We Will Move...When the Cloud Moves: Part Eight
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Part Eight: The Cloud Provided a Constant Sense of Security
I really struggle with insecurity.
It is super-easy for me to take things personally, to see obstacles as
specific threats against me personally, and to find myself wading through a
slough of despondency after a series of failures or dumb mistakes. Too much of my life is represented by that
game of pegs I play at the local Cracker Barrel restaurant. According to the wooden triangle, I’m
supposed use the pegs to jump each other, removing the “jumped” peg, and in the
end only leave one peg. If I eave one
peg the wood triangle says I’m a genius.
If I leave two pegs I’m pretty smart.
If I leave three, I’m “just plain dumb.”
And when I leave four or more,
it calls me an “ignoramus.” I think that’s
Latin for, you’re an idiot.
Now to be sure, there’ve been a couple of times when I played the game
that I’ve left just one. But you can
pretty well guess what the problem was, right?
I didn’t remember how I did it! And so, while I gloat in my genius moments,
much of my efforts leave me feeling like an insecure idiot. Hopefully you’re not like me, but if you are
you might be able to relate to that inner sense of irritation and massive sense
of insecurity and even attack on your identity in Christ when you play like an
ignoramus! Maybe it’s just me, though.
My life feels very much like that stinking peg game! So many of the same mistakes made over and
over again eventually leaves one feeling like an idiotic ignoramus over and
over again. These failures have a way of
slowly but incessantly chipping away at a feeling of security and identity in
Christ. One would think that I would
have learned by now and would get it right more often than not. It does seem to be getting better. I’ve often thought that perhaps I’m just a “late
bloomer” or something. My mom did tell
me quite frequently growing up that she wondered if I had peanut butter for
brains!
There’s nothing like a firm, solid, concrete, immovable, mountainous
sense of security, though. I want to
feel like Mount Everest, and I want the temptations and trials to feel like BB’s
against my exploding height of strength and spiritual mass. Somehow though, I get the picture from
passages like Hebrews 4 that they didn’t feel like that for even Jesus. Nevertheless, it is HIS success over sin that
counts for me before the Father…and thankfully, not my own. My security lies in what HE has done for me,
in who HE is for me, and in what HE is doing in me and through me. That’s my Paul says in Ephesians 1 that my
salvation and redemption is the praise of HIS glorious grace…and not to my
performance or failures.
During times of discipline from God, seasons of difficult consequences,
and especially in all periods of
waiting in transition, we are fair game for the Satan’s attacks. It is during these times that he knows we are
especially easy targets for
temptations to idolatry, lying, and foolish decisions of desperation. This is precisely what the forty years in the
wilderness in the Old Testament are intended to show us as New Testament people
today.
What the Israelites failed to do in their wilderness experience, Jesus
Christ succeeded in doing for His people today.
In his substitutionary forty days in the wilderness, He was tempted by
Satan in the very same areas as Israel (Matt. 4:1 ff.). Israel was tempted with concerns about food,
and so was Jesus. Israel was tempted
with concerns about protection in the wilderness, and so was Jesus. Israel was tempted with concerns about the
promised land, and so was Jesus.
In the Old Testament wilderness experience, the
cloud provided a constant sense of security for Israel, which made their fears
appropriately look foolish and unnecessary. The
very first appearance of the cloud in Israel is seen at the Red Sea
incident. Exodus 13:18 tells us that, “God led them in a round-about way through
the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Thus
the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.”
I love that! Just earlier we see
the truth about their situation. The easiest route to get to the Promised Land
was the road running through Philistine territory. But God wouldn’t lead them
that route because He said, “If the
people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to
Egypt” (v. 17). So here we have a
people, who are not an army ready for
battle, being positioned by God as an
army ready for battle. Yet the whole
story is about God as the One who is about to do battle and not His tired and
weak people. The rest of the narrative
is too good to simply summarize here.
The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the
wilderness. The Lord went ahead of
them. He guided them during the day with
a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or
night. And the Lord did not remove the
pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.
Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: “Order the Israelites
to turn back and camp by Pi-hahiroth between Midgol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, across from
Baal-zephon. Then Pharaoh will think,
‘The Israelites are confused. They are
trapped in the wilderness!’ Once again I
will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after you. I have planned this in order to display my
glory through Pharaoh and his whole army.
After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!” So the Israelites camped there as they were
told.
When
word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his
officials changed their minds. "What have we done, letting all those
Israelite slaves get away?" they asked.
So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his
troops. He took with him 600 of
Egypt's best chariots, along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with
its commander. The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt, so he chased after the people of Israel, who had left with fists
raised in defiance. The
Egyptians chased after them with all the forces in Pharaoh's army—all his
horses and chariots, his charioteers, and his troops. The Egyptians caught up
with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore near
Pi-hahiroth, across from Baal-zephon.
As
Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw
the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the LORD, and they said to Moses,
"Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there
enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us
leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would
happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, 'Leave us alone! Let us be slaves
to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the
wilderness!'" But Moses told the
people, "Don't be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you
see today will never be seen again.
The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay
calm."
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the LORD!"
Then
the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear
of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind
them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness
fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and
Israelites did not approach each other all night.
You
know the rest of the story. Things did
not turn out very well for Pharaoh and his army. Things turned out incredible for Israel. I simply want to emphasize the one of the
first appearances of the cloud, the presence and glory of God, in this
story. And in this part of the story the
cloud is leading them and protecting them.
Understanding how this leading and protecting work together is crucial,
especially for me at this vulnerable season in my family’s life.
The
cloud led the children of Israel away from one battle they could not win. Going north would have meant a battle with
the Philistines. And after hundreds of
years conditioned by slavery, they were in no shape to fight. So God led them away from a battle that would
discourage them and send them running for their lives back to Egypt.
Yet
God also wanted them permanently
removed from Egypt, with hardly a chance of going back. So while He was leading them away from one battle they could not win,
He was leading them toward another
battle they could not win. Things get
sort of confusing at this point, if you’re somebody who pays even the slightest
bit of attention to the story here.
What’s the difference between one battle they could not win and another
battle they could not win? Upon further
meditation on the text, there are two obvious features of the story that jump
out at me.
First, simply put, God wanted to waste the Egyptian army. He could
not have done that if He led them north, because then, in a fearful flight away
from the Philistines, they would have run right back into the arms of the
enslaving Egyptians. This was all a part
of God’s plan from the very beginning. “I have planned this in order to display my
glory through Pharaoh and his whole army.
After this the Egyptians will know
that I am the Lord!” (14:4, emphasis mine).
I love Moses’ communication to a fearful people upon seeing Pharaoh’s
army on the horizon. “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue
you today. The Egyptians you see today
will never be seen again. The Lord HIMSELF will fight for you. Just stay calm” (14:13, emphasis
mine). God’s whole point behind this
strange path to the Promised Land was to utterly destroy the Egyptian
army. Period.
Second, God set them up to display HIS glory, HIS strength, HIS
might, HIS power. This
whole ordeal was all about HIM. God led
His people to place where there would be no mistake, either among them or other
nations from that day forward, that God was the One fighting for His
people…that ALL His enemies would end up just like Pharaoh’s army…that NO army
or weapon formed against Israel would succeed.
God was out to make a name for HIMSELF!
This was HIS reputation at stake here.
The
cloud was an important player in the story, because it was God Himself. As the story goes, the cloud normally
traveled out in front of Israel, leading them.
But in this story we see something that was never repeated again in
their history. For the first and only
time in their history the cloud moved to the rear of the nation. It moved there to separate them from the
Egyptian army, and to keep the night lit up so both groups could see what the
other was doing. The cloud had such an
ominous presence that, in light of the previous happenings to Pharaoh and his
people, they knew this was something
having to do with their God. So he
played it smart and didn’t make a move to rush through the cloud and attack
Israel. For all he knew they would have
been disintegrated or electrocuted!
The
cloud stayed behind all two-plus
million of these people as they walked across the dry seabed of the Red
Sea. It followed the last person across
the Sea and stayed there continuing to separate the two nations. The presence of God acted as a constant sense
of security to each Israelite, for as each one no doubt looked behind them at
some point in the walk across the sea, they would have seen the cloud of fire
behind them protecting them from Pharaoh.
And it was on the other side of the sea, as the cloud settled between
Israel in the wilderness and Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, that,
“Just
before dawn the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire
and cloud, and he threw their forces into total confusion He twisted their chariot wheels, making their
chariots difficult to drive. ‘Let’s get
out of here – away from these Israelites!’ the Egyptians shouted. ‘The Lord is fighting for them against
Egypt!’” (14:24-25).
I
can’t let my heart or family miss this important feature of the story. In the settling and waiting period of my
transition, God is interested in absolutely securing my protection…for my good
and for His glory. God has set His cloud
in front of me, providing constant and unmistakable leadership, a constant
sense of direction, a constant sermon of His mercy, and a constant sense of security.
Yet He is not only in front of me.
He is also behind me. He stands
permanently settled between me and the forces of darkness, between myself and
Satan’s armies. Like David said in
Psalm 139:5, “You go before me and
you follow me,” and like Isaiah
said in 58:8, “the glory of the Lord will
protect you from behind…” God is dedicated to my security and protection,
especially in transition.
God
is designing and orchestrating the events of my life so that however they
happen and turn out no one will have doubt as to how it all could have worked
out. He wants it all to play out so that
He is the only one who is obviously leading.
God doesn’t want anyone
mistaking His leadership and protection for mere coincidence in my life. There’s no such thing as happenstance or
luck. When God is leading and protecting
His people, He will make sure that He gets the glory and that me and my family
are secured.
It’s crucial to see the link between these two features. My good and His glory go hand-in-hand. God will never act in such a way that
puts His glory ahead of my good, simply because my good is how God shows His glory to the world. Such a statement may seem shocking at
first. But the sheer truth of the matter
is that my good and my outcome, my being led and provided for and protected in
and through my transition is inextricably linked to God glorifying Himself and
building His reputation. No doubt this
is where our God separates Himself from the gods of other religions. Those gods make a horrid name for themselves
as brutish deities who need to be constantly pacified with absurd offerings in
order to even remotely act on behalf of the people whom they supposedly
represent. But not our God.
When
I doubt God’s good ness to me, I also doubt His desire to glorify Himself. When I believe and am freshly and deeply
convinced that God’s primary aim is to glorify Himself in the universe, I am
instantly brought to believe and embrace that He is good, and that He is good
to me personally. This leads me to
believe that He will always keep me secure.
He will protect me. He will
always be a place of safety where I can go.
The Psalms are filled with sort of talk as David, Moses, Asaph and
others sing to the infinite God of absolute safety and security.
When
the cloud was present, God was present.
When God was present, provision and protection were present. When provision and protection are present,
doubt is dispelled, fear is dissolved, despair is destroyed, and discouragement
is devastated. My task in this
transition…really my only task…is to
focus and refocus myself each day, throughout each day, on the truth that the
cloud is always there. God will never leave me or forsake me. He will
be with me always, even to the end of the world, whatever that may look like.
Read the entire series here in one document.
About the Author: Rob is a entrepreneur in Statesboro, GA, where he envisions and pursues missional-shaped business for the kingdom. He and his wife Sherri have been married for 18 years and together have three sons and a daughter. Rob believes the mission of the gospel is summed up in four simple phrases: know God, obey Jesus, make disciples, and plant churches. This is the pursuit of his life, as well as the point of his blog.
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