Tabernacle Truths
The Pillar of Cloud and Fire
Exodus 13:17-22, 40:17-38
Numbers 9:15-23; Galatians 5:16, 25
 
For several weeks we have been studying the instructions Moses was given for preparing the tabernacle that was used by the Jews during their time in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.
 
The blueprints for the tabernacle and everything that surrounded it and went inside it are given in the book of Exodus beginning at chapter 25 and continuing to the end of the book at chapter 40. Sixteen very lengthy and detailed, dare I say, even tedious chapters of instruction are provided.
 
Obviously, this structure and its furnishings are very significant. Not only were they important to those early Jews, they are important to us as New Testament believers because they provide vivid illustrations of Jesus and God's plan of salvation They tell us how to approach God and live in His presence.
 
Today I want to begin our study in Exodus 40 where we find God telling Moses what to do when everything was ready. These are the final instructions before the Tabernacle will be put into use. The first 15 verses of the chapter are the instructions, then verse 16 tells us Moses did what God told him to do.
 
Then verses 17-38 tell us what he did. To avoid the repetition, we'll begin reading at verse 17.
Exodus 40:17-38
 
Notice, in particular,
 
verse 34
 
When we first began our study, we heard God say in Exodus 25:8, "I want you to build a tabernacle so I can dwell near my people."
 
And now, that is happening! It's hard to express in human words what that experience must have been like when everything was finished and in place and this mysterious cloud descended and enveloped that structure and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. This is
 
1. God's Glory in a Tent
 
Now think about that: God has brought Himself down to live in a tent that is about 15 feet cubed!
This is the glorious, majestic presence of the God Who spoke the entire universe into being, now living in a cloth structure the size of your bedroom!
 
And you will notice that He descends in a cloud. This is what theologians call a theophany, that is a visible manifestation of the invisible presence of God. No man has ever seen God, He tells us in His word, yet He shows up from time to time in visible ways in order to make certain points to His people.
 
And that's what is happening here. God shows up in the visible, tangible presence of a cloud and whatever it was, and however it happened, it is overwhelming. So much so that Moses is unable to go back inside!
Now there are two parallel themes given in this verse. One of those themes is
 
- God's awesome majesty.
 
The glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, and what we see when that glory cloud comes upon it is the revelation of God's transcendent majesty. It's so overwhelming that not even Moses, who alone among the elders of Israel had drawn near to God in times past, can enter into the place of His presence.
 
This is a classic representation of the doctrine of God's transcendence. He's so exalted, He's so high and lifted up, He cannot be experienced directly in His fullness by mortal man.
 
Isn't that amazing? Moses was unable to enter the tent because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Why couldn't he enter? It is because God is transcendent in His imminence, and imminent in His transcendence.
 
In plain English, that means God is high and exalted in His nearness, and He is near in His high and exaltedness.
 
But running parallel with that theme is the theme of
 
- God's amazing nearness.
 
The two almost seem incompatible with one another, and yet, there they are, side by side. God is exalted and God has come near. He's high and lifted up, He's majestic and transcendent, but He's near to His people, He's imminent and close and present with them, and you see those things set side by side.
Now, in regard to the fact that He is near, there is another twin set of truths that emerge. Since He has come near, that is God's way of saying He approves of what they've done. So the glory cloud is a sign of
 
- God's Approval
 
They've done everything He's told them to do. They've built and set up the tabernacle according to His instructions, and His presence there is a tangible sign that God is saying to His people "I accept what you have done. I receive your offering and now I'm dwelling in your midst."
 
So the glory of God shows up in this cloud as a sign that God approves of what they've done and as a result of His approval, they will now experience the nearness and presence of God.
 
But it is also a sign of
 
- His protection
 
verse 38
 
“Throughout their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle, and there was fire in it by night in the sight of all the house of the Lord.”
 
The glory cloud was a visible reminder that God was there with them. It was God's way of saying, "‘I'm here with you. I'm right in the midst of all your problems and trials and battles and struggles. I'm right in the thick of what you’re going through and I'm not leaving. I'm protecting you and staying with you and guarding you, and guiding you."
 
In other words, the glory cloud is a visible sign of the constant presence of God.
 
There is a beautiful reminder of that in 2 Samuel 7. By the time we get to this chapter, David is king and he lives in a beautiful palace of cedar in Jerusalem and the Ark of the Covenant is still being housed in the tabernacle.
 
And in many ways, David is a good, humble godly man. And one day, he looks at his palace and he looks at the tent, and he says, It's not right for me to live in a palace while God lives in a tent."
"my house is bigger and better than God's house." And David rightly comes to the conclusion that it's not right for him to live in a nicer place than God!
 
So he says to Nathan, "I want to build a house for God. And originally, Nathan thinks that's a good idea and he tells David he should proceed with his plan to build God a house. But that night, the Lord comes to Nathan in a dream, and tells him not to build a house. Notice what He says:
 
2 Samuel 7:5-7
 
And what God is saying is, "As long as My people are in tents, I'm going to be there with them. If My people are living as nomads out in the wilderness, if they’re wandering around without a place to call home, that's where I'm going to be also!"
 
And the wonder of this glory cloud hovering over that tent is that it was God's way of saying that He draws near and lives among His people to provide them with the protection they need.
 
That's the kind of God He is. You see it in the tent and you see it in Jesus, whom John says in John 1 tabernacled among us. He came and He dwelt among us. And you see it at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is poured out and tabernacles in us, and you see it in the gathered people of God.
 
That's how God works and that's exactly what God was saying in the tabernacle:"‘I accept you, and I will protect you."
 
What an amazing thought: God in a tent!
 
But this is not the first time God appeared to His people in this way. There is another instance recorded in Exodus 13 and there we discover that this cloud was described as a pillar of cloud.
 
2. God in a Cloud
 
Exodus 13:17-22
 
Now God in the tent shows us God's approval and protection, but here we find the assurance of
 
- God's guidance.
 
Immediately, we note the significance of God's guidance in that he did not lead them on the shortest distance available, but the safest way.
 
They could have traveled through the land of the Philistines, but keep in mind, they had been in bondage for 400 years and they are totally unprepared for war.
 
No doubt, God could and would have protected them, but the greater lesson they needed to learn was to follow God. So, God gives them this pillar of cloud and fire.
 
verses 21-22
 
Now just to be clear, a pillar is best described as a column. So we have a perpendicular cloud that was lit up at night by fire that provided a visible guidance system for the children of Israel.
 
By the way, it is the Old Testament picture of what our Lord meant when he said: “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
 
This pillar of guidance was a constant presence in the life of the nation all the way into The Promised Land. In like manner, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit indwelling them, and the Holy Spirit indwelling us is the One through whom the presence of the Lord Jesus is made real in our lives.
 
By the way, we know this same pillar is the cloud that we found in Exodus 40 because of what we read in Numbers 9.
 
Numbers 9:15-23
 
In other words, their movements were determined by the movements of the Lord God. Did you notice how many times we see the phrase, “at the command of the Lord?” Every movement they made was "at the command of the Lord". They moved when the cloud moved and the cloud moved "at the command of the Lord". The two were simultaneous.
So the whole question of whether or not they should move was answered by the question, "Did the cloud move?" Because if the cloud moved, they moved. That is pretty easy to follow to, isn’t it?
 
But then it got a little more involved. In fact, if you dose off, you might miss what happens next. In fact, it's deep enough, I'll probably lose some of you even if you stay awake.
 
First, they moved if they cloud moved. But then,
 
verse 18
 
Second, they didn't move if the cloud didn't move.
Do you need me to repeat that? I'll give it a second or two to sink in! I realize it takes a lot of theological perception to capture the thought! I'll repeat it: if the cloud moved, they moved and if the cloud didn't move, they didn't either.
 
Then it becomes even complex in that they stayed where they were until the cloud moved.
 
verse 22
 
It didn't matter if it was two days or a month or a year, they stayed where they were until the cloud moved. So here was the instruction: Move when it moves, don't move unless it moves and stay where you are until it moves.
 
Did you notice that the children of Israel didn't have to make any plans at all? They didn't have to sit around and rationalize about where they should go or when they should go. All the human logic was removed.
Other than being obedient, they had nothing else to plan. And I mention that to say that is our position as Christians also. Our first and primary responsibility is to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
 
When we start making plans of our own, we have introduced human reasoning into divine principles and the two do not interact. Just follow the Lord. Move when He moves, don't move if He doesn't and stay where you are until He does.
 
To move without God is always to move in the dark! On the other hand, if the cloud did move and they said we do not want to move, because, after all, this is a nice spot and the weather is nice and we enjoy it here, then they wound up in the dark because the light moved away from them.
 
So to move when the cloud does not move is to move into darkness. To not move when the cloud moved, is to wind up in darkness also.
 
So the key thing is, and it said over and over again, is to move at the command of the Lord.
 
Now with that in mind, I want to show you one more place you can find the Lord. We find God in a cloud at the tabernacle. We find Him in the pillar of cloud and fire leading the children of Israel wherever they went, and in the New Testament, we find
 
3. God in the Believer
 
As I mentioned earlier, the pillar of cloud and fire is a picture of the Holy Spirit.
Everything and more that the Children of Israel had in the cloud, we have in the Spirit. The presence of God in the tabernacle revealed God's approval and protection. The pillar of cloud and fire was God's way of guiding His children.
 
From a New Testament point of view, we have passages like John 16 where Jesus says that through the Holy Spirit, he is going to teach us the things that we need to be taught and we know that in Ephesians chapter 4 we find that the Lord has sealed us with the Spirit to give us protection.
 
And in Romans 8:14 we are told if we are truly the children of God, we are led by the Holy Spirit.
 
The Holy Spirit has this vital role of being the very presence of God at a personal level in the life of every believer to provide us with everything we need for the journey to the Promised Land! And our primary responsibility is to follow Him. When He moves, we move, when He doesn't move, we don't either and we stay until we provide further instruction.
 
Now with that in mind, listen to what we find in
 
Galatians 5:16 and 25
 
So, every Christian is guided by the Holy Spirit, and the Christian life is as simple as following the Holy Spirit.
 
When the Israelites came out of Egyptian bondage, God immediately gave them this cloud and said "Follow Me."
And at that point, they had a choice. They could follow, or they could refuse to follow and travel on their own. Behind them was captivity and an Egyptian army. Before them was the great unknown of the wilderness and the promise of God.
 
They followed that cloud for forty years and at the end, the Promised Land was waiting. All they had to do was follow the cloud.
 
  1. New Testament believers, we have something better than the cloud and that is the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us. That's why Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, said,
 
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
That's in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians. Then he repeats it again in chapter 6:
 
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
 
We are not just the temple, we have the cloud! We don't have to rely on a cloud hanging in the sky above us. After all, you might have a cloudy day or get it confused with other clouds!
 
With the Holy Spirit, we don't depend on external conditions, but internal conditions! We have the One who made the fire and created the cloud living inside us! The Holy Spirit has come to permanently indwell every Christian. The glory of the Lord has filled the temple!
 
And what we need to do is learn to recognize and respond to His direction. We have to learn to hear the voice of God and follow His leadership.
 
So how do we do that? Listen again to
 
Galatians 5:16 and 25
 
The common denominator found in the two verses is the word "walk". Twice he says, "Walk in the Spirit."
 
Do you know how the Israelites traveled in those days in the wilderness? They walked. So what is walking? Walking is a matter of experience.
 
We teach children to walk by putting their feet on the ground. Babies don't learn to walk sitting in a high chair or booster seat. You can say to that baby, "Now baby, walking is simple. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and repeat the process."
 
But babies walk by experience. Someone holds them by the hand and helps them balance and learn to stand and through encouragement and practice and a lot of falling down and getting up again, children learn to walk.
 
And the same is true for Christians. Walking in the Spirit is simply getting up in the morning and saying, "Lord, today I want to walk with you. I don't want to run ahead or lag behind. I don't want to move without you. So today Lord, show me where to go and when to go and what to say and do."
 
Then go out there and have a falling good time!
 
Because through falling you will ultimately come to the place where you will be able to recognize God’s guidance and in so doing, you will learn to walk in the Spirit.
 
I'll close with this. The last three verses of Exodus say:
 
Exodus 40:36-38
 
It's worth noting that the Book of Exodus begins with the people of God in Egyptian captivity and bondage under a heavy load of work, misery and oppression. But it ends on this glorious note by them being assured that night and day the God of the universe is hovering around her to protect her, to guide her, to defend her, to aid her and to control her future.
 
And the same is true today, and even more so for the New Testament Christian. The Lord guides and defends His people not through a cloud, but by the indwelling of His glorious Holy Spirit.
 
The High and Exalted One has come down in the middle of your experience, in your difficulties, in your weaknesses, in your sins, and He's not just right up against you, He's inside of you! That's how close He is!
 
God saw them in their misery, heard their cry and stepped in to deliver them, and the same is true for us. Jesus comes to us with an invitation to take a simple step out of the old and into the new! He doesn't want you to do great things for Him; He wants to do great things for you. And He is inviting you to follow.
 
You may say, "But Lord, where are we going?"
 
He'll answer, You'll see!
 
How long will it take to get there? A while!
 
Will it be easy? No, but I'll be with you and it will be worth it!
 
What will it be like when we get there? Better than you could ever imagine!
 
God is not just in the tent, and God is not just in the cloud, wonder of wonders, God is in us! May He help us to walk with Him all the way to the Promised Land!
 
Let's pray.