Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Journey Part 5: The God of Cloud and Fire

Posted by Michael

As the people of Israel set out across the desert to their new home, God gave them two pictures to help them understand who He was. The tabernacle or movable temple that God instructed the people to build was to be the location for God’s presence among the people. So, when they had stopped or were becoming tired or anxious, they could look toward the tabernacle and know that God was with them. To make sure that the people were clear about His presence, a cloud would hover around the tabernacle during the day, and fire would seemingly be consuming it during the night, although there was never any damage done (Exodus 40:38). God didn’t choose these images randomly, both images would teach the people (and us) a lot about who God is. We’ll dive into both of those images in the next Journey posts, but in the meantime, in case you feel alone and your day seems bigger than you are, remember, that your God is with you. Jesus in our hearts is for us, what the tabernacle was for the Israelite people. This truth is so important that God chose Immanuel for His name when He came to earth, which literally means, “God with us”. So, we may have days that are hard, but we never have days when we are left to face it all alone.

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