01/24/12

 

I want to visit the topic of Children of Israel one more time.  

When the Israelites left Egypt, God guided them by a cloud during the day and a column of fire at night.  This was a wonderful symbol of how God was always going to lead them throughout their lives.  They just couldn't see that at the time.

When the Egyptians were coming and they began to complain that they should have just stayed in Egypt, remember how Moses told them to be quiet and let the Lord fight their battle for them?

When Moses put out his rod over the Red Sea and the Lord parted it, the cloud that had been leading them moved.  At first, the Israelites may have thought God was leaving them, but He wasn't.  I love how Scripture describes it:

Exodus 14:19-20

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

The Lord was protecting them from behind.  He was giving millions of people time to cross over the Red Sea... on dry ground... and that would have taken a while.  The Egyptians could see nothing from their vantage point because God had darkened their area.

I was reminded of this verse when reading this portion of Scripture to my students.  

Isaiah 58:8

Then your light will break out like the dawn,

And your recovery will speedily break forth;

And your righteousness will go before you;

The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

I am thankful that God still does that for us today.  In our spiritual battles, sometimes He has to come in behind us to protect us from the enemy.  

What a comfort to know that God "has my back!"