“Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.”-Exodus 14:20
The cloud that led Israel reflects a couple of important truths about God’s character actually introduced earlier.
However, these God fundamentals would of course be overlooked by one who hasn’t taken the time to diligently study the Torah starting from the very beginning, Genesis chapter one.
First, note that the cloud of God placed itself between Israel and Egypt, effectively SEPARATING Israel from Egypt.
So here we have the Principle of Separation brought to the fore.
The fundamental that God is always in the process of SEPARATING those who are His from those who aren’t.
I find it interesting that the world today including what is unfortunately taught in many churches is quite the opposite of this principle.
Instead, there is a movement of syncretism that attempts to harmonize the Bible with all other world faiths.
The “Chrislam” movement being spearheaded by Rick Warren is a good case in point.
Second, notice that the cloud simultaneously gave darkness to the Egyptians while giving light to Israel.
We studied about God’s light and darkness way back when we were in the Book of Genesis.
Recall that the Hebrew word for “light” is OWR and the Hebrew word for “darkness” is CHOSEK.
Also recall that rather than meaning physical light or darkness, these words more refer to a “spiritual enlightenment” and “spiritual darkness” (though there is a visual element as well).
So “OWR” would connote positive qualities such as truth and goodness.
And “CHOSEK”, on the other hand, would connote negative qualities such as blindness and evil.
These words that we were first introduced to in Genesis 1 are the exact same terms being used here in Exodus chapter 14 to refer to “light” and “darkness”.
Also note that a similar event occurred when God plunged Egypt into a horrifying darkness (the 9th plague) which lasted 3 days.
The Egyptians were suffering in the darkness while at the same time the Israelites were celebrating in God’s light.
Again, the same word CHOSEK was also used to refer to the “darkness” in this event.
Isn’t it kind of startling and perhaps a bit frightening that BOTH this spiritual darkness and light were coming from the very same source?
We learn here that there can be no mixing or fellowship between light and darkness.
Don’t forget that this pattern was established in the very first chapter of Genesis when in the beginning God divided the light from the darkness.
The harder truth some of us might find difficult to accept is that for those who oppose God, darkness and death will be their final and irreversible fate.
While on the other had, those who surrender to God or to put it in technical terms, those who enjoin themselves to Israel by entering into the the covenants God has ONLY made with Israel, for these grafted in folks, light and life will be their final fate.
The pattern set down here is very clear.
Whether past, present, or future, what is NOT God’s will be eternally destroyed and what is His will be eternally present with Him.
Nor is there any neutral ground, whereby you can somehow keep one foot in God’s light where He is present and one foot in the darkness where He is not.
There will be no compromise nor changing of His mind on this point.
For God does NOT change.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?
Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
-2 Corinthians 6:14
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