The Cloud and the Fire

Reading:   Exodus 39-40

After an exhaustive period of direction concerning the construction and adornment of the tabernacle, along with the requisite dress for the presiding attendants, the tabernacle was finally completed, "...Moses finished the work (v.33)."  At this point, The Lord descended upon the tabernacle...

EXODUS 40:34-38

34    Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

35    And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

36    And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 

37    But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 

38    For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys. 

The Lord inhabiting the tabernacle was a great act of forgiveness in that it showed God had forgiven the Israelites for the golden calf debacle and was willing to dwell amongst them.  The people then, from that point onward, could always rely upon, and find assurance from, the presence of God.  By day there was a cloud upon the tabernacle and a visible fire by night.

Understanding that the people moved only when the cloud lifted up from the tabernacle and lead them, it would be interesting to know the time frame of rest (days) between journeyings.  I would venture a speculative guess that it was a forty day stretch between their spurts of travel (see An Arc-Cotangent Irreducible Number).

It is also interesting, but largely irrelevant, that, in verse 38, the cloud is referred to as, "...the cloud of The Lord," and yet the fire is not given the Lord's ownership (ie. the fire of The Lord) though both were representative of His presence within - further contemplation required.

~Kipling