Pillar of Fire - Exodus 13:19-22

13:19-22 – On the way out, Israel took all the stuff that they could carry, and one of those items that Moses made sure to bring with them was “the bones of Joseph… for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.” TB notes the full circle moment that is happening with Joseph being the beginning of Israelites in Egypt and now he’s being brought out and back “home” to Canaan. The full removal of all things Hebrew from Egypt, it’s one of the literary ways of completely disconnecting the first part of the book of Exodus from slavery and disfavor and now focusing 100% on leaving Egypt and embarking on Israel’s new mission, serving God.

TB also notes that the pathway that Israel is taking out of Egypt, instead of taking the Road of the Philistines, the Road of the Wilderness, God isn’t showing them some hidden way to get to Canaan. The route from Goshen to Canaan was well known and well established, probably even through this back wilderness way, so this isn’t some new secret that God is showing the Hebrews. Instead God is acting as their armed escort as “a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, not the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”

TB felt it is was important to note why this was necessary, noting that the time of year that they were headed out was the late spring, meaning that at that time of year the desert was HOT. When traveling in the desert, especially with kids, the elderly, and animals, it’s best to travel at night when it’s cooler and then rest during the day. Having spent many years of my life in the desert, I can attest that having a cloud overhead during the day makes for a more pleasant experience, making rest easier, decreasing the need to food, water, and salt, and even bringing raining more frequently, I would imagine.

A pillar of fire at night would give the people light to see because while it’s easier to see at night in the moonlight, in order for millions of people and animals to traverse the desert in the dark of the night, a pillar of fire would certainly help. It also took away the cover of darkness that would have been used by outsiders looking to take advantage of a traveling horde, bandits and robbers, etc. I would imagine that a pillar of fire would have been kind of intimidating, especially because it probably didn’t look like anything man made, thus indicating the protection of God.

This kind of begs the question, was all this strictly necessary for Israel to move through the desert? Probably not. As noted previously, ancient people knew how to handle night time, this isn’t a new phenomenon, unique to our experience. People had been traveling through the desert at night throughout all of human history, they knew how to do it, and could have done it, even though with the quantity of people, it would be difficult. And even though there might have been some predation to the outskirts of Israel, the sheer numbers would have been a deterrent to large scale attack.

If it wasn’t necessary, then why did God do it? I think there are several reasons. First, to show that He could. Israel had just experienced several months of weirdness that was attributed to God. Sure they suffered some in the beginning, but for the most part Egypt was just decimated by these “plagues” perpetrated against them by the Hebrew God. And really, if we look at it, there was months and months of destruction and then they were thrown out of their homes so quickly they couldn’t even let their bread dough rise. They had less than 24 hours notice that they were leaving their homes, because Moses saw Pharaoh in the morning and told him “before midnight the first born of Egypt will die.” That very day, Israel had to kills the lambs, paint blood on their doors, and pack up everything that they could carry and then head out. That is all very wild and honestly, very violent as well, all of it, just death and destruction the whole time. They were convinced of God’s great abilities to control, convince and destroy, but I bet they weren’t convinced that he would or even could do anything positive on their behalf.

I’ve felt this way before, knowing that God *could* do mighty miracles and great things for me if He chose to, but I’m usually convinced that He won’t. In that way, Israel can’t be blamed for believing in the abilities of God but not believing or even understanding that he could work positive miracles for them as well. He could have made them walk in the heat, but attacked on the fringes, literally stumble and fall, tripping over rocks and all that and they still should have praised Him for delivering them. But the point is that He didn’t do that, He delivered them and then provided tender mercies to show them His positive side, that worshipping Him was going to be a good experience, that it was going to improve their lives. It reminds me very much of the “hen gathering her chickens under her wings” statement that He made in the New Testament. He’s done the violent part, that’s how they know Him, now it’s time to show His tender side, the side of who He really is. Jesus doesn’t want to be the fire and brimstone guy, He wants to be the love and hugs guy, and this is the time He gets to show Him who he truly is.