20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

The signs and wonders had not ceased for Israel. Now they were being led by a pillar of cloud during the day and of fire during the night. The passage gives as a reason that the Israelites could “go by day and night.” The fire was apparently large enough to light their way so that they could continue walking even after the sun had gone down. Some have speculated that the pillar of cloud might have provided shade from the sun, preserving their strength as they walked through the day. It seems that God intended for them to move with great haste, carrying them swiftly towards the Promised Land.

We are also told that the Lord, Himself, “went before them” in the cloud and the fire. Note that it does not say that God was the cloud or the fire, but that He was in them, much as He had been in the burning bush when He first spoke to Moses. Thus, where God went, the cloud and fire went, and where the cloud and fire went, God’s followers went also.

All of this seems representative to me of the commandments and instructions that we receive from God. Like the pillars of cloud and fire, they stand out from the rest of the world, giving a stark contrast to the common, carnal behavior that we would otherwise follow. And while God might not be His commandments, we do say that He is in them, and that those who follow His law are also following Him. Furthermore, we believe that His instructions are guiding us through the wilderness to the ultimate Promised Land: paradise in the hereafter.

We should all consider in what ways we are following God’s pillar in our own lives. Are we truly allowing ourselves to be a peculiar and distinct people, following a different marker than the rest of the world? Are we following instructions that have been given to us by the divine? Are we true and authentic disciples? Or are we following our own opinions and conventional wisdom? Are we just “going with the flow” of the world, secularists who inappropriately claim spiritual titles? Speaking for myself, I am in a strange place somewhere in between, sometimes spiritual and sometimes secular. I still have work to do to be a follower “by day and night,” all of the time.