us a separated class of beings. The separation is made manifest in the effect the things of God have upon those who have the Spirit and those who do not have that indwelling. The operation of the Holy Spirit as the revelator of the divine presence, the illuminator of the written Word, and as the personal illuminator of the believer’s heart and mind and conscience, is as very light in the darkness. The things of God under His ministration become to us the joy of our soul and create in us a hungering and a thirsting after God and His way. To the unbeliever the Holy Spirit is but a name and the things of God when presented to them are but as darkness itself; as it is written:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (that is—by the Spirit).” (1 Corinthians 2:14.) The indwelling Spirit and the Word of God separate us from the people of the world.
What is light to us is darkness to them.
They cannot understand.
No! The world’s incomprehension is witness of their separation from us and our complete, essential separation from them. The Cloud never left the Children of Israel in their wilderness journey.
Before the resurrection the Holy Spirit came upon men, entered into, used them, but never took up His permanent abode in them.
David was moved by the Spirit, used by the Spirit, but the Spirit did not abide in him as continual guest; therefore he could cry out and say as he did: “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11.) No child of God, taught of the Lord, can offer that prayer. The Holy Spirit will never leave the Church, the true, the regenerated Church. He will be her guide till the Lord shall come to receive her and present her to Himself. The Spirit will never be taken away from the genuine believer.
We may grieve Him.
We may resist Him.
We may quench Him as a flame of fire in the soul, but He will never be taken out of us; as it is written:
“Grieve not the .Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (redemption of the body).” (Ephesians 4:30.) He is the resurrection and transfiguration power dwelling in the believer’s body; as it is written:
“The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus . . . shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11.) The spirit will never leave us.
Nay! The Spirit and the written Word in their mutual operation shall be unto us as our cloudy fiery pillar till the journey is over—till the day dawn and the shadows flee away. THE END Printed in the United States of America