What Was the Pillar of Cloud and Fire?

QUESTION:  I’m really struggling in reading the Old Testament.  It’s hard, so much that seems weird or wrong!  What I am I supposed to do or learn with all this?  A problem from Numbers 9:15-23, I am trying to understand the Cloud of the Tabernacle.  I do get that this is God working thru a cloud.  However, I don't understand why the verses speak of how the cloud stays overnight, or can go on for a few days, a month, or a year in verse 22.  Was this for 'obedience'?  Especially when it said it could linger there for a year.  How in the world can they stay inside for a year?  It doesn't speak of how long the cloud was there from beginning to end.  Nor does it say the purpose.  Was there something going on in the region that God was protecting the Israelites? 

ANSWER: Thanks for your question.  As you read the Old Testament keep one thing in mind:  you believe in its inspiration and authority ONLY because Jesus did.  Jesus is the lens through which we Christians read and understand the Jewish Scriptures.  Our whole faith is built on what God did after this, in fulfilment of all this.  It’s a set up, and an opening act; it’s not giving us the whole story of who God is, but rather it’s anticipating the full work of Jesus. 

And so the laws especially must be read through the lens of a post-Law covenant which we have in Christ.  This is the record of God’s agreement with one people, the Gospel is a record of God’s agreement with ALL people.  The early apostles were clear that what you’re reading here are “shadows” of the good things we have in Christ.  Read Hebrews 10:1-18 and 1 Cor 10:1-6, to set your mind in a correct posture for your reading of the Old Covenant.  These are not our laws nor our covenant, these are now examples for us, illustrations of the Christian life, inspiration for our journey.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit and useful for correction and training?  Of course!  But only when “used properly” – as Paul says in 1 Tim 1:8.

This won’t take away all the difficulties you read about, but it will help you hold them with a looser hand, as you rest in the knowledge that whatever else God may be, and whatever he was up to with the Israelites, He cannot be different than what I see in Jesus who said, “The Father and I are One”.  Whatever God was up to must have always been pointing at Jesus.  Whatever confusion comes from how God acts in the early stages of biblical revelation, clarity is found in Christ. 

A good article to help you with the Old Testament is:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/where-is-jesus-in-the-old-testament

So about Cloud of the Tabernacle in Numbers, no one knows what that was.  I think you are right that the point of the Cloud moving is simply that the Israelites are learning obedience.  God says go, we go, and it doesn’t matter if we only set camp for a day.  Likewise, God says stay, we stay, even if that’s years at a time in one location.

The other reason for this direct physical manifestation of direction was likely so that they built their trust in Moses as God’s servant.  Moses received so many direct communiques from God that maybe a resentment would build in the people (as it would toward a cult leader, for example).  We know this happened in the Community from time to time (Number 12:1-2).  How can we trust you, Moses, if you’re the ONLY one getting the “messages”??

Now, God disciplined Aaron and Miriam for rebelling against Moses, but that’s only because that they failed to accept the very public confirmations of Moses that God gave, which is exactly what I’m talking about.  To be skeptical of a prophet dictating from God without such confirmation is actually a GOOD reaction, not a bad one!  Historically, with Mohammed in a cave or Joseph Smith with the angel Moroni and golden tablets, few in those movements really challenged the veracity of the messages.  It was just, “trust me, God speaks to me, and you listen.”

Well, unlike those false religions, true religion always has multiple vehicles to attest to the revelation.  True religion is done out in the open.  Biblical faith is built on events, not merely ideas.  With Jesus, we have 4 gospels and the record of hundreds of witnesses to his resurrection.  And when God was calling the people out of slavery he used Moses in a special way – yes – but he did not shy away from proving himself publicly and openly to the WHOLE community.  The point would be to give them confidence that in fact it was God leading them and not just the hair brained scheme of one man, Moses, getting revelations in secret.

So at Sinai we see God proving himself in thunder and provoking awe in Ex 20:18-19, to ALL the people.  So much so, the people want LESS proof, not more!  When was the last time you heard a person say, “I want God to stop talking to me so much in public acts that prove his godhood and power”??  Well, the cloud is another device just like this (a more gentle one perhaps!) that again proves to the community that God is leading them, not Moses.

As to why they moved so much, no one knows.  It seems arbitrary.  Some speculate that the cloud and fire refer to the volcanic activity of the Sinai range.  If you’ve been to Hawaii and observed the active volcanoes there, you know that during the day, all you see of a live volcano from a distance is the smoke, but at night you don’t see the smoke, but rather the fiery glow of molten rock.

Some would therefore say hovering “over the tabernacle” should be read as a euphemism for the connection between the mountain of God and God’s direction to the congregation.  I don’t know if that’s the right way to see it, but it may mean the movement of the pillars were tied in some way to something going on geologically in that region and as you speculate, might therefore have been about their safety.  Other references to the pillars of cloud and fire seem to indicate it could not be connected to the Mountain of God, but was truly mobile, a supernatural phenomena of some kind (Ex 13:21).

The main lesson of the cloud remains a very simple one:  when God says “go” we go.

Finally, I think you might be confused by the KJV reading of verse 22.  When it says they “remained in their tents”, that means more accurately, “They stayed at that campsite and did not move on” as long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle. They did not literally stay “in doors” for months or a year at a time!!

The NLT helpfully renders the verse like this:

Num 9:22-23: Whether the cloud stayed above the Tabernacle for two days, a month, or a year, the people of Israel stayed in camp and did not move on. But as soon as it lifted, they broke camp and moved on.

Should I Respect Someone Who Isn't Respectable?

QUESTION: You taught about unconditional love and respect, but how can I respect someone who isn’t respectable?  It seems to me that respect is something you earn.  How do you respect a Charles Manson?

RESPONSE:  It's important to distinguish between the value of how one is acting and the value of the person.  The way a person acts may be, in all honestly, worthless.  But does that mean the person is worthless?  No.  That person, foolish and self centered as they may be, is made in the image of God, with will and freedom and a moral center, an immortal soul and nobility. These are gifts, you don’t earn them or work for them, they are just the value that you carry because God made us in his image.  A person is a magnificent creature, a thing of awe and beauty - no matter what.

It’s due to this inherent worth, that in marriage we can love an unlovable wife or respect a disrespectful husband.  Because it is based on their worth as children of God.   It may help you to look at it like this:  I am not respecting this man, so much as I respect the God who made him “fearfully and wonderfully”.  (Ps 139)  He made ALL men this way and there’s not a person you’ve locked eyes with who doesn’t carry the stamp of God, and therefore also an inherent worth and incredible value – they matter.

So there is no time at which they become someone whom you are “allowed to” or “ought to” disrespect.  They may have done disrespectful things and this happens – often!  Those things are not to be honored, or respected, nor tolerated indefinitely (see my example below).  

Of course, we should be long on tolerance for disrespectful or unlovable behavior, since everyone carries the disease of sin as equally as we carry the Image of God.   And that's another reason why just don’t ever have that moment where God says, “OK, now treat this person disrespectfully, because they deserve it!”

So then we shouldn’t say that love or respect should be earned.  What we are probably trying to say is that is it is foolish to trust someone who has been untrustworthy.  Yes, it is foolish to trust an untrustworthy person, since they will put you at risk by their established bad behavior.  But even with trust (as opposed to love and respect) to rehabilitate a repeat offender, trust cannot always be earned, it must sometimes be given as a gift. 

So the Christians gives love and respect and sometimes yes, even trust, unconditionally.  

What a terrible world we would live in if I only got the respect or love that my actions at any moment deserved.  Certainly there would be times that I would get praise and honor and reward, but then, I’d have just as many times as I’d reap shame and dishonor.  And then what kind of person would I turn into?  A miserable one either way, because I’d be proud and judgmental when I receive honor or I’d be shameful, guilty and fearful when I fall out of favor.  This is the yo-yo world of just desserts, of Karma, for every action an equal and opposite reaction, and it’s a world that God’s grace in Christ was meant to save us from.

But what should we do when disrespectful or unloving behavior happens, and affects us deeply?  Here’s what we do:  Don’t condone or ignore.  Also don’t treat this as a justified opportunity to become sarcastic, critical, shaming, withdrawing or vengeful – because “they deserve it”.  We have no right, because God commands respect and love unconditionally.  Instead, we approach such bad behavior with the truth in love.  We truthfully point it out (after proper self examination Matt 7:3-5) and we do so in love (Ephesians 4:15), always ready to forgive (Matt 18:22).  The language we use, is respectful, and the treatment is loving, because the person who has failed us is still valuable to God.  We respect God by respecting them, yes, even a murderer.

Now, if there’s no repentance, no honorable acknowledgement, no confession, no humility, we are not called by God to continue to expose ourselves to reckless and sinful behavior indefinitely.  This is where we say, "trust must be earned."  Paul tells Christians to “warn a divisive man once, warn him a second time, after that have nothing to do with him.” Titus 3:10.   The respect is given in the gracious confrontation and love is shown in the repeated warnings (we don't just dump people after one offense).  

But we may have to protect ourselves if the man of dishonorable character and actions won’t have the respect for himself (or God) to see correction as a gift and return to love and relationship.  So even as we may distance ourselves from disrespectful and dishonorable behavior, even if we cannot trust them, we are continuing to honor and respect that person!  How?  By giving them the honor of correction.  And the honor of honesty.  And finally we give them the honor of a choice, the honor of freedom to do as they please.

Great example I saw recently:  A man's wife left him for another man.  It was ugly, unloving behavior.  But she’s valuable to God, made in his Image, and my friend treated her like that, even after she ran off.  It was a struggle for him, of course, but this showed me it’s possible to honor a dishonorable person.   How did he do it?  He didn’t vengefully dump her.  He patiently sought good counsel and invited her into reconciliation talks.  He didn’t flame her out or seek immediate divorce.  When she showed some signs of life, he welcomed them.  He treated her nicely in their post-separation conversations, even when she was clearly still shacking up.  He didn’t maliciously seek to keep her from her son, or her stuff still lying around their house, or even half of his retirement!  All that is loving and respectful behavior towards someone engaged directly in unloving and disrespectful behavior.

At the same time, this did not go on indefinitely.  After 2 years of total abandonment, as a sort of a last act of cowardice, the cheating wife didn’t even have the decency to make official what she had clearly, already done, which is divorce her husband.  Too lazy?  Too cheap to hire the lawyer?  Who knows.  So my friend finally made official what only his wife made possible – the end of their marriage.  His action showed that we don’t simply ignore disrespectful behavior, nor do we fail to protect ourselves from it when the time comes.  We just believe that we don’t treat people at every moment as their actions deserve, and in this way my friend imitated God most beautifully. (Psalm 103:10)

And thank God for that, because, as one teacher once said, “great marriages are populated by two great forgivers.”