How glorious it must have been for the Children of Israel as everyday they rose to find the Cloud of God’s Shekinah glory resting there hovering over the Tabernacle as His sign that they should remain at least one more day before He led them on the way to the Promised Land. How beautiful this same cloud must have appeared at night shining there, bright and reassuring—their mighty God making His presence visible—abiding there, reassuring them they would never travel alone. In fact He had spoken to Moses, instructing Him they should remain until the cloud, itself, rose and moved ahead to lead them on the way. For all those long forty years, His cloud led them, stopped them, redirected them—kept them in His good way until they came to their ancestral home promised to their father Abraham. Since the Day of Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, all of us who are God’s Children through Christ, have God’s Presence, His Holy Spirit, living within, bringing us reassurance of His own guiding presence. We praise God for the fulfillment of His Shekinah Glory promise.

. . . and so I am left to wonder
how God’s glorious Shekinah
Cloud, His ever abiding
presence appeared to His
people every morning and
throughout each night
for those forty years as
He, Himself, blessed them
while they remained for a day
and for days or a month
or months while His cloud
rested and illuminated
the Tabernacle of His holy,
His steady, His loving presence
then lifted and moved ahead
of them when it was His
perfect time for them to leave
on another trek toward
His sure and Promised Land—
every single day preparing
them and guiding them toward
becoming His own people;
and as they each morning
looked up in amazement,
I wonder if they ever
imagined how as He
made them His very own
people He was preparing
to send this same Shekinah
glory in the person of His own
Son to establish His Kingdom
among them, His blessed people.

M.S.
February 15, 2021

And the LORD went before them by day
in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way,
and by night in a pillar of fire to give the light,
that they might travel by day and by night.
Exodus 13: 21