Throughout the wilderness journey, God led His people through “a pillar of cloud by day” and a “pillar of fire” by night. As one person recently said to me, life would be so much simpler if God was still leading us by a cloud today!

Recently I discovered hints in the Bible that the cloud continued with Israel in a different form.

To understand this, we need to look at the sacrifice altar in the Tabernacle/Temple. The initial fire on this altar came from God Himself (see lev 9:24 and 2 chron 7:1) but the priests were commanded to never let this fire go out (lev 6:12-13). They were to keep this fire burning through offering a “burnt offering” morning and night.

How does this relate to the pillar of cloud and fire and to God’s leading today?

Firstly, when you place a sacrifice on the altar, smoke will ascend straight up in the air – like a pillar of cloud. And that same sacrifice at night simply appears as flames on the altar ascending upwards like the pillar of fire. And as the pillar of cloud/fire was never to depart from the people of Israel (ex. 13:22) so this sacrifice on the altar with its resulting cloud and fire was to always stay burning.

But what about God’s leading through the cloud? How does this relate to the sacrifice altar?

The specific sacrifice commanded by God to keep this fire burning was the burnt offering. It uniquely consisted of an animal being fully given and sacrificed to God whole.

To me this is a statement of whole hearted devotion repeated morning and night. This daily statement of whole hearted devotion was what kept the fire of God burning on the altar.

And it was from this place of whole hearted devotion that the pillar of cloud/fire continued to appear – representing God’s presence and His leading. If we want God’s leading in our lives, it comes back to us daily consecrating ourselves to Him, daily giving ourselves fully to Him. And as we do, the fire he once placed in our hearts, will continue to burn, and the presence and leading of God will be clear in our hearts each day.