EXODUS 13:16-22 THE WAY OF THE WILDERNESS God doesn't always work in ways that seem best to us. The shortest path is not always the best way to the destination of His choosing. God sees the end from the beginning and guides us according to His will, His wisdom and His way. He has given us the assurance we will arrive at the "promised land." The Bible assures us that He will lead us Himself today the same way as He led His people through the wilderness. The Cloud and Fire were to Israel what the Word of God and the Spirit of God are to us.
The wilderness was the land between the mountains and the desert along a valley where there would be pasture for flocks and herds. This is the way God led His people. Lessons had to be learned in the wilderness. God had to deal personally with His people. There was the law to be given. There was a tabernacle to make where God would dwell with His people. Through that same tabernacle He would teach truths about our Lord Jesus Christ by types that have instructed God's people all down through the past generations to this very day.
In years ahead the Lord would defeat the Philistines in His own way and time. At the time of the exodus He did not take them through Philistine country because they were not ready for the battles they would have to go through. Some of the barriers we are confronted with in life may be our greatest blessings. In those obstacles, courage and commitment are needed as God goes before us to make the crooked ways straight and smooth out those places that are rough if He so chooses. The ultimate objective of God's people is to glorify God. In all those things that happen to us, God is training us for the future that lies ahead of us. Without the testing times, character, allegiance, loyalty, honor, integrity and other characteristics of God's people would never be developed to be a testimony to the world the way God intended. All the people of faith we read of in the scriptures, and who we know of down through generations past, stand out because of what they have learned by "way of the wilderness."
There have been those who have stood out history who heard the Lord say, "Follow Me," and were willing to respond to that call with their heart, mind and soul. Today that call still reaches to those who are willing to obey it. Some obstacles we create ourselves when we act in the flesh. A harvest doesn't come until the winter and spring are past. The sowing is done in tears. Joy comes in the reaping time. Our education in the school of God may seem like barriers to our forward movement at the time it happens. But barriers do not mean the way to fulfilling the will of God is permanently closed.
In the case of Israel leaving Egypt for the Promised land, God chose to take them the long way around. The Lord Himself was taken into the wilderness to show the reality of His person. In the wilderness the children of Israel had to learn who they were. They had been four hundred and thirty years, strangers in a foreign country. It was necessary for them to remember the forbearers God had given promises to. Once they realized who they were to God and why He was leading them the way He did, then they would begin to hold themselves in respect and reverence for the Lord's sake. This called for self-control on their part. No matter what others may do around us, we need to remember who we are and conduct ourselves in the feat of God without compromising truth, righteousness and respect. Over-coming temptation, failure and fear calls for self-control.
The One who guided Israel by the cloud and fire, is the same Lord who guides His people today by the Spirit and the Word. The cloud was proof of the presence of God. To us it reminds us that our Lord Jesus Christ was veiled in human flesh and "dwelt among us." The fire is an obvious evidence of His deity that cannot be ignored. Those two emblems remind us of His promise, "Lo I am with you alway." The cloud and fire testify that our Lord is our Sun and Shield. He truly is with us. He is our Guide and our Defender. May our commitment be to follow Him wherever He leads us.