Exodus 14:19-20\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0Then the angel of God,\u00a0who had been traveling in front of Israel\u2019s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud\u00a0also moved from in front and stood behind\u00a0them,\u00a020\u00a0coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness\u00a0to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.<\/i>\u00a0NIV<\/p>\n
Exodus 14:19-20\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0And the Angel of God,\u00a0who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.\u00a020\u00a0So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness\u00a0to the one,\u00a0and it gave light by night\u00a0to the other,\u00a0so that the one did not come near the other all that night.<\/i>\u00a0NKJV<\/p>\n
Exodus 13:21-22<\/b>\u00a0\u201cAnd\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0was 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\u00a0travel by day and by night.\u00a022\u00a0He\u00a0did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from the presence of the people.<\/i><\/p>\n
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!\u00a0\u00a0It makes us just wonder and wow at what the power of our Lord.\u00a0\u00a0During that same time the Lord did another supernatural work for Israel.\u00a0\u00a0He was leading the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.\u00a0\u00a0What a sight that must have been!\u00a0\u00a0A sign of the Lord\u2019s presence with them protection upon them.\u00a0\u00a0Want to talk about a sign from God, wow!\u00a0\u00a0These are equally great miracles of God.\u00a0\u00a0I 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.\u00a0\u00a0Oh my, how it must have thrilled their hearts!<\/p>\n
So we all knew about this pillar of clouds and fire that lead them.\u00a0\u00a0Last 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.)\u00a0\u00a0She read to me from\u00a0Exodus 14:19-20<\/b>\u00a0how 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.\u00a0\u00a0I had not noticed this before and I said to her \u201cWow\u201d and she replied \u201cI know!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0We excitedly spoke about what this meant to us.\u00a0\u00a0Darkness was all the Egyptians, who rejected the Lord, could see.\u00a0\u00a0To them who rejected the knowledge of God, God did not reveal His glory, but they were in the dark.\u00a0\u00a0But to His people, the majesty of God shone brightly on His people and they beheld a sign of His might and His compassion.\u00a0\u00a0Consider the different views the Egyptians and the Israelites had.\u00a0\u00a0How different their understanding as a result of yielding or not yielding to God as God.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0It is because of their hard heart.\u00a0\u00a0They could see and understand the blazing glory of God should they come to God through Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0But no-one understands the Word until they do.\u00a0\u00a0How sad to try to peer into the Bible but not understand.\u00a0\u00a0Only softened humble hearts will come to understand.\u00a0\u00a0Only those with the Holy Spirit, those who are submitted to Jesus, can understand. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Those 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.\u00a0\u00a0They will not agree with us and may even hate us. (John 15:18-19<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Yet there is hope for the lost and the Lord God knows who are His, not yet with Him, but who will come.\u00a0\u00a0We 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.\u00a0\u00a0So we search for our brothers and sisters to be and long to assist them to the bright side of the pillar, where they belong.\u00a0\u00a0Let us not be smug, but love all people, that Jesus may be glorified by the rescuing of the missing ones.\u00a0\u00a0Being on the dark side is a sad thing, but being on the light side is a wondrous place to be.\u00a0\u00a0Let us be what Jesus has called us to be, tellers of Jesus\u2019 story.\u00a0\u00a0We 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.\u00a0\u00a0For the hard hearts who will never trust in Jesus, they will never know either Him or the Father.\u00a0\u00a0But to us who submit and love the Lord, we know Him and understand His Word.\u00a0\u00a0Things on opposites of the pillar are not the same.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s praise our God that He has called us to the side of light and understanding.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/i><\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exodus 14:19-20\u00a0–\u00a0Then the angel of God,\u00a0who had been traveling in front of Israel\u2019s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud\u00a0also moved from in front and stood behind\u00a0them,\u00a020\u00a0coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness\u00a0to the one side and light to the other side; so neither…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,2257,100,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-exodus","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}