The weight and difficulty of this calling are hitting this week. (More on that here.) This morning I am taking comfort in Exodus 13–14 and 40. Those passages reminded me that God guided his people through a difficult wilderness and was faithful to take them all the way to the land he had promised them. HOW he did this is amazing to me. He guided them with HIS PRESENCE. Meaning, he walked WITH them through the desert. Exodus 13:21 doesn’t say that God sent a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to guide his people. (Even though that would be pretty awesome.) It says, the LORD “went before them” in a pillar of cloud and fire. He went WITH them through the desert.
That is such a comfort to me today. That he is with us. He’s not guiding us from a distance.
This is such a comfort to me today: Jesus is NOT guiding us from a distance. Click To TweetMeditate on these verses with me.
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light…
Exodus 13:21
He was with them.
The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
Exodus 13:22
He did not leave them.
And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,
Exodus 14:24
He was there to conquer their captors.
For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
Exodus 40:38
He stayed with them through ALL of their journeys.