In Exodus 13 we read of the commencement of a great migration. Some millions of people began their journey to another land. It was to lie through a great wilderness. Without the needed supplies they would surely perish. But God took control of their movements in a visible fashion. "The Lord went before them" in a pillar of cloud and fire (Ex 13:21) – to the end of their wilderness journey.

This pillar which guided Israel stands apart from all merely human devices. It had a miraculous origin and a supernatural character. It was more even than a mere symbol of the presence of God. God was really present with them in the pillar. It may be described as a column of fire surrounded by a cloud, and by day the surrounding cloud usually prevented the light of the fire from being seen. When the people were on the march, it assumed by day the form of a lofty pillar of cloud and by night the form of a lofty pillar of fire. After the tabernacle was erected, it became closely connected with the tabernacle, sometimes resting more closely on it, sometimes rising to lead the people onward. It speaks of:

The Lord's Presence⤒🔗

"Jehovah went before them" in the pillar of cloud and fire. He still goes before His sheep. As Matthew Henry says: "Those who make the glory of God their end, and the Word of God their rule, the Spirit of God the guide of their affections, and the providence of God the guide of their affairs, may be confident that the Lord goes before them, as truly as He went before Israel in the wilderness." He has given His promise: "Lo, I am with you all the days." So in a world full of threatening evils and hostile powers, the Christian can look forward into the days of the New Year and say:

I take Thy promise, Lord, in all its length
And breadth and fulness, for my daily strength;
Into life's future fearless I may gaze,
For, Jesus, Thou art with me all the days.

The Lord's Character←⤒🔗

His Sovereignty←↰⤒🔗

In Exodus 13:18 it is said "God led the people," but in 13:21 it is said: "The Lord (that is, Jehovah) went before them" in a pillar of cloud and fire. The name Jehovah reminds us that He is the great I AM who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush. He is so absolutely sovereign and acts with such unfettered liberty that difficulties such as those of the wilderness journey – vast though they are to us – are nothing at all to Him. Even though there was much unbelief and hardness of heart among the Israelites, He worked out His sovereign will and brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey.

His Faithfulness←↰⤒🔗

When He revealed Himself to Moses in the Bush as the "I AM THAT I AM," He declared Himself to be the God who made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – promises which would surely be fulfilled. So He bore with their manners in the wilderness and carried them as a man his infant son. To us too His pledges and promises are sure, for He is the faithful, unchangeable One. David Livingstone in time of peril quoted the promise, "Lo I am with you always".

His Holiness←↰⤒🔗

Dr Patrick Fairbairn, speaking of the pillar of cloud and fire. says the fire is more peculiarly identified with the glory of God. It speaks of His holiness. He shone forth through the cloud and smote the Egyptians with terror. At times he checked the insolence of His people by a display of His glory. To­day this Holy One dwells in His people; their bodies are His temple. John Owen says there is no more forcible motive to contend against "the actings of sin" than this – that by our neglect to do so "the temple of the Spirit will be defiled." "Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy"

The Lord's Blessings←⤒🔗

Guidance←↰⤒🔗

By day and by night He leads. But sometimes He leads in strange paths. He led the Israelites into what seemed a trap from which there was no escape. But when He leads into such a place of difficulty He is well able to lead out of it – even though it means making a way through the Sea. He moves in the sphere of the impossible, doing the things that man cannot do.

Government←↰⤒🔗

When the cloud moved, they moved; when it stopped they stopped. "At the commandment of Jehovah the children of Israel journeyed and at the commandment of Jehovah they encamped." Whether it were two days or a month, or a year that the cloud remained on the tabernacle, the children of Israel remained encamped, but when it was taken up, they journeyed.

So today we are marked as the people of God by being under the government of the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14). Nelson when he was unwilling to break off action at the battle of Copenhagen in obedience to the signal of his commander-in-chief, put the telescope to his blind eye. But the Christian must be on the watch for the resting and moving of the pillar, and quick to obey.

Guardianship←↰⤒🔗

He spread a cloud for a covering – so they had protection from the burning heat of the eastern sun. The cloud on one occasion became a wall of defence between them and their Egyptian foes. When at Kadesh they went up without Moses without the ark and the pillar of fire, they were smitten by their foes. The pillar was like a pledge of safe-conduct.

The Lord today is a refuge for His people – He is "a shade from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." He will guide safely on, and none can pluck out of His hand.

Be strong and of good courage, fear not nor be affrighted, for Jehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with Thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee.