Pillar of fire (theophany)

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The Pillar of Fire by Paul Hardy, The Art Bible (1896)

The pillar of fire and pillar of cloud were manifestations of the presence of Yahweh in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible's Old Testament. The combination meant that the Israelites "could travel by day or night".[1] Throughout the Israelite's time in the desert, traveling from Ancient Egypt to Canaan (the Promised Land), Yahweh continually used this pillar of fire and cloud to lead his people and to remind them of his presence. When the pillar of God moved forward, the people of Israel would pack up their camp and follow behind it. Similarly, when the pillar stopped, the Israelites would set up camp underneath it. The Levites would set up the Tabernacle of the Lord directly underneath the cloud of the Lord. In this way, God's presence was visibly in the center of the camp at all times.[2]

Jack Miles, in his 1995 book God: A Biography, discusses the use of volcanic imagery in the narrative of the Revelation at Mount Sinai. He suggests that the subsequent description of the descent of the cloud into the Tabernacle is intended to emphasise the personal relationship between God and the Israelites, through "the extraordinary image of a volcano brought into a tent."[3]

Usage[edit]

  • Exodus 13:21-22. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
  • Exodus 14:24. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
  • Exodus 40:34-38. "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels."
  • Numbers 14:14. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
  • Deuteronomy 1:33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
  • Nehemiah 9:12. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.
  • Nehemiah 9:19. "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Exodus 13:21
  2. ^ See the Bible, Book of Numbers, Chapter 9:15-17
  3. ^ Miles 1995, pp. 110-116, 126

References[edit]

Miles, Jack (1995). God: A Biography.