(Exodus) Exodus 13:20-22 — J. Vernon McGee

Israel's Journey into the Wilderness

And then we're told, verse 20,. "...and they took their journey from Succoth and encamped in Etham in the edge of the wilderness.". Now you'll find that they are moving now toward that wilderness, and it's a frightful wilderness.

God's Cloud and Fire Lead Israel

Now again, notice what God does in verse 21,. "...and the Lord went before them by day in a pillow of a cloud, and led them the way, and by night in a pillow of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night.

He took not away the pillow of cloud by day, nor the pillow of fire by night, from before the people.". Now these people crossed that hot and burning desert, and Moses himself called it a very frightening desert.

Israel's Unique Experience of God's Glory

But they went through it, and they didn't even get sunburned, but they had a pillow of cloud over them by day. These people had something that no other nation has ever had, and this is the appearance of it now, and that is they had the glory, and no other nation has ever had the visible presence of God.

Romans 9 and Israel's Glory

And that's the way that Paul, you'll recall, he defined the children of Israel. He raised the question, you'll recall, Who are Israelites? That's in Romans 9, 4. "...to whom pertaineth adoption and the glory.".

These people had the glory, the visible presence of God. Now no nation has ever had that, and the church does not have the visible presence of God. And these people that talk today about they've had a vision, and they've seen something.

Visions, Dreams, and the Church's Spiritual Blessings

The thing to do is when you have a vision, and I'm sure many of us do at night, we have a very vivid dream. The thing to do is not to try to feel that God is speaking to us in it, but to find out what we had for dinner.

That's the explanation for it. It's not God speaking to us. It's the fact that we ate something for dinner we should not have eaten, and that's the explanation of it. But the church has nothing visible given to it.

We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, and we walk by faith. You see, these people are walking, looking to the coming of Christ. We look back to a historical event, and frankly, we do not need the visible presence of God to walk by faith.

Redemption Accomplished in History

They did in that day because the redemption had not been worked out in history as it has for us today. So you see now, God is making every preparation for every eventuality that will bring these people safely through the wilderness.

That is the preparation that He's making. And actually, they're not really out of the land of Egypt. They are out of that fertile valley of the Nile, and they have now hit the desert, and they're crossing over, coming now to the Red Sea.