Exodus 14:19-20 – Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. NIV
Exodus 14:19-20 – And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. 20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. NKJV
Exodus 13:21-22 “And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from the presence of the people.
Early in my walk with the Lord I remember the sermons teaching on how the Lord God rescued Israel from the Egyptians. Of course we remember the breathtaking parting of the sea! It makes us just wonder and wow at what the power of our Lord. During that same time the Lord did another supernatural work for Israel. He was leading the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. What a sight that must have been! A sign of the Lord’s presence with them protection upon them. Want to talk about a sign from God, wow! These are equally great miracles of God. I imagine it being night, with the dark desert skies surrounding the people of Israel, but burning bright before them was a pillar of fire, a sign from God of His love and protection for them. Oh my, how it must have thrilled their hearts!
So we all knew about this pillar of clouds and fire that lead them. Last night, just before sleep, my wife excitedly asked me if I had ever noticed how, the night before crossing the Red Sea, that the pillar had moved from the front of the people to behind the people (to keep the Egyptians from the Israelites.) She read to me from Exodus 14:19-20 how the pillar, that had been a cloud during the day and fire at night, became both, dark toward the Egyptians and light toward the Israelites. I had not noticed this before and I said to her “Wow” and she replied “I know!” We excitedly spoke about what this meant to us. Darkness was all the Egyptians, who rejected the Lord, could see. To them who rejected the knowledge of God, God did not reveal His glory, but they were in the dark. But to His people, the majesty of God shone brightly on His people and they beheld a sign of His might and His compassion. Consider the different views the Egyptians and the Israelites had. How different their understanding as a result of yielding or not yielding to God as God.
Today in our times the people who reject Jesus as Savior and Lord, especially those who claim to know and understand God, do not realize that they have not been blessed to gaze upon the blazing glory of God but rather only see the dark cloud that reveals little. It is because of their hard heart. They could see and understand the blazing glory of God should they come to God through Jesus. But no-one understands the Word until they do. How sad to try to peer into the Bible but not understand. Only softened humble hearts will come to understand. Only those with the Holy Spirit, those who are submitted to Jesus, can understand. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) Those who reject, or hate us who believe do so because they see the difference between us and them and they know the difference is Jesus. They will not agree with us and may even hate us. (John 15:18-19) Yet there is hope for the lost and the Lord God knows who are His, not yet with Him, but who will come. We must pray for and share our Lord with everyone, because though the Lord knows who belongs to Him, even though they are in the enemies camp now, we do not. So we search for our brothers and sisters to be and long to assist them to the bright side of the pillar, where they belong. Let us not be smug, but love all people, that Jesus may be glorified by the rescuing of the missing ones. Being on the dark side is a sad thing, but being on the light side is a wondrous place to be. Let us be what Jesus has called us to be, tellers of Jesus’ story. We do it to honor the Lord and save our future Brothers and Sisters, whom we love, if our hearts are right. We do because we have been commanded and because we love Jesus. For the hard hearts who will never trust in Jesus, they will never know either Him or the Father. But to us who submit and love the Lord, we know Him and understand His Word. Things on opposites of the pillar are not the same. Let’s praise our God that He has called us to the side of light and understanding. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob withRomans 3:3-4 – What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
If a man, who seemed to have lots of facts and good intellect, challenged parts of the Word of God, would that make me disbelieve? No? No matter the person or amount of persons that challenge what God has said I will not be persuaded to doubt the Word of God. Against overwhelming force and seemingly overwhelming reason I stand strong with God and His Word.
Some thirty plus years ago I went through a powerful spiritual attack. The goal of the attack was to put doubt and confusion in me concerning God and His Word. The attack became so real and so powerful I had to pull off the freeway as the attack became overwhelming. Oh, I was fighting in the Spirit, proclaiming victory and assurance in the name of the Lord, but the waves of the attack persisted. Finally I cried out a confession to the Lord from Romans 3:4 “Let God be true and every man a liar!” I was stating to God that though all the demons and every person come against my faith in Him, I would not relent. I trust the Lord above all others. Not sometimes, but always and forever. After crying out this verse the attack stopped. The attacking horde was gone and the peace of the Lord surrounded me. The attack was horrible but the rescue infinitely sweeter. Looking back I thank God for the ordeal because He strengthened my knowledge of Him and thereby my trust in Him. The gift from the ordeal is with me still, and forever.
Recently I went through another trial. My physical and spiritual life were attacked. The enemy again came after my faith. But the Lord had strengthened my knowledge of Him and my faith in Him. As I felt my physical life was at an end, my faith never wavered. I knew the Lord was with me and if I should die I would go to be with Him. I was not afraid, but rather just awaiting the will of God. I thank God for all the trials I have been through as they all contributed to my faith staying strong through this one. The Lord Himself, by His Spirit and His Word, kept me strong. Praise the Lord! As I was thinking I was about to die Philippians 1:21-22 comforted me. Live or die, to me, everything is about and for Jesus. Live or die, I only want to be pleasing to the Lord. I thought I might physically die, but knew I would never be separated from Jesus. Again the Lord gave me a sweet rescue. Praise God!
No matter the assault, whatever demon or non-believer may say “May God be true and every man a liar!” Trust God no matter what. Trust God and trust His Word. He is good and He loves us. Praise Jesus!
Isaiah 25:1 “O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob withJohn 9:24-34 – So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” 28 They spoke abusively to him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes! 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and yet you are teaching us?” So they put him out.
“So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” The man who had been healed from blindness had told a simple, not hard to understand story. He said that he was blind from birth until Jesus healed him. He said I was blind but now I see. It is a simple statement of fact, with witnesses. Now the Pharisees who were troubled by these facts wanted to hear him say the story again not because the facts are hard to understand but because of the pre-conceived notions they did not believe the facts could be true. They were trying to make out the truth to be a lie. They did that for their own selfish reasons. They wanted to change the facts to fit their doctrine. This tactic of questioning over and over again, even though the story remained unchanged, is still being used. If someone is questioning you about the same thing over and over again you can be sure that they don’t believe you because they find your story unbelievable because of their preconceived notions.
We know that the most seductive lies are mixed with truth. They told this healed man to glorify God and not a man whom they claim is a sinner. All the facts point to the truth of the story of the healing as had been reported. They was no contrary evidence. They attempted to bully the man from the truth to something they would accept as truth. They said stop giving Jesus glory that He did not deserve and give the glory to God who healed you. They were telling him that he should come clean and glorify God. They could not see that glorifying God was exactly what the man had been asserting.
“He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” The Pharisees would have liked to cloud the issue for the man and argue the law, written and oral tradition, instead of simply the man telling what he knew had happened. He did not take the bait and simply held to his story. The Jews were experts in the law and did not want to argue with them about that. The man was an expert of his own testimony. Sometimes we are unnecessarily called into arguments about faith. Although it’s certainly wise to study and prepare to give an answer to those who question the Word, we are safest when we, like the healed man did, merely stick to what we know. What we know is that before Jesus we were blind, but after Jesus we could see. Praise the Lord!
“So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” Who can explain how God does His miracles. The Pharisees asked the man how did Jesus heal him? The man had already explained what Jesus did but the man could not explain how what He did caused the healing. The man knew what Jesus had done but He could not explain the intricacies of the miracle. Moses knew that God would part the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk though on dry land, but He didn’t know how what God did would work. Moses simply knew God would do it. God is not under obligation to fully explain to anyone how He does it, it the job of His people merely to believe. We walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) That has always been the obligation of those who believe in and follow the Lord God. None of the prophets explained how God did the miracles, they just trusted that He would.
“He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” The healed man had already repeated himself. He was not going to lie for the Pharisees benefit. So he asked why the Pharisees wanted to hear the story. These arrogant authorities had obvious insincere motives. The man answered sarcastically asking them if they intended to become disciples of Jesus. It is interesting that the man asked if they wanted to become disciples “too.” It seems to imply that the man had his mind set to follow Jesus.
“They spoke abusively to him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” Obviously the proud Pharisees got their tail feathers ruffled and responded saying that this man seemed to be disciple of Jesus but they took what they thought the superior position that they were disciples of Moses. They reminded that God had spoken to Moses (Exodus 33:11). They, not recognizing Jesus as coming from and representing the Father, didn’t know where Jesus came from. Yet if they were the strict disciples of Moses they claimed then they should have recognized what Moses had told of Jesus.
“The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes! 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” Here the healed layman asked them a question about their qualifications. He brought up to the Pharisees what they had taught which they were now contradicting themselves. The Pharisees had erroneously taught that God does not listen to sinners. If God will not listen to sinners then how can he hear a sinner repent and then forgive him as He is apt to do? (Ezekiel 18:21-23, Proverbs 28:13) So this brought a dilemma to the Pharisees, if Jesus was sinner then God would not have listened to Jesus and then performed the miracle (according to their own teaching.) But since the miracle was done through Jesus, and if what they taught was true, then that proved Jesus was not a sinner.
“They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and yet you are teaching us?” So they put him out.” How do people who cannot support their argument respond? Since they cannot support their argument they personally smear their opponent, which is what the Pharisees did. Then their pride rose up and they asked who he was to question them, to suppose to teach them. So, this man’s parents did not want to argue with the Pharisees because they would kick him out of the Jewish community, and that is what they did to their son.
Joshua stood up to the majority and told them “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) Peter and John stood up to the religious authorities and declared “But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20) Joshua, Peter and John stood for God and have received their eternal prizes. Let us stand strongly for God and we too shall be given the same prize. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob with