God’s Clouds – (3.) Moses and the Cloud of Protection
God’s Clouds – (3.) Moses and the Cloud of Protection.
“God thunders marvelously with His voice; He works wonders that we cannot understand.
He commands the snow, ‘Fall to the ground!’ And the downpour of rain, His mighty downpour of rain…
He loads the clouds with moisture and scatters His lightning-clouds…
Listen to this, O Job, and pay attention! Stand still and ponder the wondrous works of God;
Do you have any idea how God controls the storms, and causes the lightning to flash from His clouds?
Do you understand how the clouds are balanced in the sky, floating in the air, which are miraculous works of Him who is perfect in wisdom and skill? (Job 37:5-6, 11, 14-16).
Clouds truly are wondrous, and miraculous, and one of our Creator’s greatest inventions. Each cloud we see in the sky is unrepeatable, completely unique and always changing. They can be dark and foreboding, or light and joyous. They can pour down upon us light rain or heavy rain, a blizzard of snow or postcard snowflakes, driving hail or frozen ice. They can strike the earth with dramatic lightning or be a sun-drenched fluffball. Clouds can be practically luminous and filled with sunlight or monstrously dark without any light at all. It’s no wonder clouds have captured the imagination of poets, artists, pretty much all of mankind since the beginning, for they are just hanging there in the sky between heaven and earth, somehow floating and perfectly balanced in midair, above the earth yet still near us as well. Hopefully the science of clouds we now know will not remove the unpredictable mystery and glorious wonder of clouds. As author John Ruskin put it, “You may take any single fragment of any cloud in the sky, and you will find it put together as if there had been a year’s thought over the plan of it – a picture in itself. You may try every other piece of cloud in the heavens, and you will find them everyone as perfect, and yet not one in the least like another.” (The True and the Beautiful, 1858).
Clouds as Theophanies. From the Greek words “Theo” (God) and “phaino” (to appear), a theophany is when God announces Himself in a visible form, and He makes a temporary appearance on earth for reasons of His own. A theophany is God’s temporary visible manifestation to remind us of His permanent presence in the world. A theophany is when God stoops to us in gracious self-revelation in a form that we can experience through our senses. The Lord God often announced His presence in a thick, radiant cloud.
Fiery Clouds in Shekinah Glory. This is another way to think about the Divine Presence, the appearance of God’s glory that dwells on earth, which implies God’s nearness, closeness, God’s with-ness to us. Shekinah is understood in Judaism, and then adopted by Christianity, to be the “uncreated light, fire and luminous cloud” that became visible when God made an appearance on the earth. God’s Shekinah glory announced His presence. Shekinah is also equivalent to the Biblical terms “My Glory,” “The Cloud,” “The Pillar of Cloud,” “My Presence,” and “the Cloud of Yahweh” in the eyes of rabbinic authorities.
Stand Still and Watch God Fight! “But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord Yahweh will fight for you while you keep silent’… And the Angel of God who has been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, and yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night there at the shore of the Red Sea.” (Exodus 4:13-20).
Watch Me Work. So after 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites have been released by the Pharaoh to worship the Lord elsewhere in freedom. But then the fickle Pharoah had second thoughts and wanted the slaves to return to Egypt. In Exodus 14, the Israelites were on the run in the wilderness on the outskirts of Egypt. The sophisticated war machine of Egypt, complete with soldiers, horses and chariots, were in full pursuit. The Israelites were no match, for they had no weapons, were not soldiers, and were on foot. As the Israelites were leaving Egypt, the Angel of God was before them, showing the way and defending them from danger. They got as far as the Red Sea, and soon the Israelites were boxed in, trapped. On the one side they have the impassable Red Sea. On the other side is the fearsome Egyptian army. The people were terrified and started complaining to Moses and Yahweh. They said that they might as well have stayed in Egypt, that they would rather be slaves in Egypt than die in the wilderness. But Moses came right back at them with this… Quit your crying out to God in complaint! Be quiet, stand still, and see Yahweh win the day for you! (14:13-14). Moses assured them that Yahweh will do the fighting for them, and they will be delivered from the Egyptians once and for all. The Messenger of God, the Angel of Yahweh, then shifted from the front of the Israelites to the rear of them, standing between the escaping slaves and the fearsome army. (14:19). The pillar of cloud also shifted with Him to add to the protective barrier. The Angel remained at His post, holding off the army. And as darkness fell, the pillar of cloud turned into a pillar of fire. The fire gave light to the Hebrews, but somehow the pillar of cloud kept the Egyptians in the dark (Ex. 14:20). Sometimes the Lord wants us to participate in the fight, and other times to refrain from fighting, trust in Him to lead the combat, and let Him do the heavy work. The rest is history… Moses lifted his staff over the Red Sea, strong winds blew over the Sea all night, the waters of the Sea parted, and the Israelites walked to the other side on dry ground. The fearsome pillar allowed the Hebrews to cross the Red Sea into freedom.