[Steve Myers] Well, it is a beautiful high Sabbath day. End of the Days of Unleavened Bread already. And here we are commemorating the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. There's been a lot happening in the world. Lots of things that seem to be pointing us ever quicker, it seems, toward a resolution of this world. I know one of the things that has been on a lot of our minds is the beast and the activities that have been going on in Europe, whether it's the economy, whether it's the challenges in government over there, or even more recently with the new Pope that's been appointed.

It's kind of shaking everything up a little bit. I don't know if you've heard about this latest story that's come out about the Pope? Kentucky Fried Chicken went to the Vatican, and they asked the Pope to change the Lord's Prayer. They asked the Pope, they said, "Would you change the Lord's Prayer so it would say, 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'" He said, "No, I can't do that. I mean, I have power, but I can't do that." He said, "Well, we will donate $5 million to the church if you would change the Lord's Prayer to give us this day our daily chicken."

Pope thought about it for a minute. He said "Oh, no. I can't do that." So K.F.C. then up the ante up to $10 million. Pope started thinking about it a little more, “Hmm… our daily chicken, I don't know if that would fly or not. I'm not sure about that." So finally, Kentucky Fried says "All right. We'll give $15 million to the church if you will change that prayer to 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'" So he said, "Okay, let me talk it over with the Cardinals." So he meets with all the Cardinals. And so, he says, "Guys I got good news, and I've got bad news." He said, "Kentucky Fried Chicken has offered to give us $15 million."

And they were all really thrilled. They were all clapping, and it was just so wonderful and wonderful. And then they said, "Well, what's the bad news?" The Pope said, "Well, we're going to lose the Wonder Bread account." Okay, it's not exactly unleavened bread but the closest I could get today.

See, the Days of Unleavened Bread remind us of a lot of different things: bread, bad jokes, other things that come to mind. Maybe one of the things that comes to your mind is God bringing Israel out of Egypt. How many of you have thought of that whole scenario during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and you probably even heard about it in messages? Maybe read a little bit about it in your Bibles. Certainly, amazing things. God showed His awesome glory as He brought His people out of Egypt.

Now, what about us? What about God's glory, and you and I? If you think about that fantastic story, there's probably one miracle in that story of God bringing His people out of Egypt that comes to mind. If you had to name the greatest miracle as they came out, what is it that comes to mind? But it's interesting. It ties in, I think, with the Days of Unleavened Bread, especially the one that comes to most of our minds, Israel comes out. They walked for seven days. On this day, they are gathered against the waters of the Red Sea, and God allowed them to be boxed in. They were trapped between the water and Pharaoh's armies.

And it was here where most of us think of that fantastic miracle, maybe the greatest miracle, that God did something absolutely wonderful, incredible as He parted the Red Sea, and the Israelites walked through that muddy mess, right? No, no, it wasn't muddy. It was dry. They walked through on dry ground, and this spectacular miracle really never repeated again.

While they came into the Promised Land, they walked through the Jordan, but it wasn't quite to the level of the Red Sea probably. Now that one always seems to come to mind, but was there another miracle that happened about that same time that was also magnificent? There was something that was exceptional, incredible that oftentimes seems… we kind of look over it. Don't think too much about it.

Let's notice, Exodus 13:20. In Exodus 13:20, we'll pick up the story as Israel has marched through these seven Days of Unleavened Bread. And on the last day, they were at the sea. We see how they got there. How did they get there? Exodus 13:20, it says, "They took their journey…" that's the children of Israel, "from Succoth, and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness." Here's where that miracle begins. "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that as to go by day and night. He didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.”

So God was leading them. How did He lead them? Well, He led them through a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. The words that are often translated here are interesting in verse 22. Verse 22, it says, "He did not take away the pillar." Some translations say, "It never left its place." It never failed. It was always with them. This pillar never withdrew. You could call it a pillar of presence because that presence, that manifestation of God was with them always, always there. The pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud was always there.

And in this next chapter, I flip the page here to chapter 14, we read what happens next. Verse 19, it says, "The Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them;” So as they are trapped against the sea, instead of this pillar leading them, we find it goes to the rear guard and stands against Pharaoh's army. Notice this in the middle of that verse. It says, "the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.”

Now, here's something amazing. Says "Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night." Now, have you ever imagined what that must have been like? What would that have been like? Was this like a huge thundercloud that rose up into the sky? Maybe it was like a giant tornado. When you think of a pillar, well, you think of that whirlwind that just goes sky high up into the clouds. Maybe that's something that comes to mind.

Maybe other visions coming into mind of what it might have been like. Maybe a vast column of smoke, or maybe a tower of lightning because this was something odd. This is something unusual, even for this cloud. Because on the Egyptian side, what did it appear like? It was dark. It was dark. They couldn't see. It was menacing. It would have been something that would have been fearful or frightening to them. And yet on the Israelite's side, it was bright. It was brilliant. It was fiery. It gave them comfort. It certainly warmed them as they could see a vision where they were to go. And so it provided exactly what they needed that night.

They needed protection from the Egyptians. They need illumination. They needed comfort. They needed encouragement because they were afraid. They were fearful. Now, it's interesting down in verse 24 here in chapter 14. We see what happens in the morning. "It came to pass, in the morning watch, the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud,” I can't help, but stop there for a moment, and try to envision that. Have you ever tried to think of what would that be like?

I kind of could imagine God sitting on top of this pillar looking down from this spot, looking at those Egyptians, maybe even thinking, "You're not going to touch My people." If you can imagine all powerful, mighty God looking down on an enemy I think is pretty scary. Especially at the end of that verse 24, it says, "He troubled the army of the Egyptians." I don't think that would be pretty troubling. In fact, we know what happens next. It says, "He took off the chariot wheels." Some translations say, "They got all bogged down, so they wouldn't turn easily." They couldn't pursue the Israelites who are fleeing across this dry sea bed.

So I wonder, is it very often that we connect this pillar of cloud and fire with the Days of Unleavened Bread? Because this was happening on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. And do we connect those two things? What does this pillar represent? Why did God manifest Himself in this way? Well, we read earlier, it was a pillar of presence. It represented the fact that God was with them. He was there, a very present aid to help them as they continue to escape from Egypt.

Egypt representing sin. God wanted them to stay out of sin, and His very presence was with them so that they could accomplish that. And so God showed the importance and the significance of His very presence with these people as they journey. Where are they going? They're going to the Promised Land. They're going to the Promised Land, and God was going to be with them. He was going to lead them. And this presence, this manifestation of God, which became known as the Shekinah, the glory of God, His glorious presence, has a direct connection with the Days of Unleavened Bread.

God's glory was not something just for the Israelites as they came out of Egypt, but it's something for you and I as well. The Shekinah glory, this presence of God. Now, that word you won't find in the Bible, Shekinah, God's glorious presence, but it's interesting. It's connected to the Hebrew word that means to dwell or to reside. If you were to look up the Hebrew word “to dwell,” you would see a connection with Shekinah and shâkan, the word to dwell. As an example, you could just write it down, Exodus 29:45.

Exodus 29:45 is that passage that God says, "I will dwell among the children of Israel and be their God." That's the shâkan, to dwell with them, to reside with them, to have My very presence with them. There's another passage that uses that same word. It's in Isaiah 57:15. You don't need to turn there. That's the verse that says, "Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits the high and holy place…” guess what the word “inhabits” is. He dwells. His very presence, His shâkan is there.

In fact, the verse goes on, "I dwell in that place." He inhabits eternity, inhabited His dwelling, residing, being very present. And so, the Shekinah came to represent God's visible presence with His people. Of course, going back to the Israelites, what was that visible presence? The pillar, the cloud, the fire. It was with them. Now, actually, it kind of seems like it's two different things, but it wasn't. It wasn't two different things, it was one thing. It was always a pillar of fire. It was always a pillar of cloud. It was always one thing. During the day, God emphasizes the fact that it was a mass of a cloud.

And, of course, it was sunny, which probably in the wilderness of Sinai, it certainly would have been sunny many oftentimes, you saw the cloud. But at night, what would it appeared like? It would have been brilliant. It would have been bright. It would have been fiery. It would have been amazing. And so, we begin to see that God's presence was with them.

Now, a little later, we flip over to Exodus 40, we find the tabernacle being established. The tabernacle is being established as the Israelites are wandering through the wilderness. We'll find an interesting aspect that's noted here. Exodus 40, we'll begin in verse 33, to get in verse 33 here. It says, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.’" So, what do you think Moses did? He set it up. He set it up. Down to verse 33. Down to verse 33, it says, "He raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work."

Then what happened? Verse 34, "The cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." God's glory filled the tabernacle. Now there seems like there's a couple of things going on. What's happening here? The cloud covered, the glory filled. Now that is an idiom or what the Hebrews would call an expression, a Hebreism, an expressing. They're two parallel clauses. Do you know what it means? The same thing.

They mean the same thing. The cloud and the glory are the same. The implication is the cloud is the glory of the Lord. And of course, that cloud is representative of God's very presence, His glory right there with His people. Notice a little further here in verse 35, it says, "Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." You see how they come together. They're one thing. The cloud and the glory together filled the tabernacle.

He even repeats it a second time, so we make sure to understand it. And, of course, we continue with this pattern of God leading them. So then in the next verse, it says, "Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys." God continued to lead them. “But” it says “if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and the fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys."

Now we can read over that really quickly, but I think this is something amazing. I mean there is no doubt crossing of the Red Sea, and the parting of the Red Sea was an amazing miracle. What about this? Is this a miracle that might have even been more stupendous, even more fantastic, even more amazing? I mean think about it for a second. How long did this miracle last? Forty years. Forty years this lasted. Red Sea, one day, it's done. Forty years, a very visible presence of God day and night with these people never leaving, never changing, always watching over them. If Israel ever felt abandoned, what did they have to do? Go toward the tabernacle.

God was… look over your shoulder. There's God. He's with us day, night. Anytime, God's presence was there. He never abandoned them. He never forsook them, anywhere they wanted any time. And who could see Him? Just the priest? No. All the house of Israel. It says, "Through all their journeys." So it was all-encompassing presence of God, always visible, always there. His glory was with them and never departed. You might even think it's kind of like an Old Testament representation of Emmanuel, remember the one who became Emmanuel meaning God with us, Jesus Christ.

Here we have God with them. His presence called a “theophany” very theological term. God's presence, God's representation. His manifestation right there with… isn't that amazing to think about? It's amazing. There's God. He's here. He's with us, and they could always see Him.

Now there's also another aspect of this cloud that I think is one that we don't want to overlook. Certainly, it was a pillar of presence. God was always there. But as we fast forward a little bit, we see another aspect of this pillar. Over in 1 Kings 8, beginning of that chapter, verse 1, we're going to jump ahead to the dedication of the temple. We saw as the people left Egypt during the Days of Unleavened Bread, God's pillar of fire and cloud was with them, that presence accompanying them. He was there, and it was a pillar of presence as the tabernacle was set up.

Now we move to the time the temple was being built, a permanent home for God in Jerusalem. Of course, as Solomon was dedicating that temple, we find another aspect of this fiery cloud emphasized. 1 Kings 8:1 says, "Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to the City of David, which is Zion." So they're preparing the ark to put it in the Holy of Holies in that newly constructed temple.

Down in verse 9, what's going to happen? It says, "Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses had put there at Horeb,” so we had the Ten Commandments. Says, "when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place,” having put the ark into it. So as they put that ark into the Holy of Holies, what happens? It says, "the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud."

That's exactly what happened at the tabernacle, wasn't it? It's also interesting. Not only did the cloud fill the house, but did you see the end of that verse 11 there? "The cloud filled the house of the Lord so the priests couldn't continue ministering because of the cloud." Why? "For the glory of the Lord filled the house." So once again, we have the cloud and the glory hand in hand. When the cloud filled the house, the glory of God filled that house. God's very presence. And, of course, the temple was to be God's house.

And it brings in another aspect of what this cloud is. Not only was it present, but now it was going to reside in God's house. So we had a resident cloud or a resident pillar not only present but residing there as well. God's glory resided and filled that house. A couple of verses down verse 12, it says, "Solomon spoke," it says, "The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud." That dwell is that word shâkan where that word Shekinah comes from, God's glory. That the Lord would dwell in the dark cloud.

And Solomon says, "I surely built You an exalted house, and a place for You to shâkan in forever." God's very dwelling place. You can say He took up residency in the temple. So the cloud fills the temple signifying the fact that God was there. And so, now, we also have this connection with the Ark of the Covenant because of the mercy seat that was on that Ark with the angels covering God's very throne represented there. And God's presence right there, as God would sit in the sense upon that pillar and look down upon His people, guiding them, leading them, judging them. So no wonder they call that the mercy seat. We don't want to be judged. We want mercy don’t we? Absolutely.

One of the interesting things that began to happen though is this became a problem. Became a problem because once Israel came into the Promised Land, God's very presence was there, it became resident in the temple. What do you think people began to do? You see when we're walking around, and we're marching, and we're being led, you'd say, "Well, God's right there. He's leading us. He's guiding us. There He is."

Now it became, well, He's at the temple. He's in, not only at the temple, but He's in the Holy of Holies. God's presence was between the Cherubim. That's where He was. And they began to forget about that ever-present cloud, that pillar of fire that led them. And God's presence, in a way, became limited. The rabbi's and scribes began… in fact, they began to think that it was profaning God somehow to give Him human characteristics. That God would have hands or legs like people, but that would be terrible to think of God in that way.

You know, “God is not reachable, God is locked away in a room that we only have access to once a year.” And so they took away the real presence of God. They began to think in a wrong way. They began to look at God as more of an impersonal being. They imagined God more in a way that it would be hard to understand what God is like. Hard to wrap around your mind about who God is. And so even the Jews today have a difficult time understanding what having a relationship with God is all about because their relationship was all those things that they did.

That was what they related… It wasn't knowing someone. It wasn't loving someone in that same way. It was doing all these things that somehow could make them right, not having a right relationship with God. And so, if you begin to think about that, certainly the cloud and the fire we're not God. That wasn't God. They were physical representations. They were manifestations of God. You might think of it in a way that God clothed Himself in fire. He clothed Himself in this cloud so that we, human beings, could have the ability to see Him. They were real things that an invisible God could wrap Himself in so that mankind could have something to hold on to. So the Israelites could really recognize that His presence was right there with them.

Now, it's also interesting. We skip back for just a moment. Skip back to Exodus 24:15. Exodus 24:15, we're going to think about this physical representation for just a moment, and this connection that it has to us as well. Exodus 24:15, we're going to skip ahead to Sinai where God has given his law. In fact, this is the second time around we're going to skip to. Exodus 24:15, Moses goes up to the mountain. Remember what the mountain was covered with? It was, wasn't it? Yeah, it was… it says, "And a cloud covered the mountain." That's not a little cloud, right.

Whose presence was there on the mountain? We see that it's not in the old cloud because it says right after it, "The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai." Guess what the word rested is? Shâkan. He dwelt there. His presence was there. And it says, "The cloud covered it." God's glory was there. It says, "On the seventh day He called out Moses out of the midst of the cloud." So God is speaking from His manifestation. “The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain” so we see, that's one, that's one thing. The fire, the presence of God, His glory, the cloud, it's all one thing.

It says, "in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud, went up to the mountain. And on the mountain… forty days and forty nights." Again, so, once again, we see God's visible presence, the glory of God, being exhibited in a powerful way. Now, of course, God didn't only appear to people in a pillar of fire or a pillar of cloud. We know He appeared in many ways, many ways. Adam and Eve heard God walking, right. They heard Him in the garden. They knew it was Him. Others saw God in dreams, others had visions. God appeared as an Angel. He appeared as a Priest, a King, Melchizedek. He appeared as a commander of the Lord's army.

So He appeared in many different ways. When He appeared to Joshua, Joshua fell on his face and said, "Are you with us or against us?" God's powerful presence was awesome and amazing. He wrestled with Jacob. He appeared in a burning bush to Moses. He was in a still small voice to Elijah. So you can say God's presence has been seen. It's been known. It's been recognized through darkness, through wind storms, through lightning, through thunder, through earthquakes, radiant light, trumpets, shouting. It's amazing the number of ways that God has appeared to men.

And maybe the most amazing was that probably to hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions witnessed God's presence as the human being, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who walked this earth. And I think it points to another thing, don't limit God. Don't limit God. See, the Jews put God in their holy place and kind of locked Him in there, left Him there. We can't limit God and His presence just to one particular form or another. His glory can appear in many different ways. We don't want to confine Him to just the cloud or just fire. We don't want to be guilty of the same problems that the ancients had.

In fact, there's a song that tells us that very thing, it's in Psalm 78:40. Look over at Psalm 78:40. Here, we'll see something interesting, a little commentary about the Israelites as they came and marched toward the Promised Land. We know how many times they doubted God, how many times they seem to turn their back on God, how many times they ignored God. How many times that they continued to do what they wanted to do instead of following the way they should have.

In Psalms 78:40, it's written about that very fact. It says, "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and they grieved Him in the desert!” Verse 41 "Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They didn't remember His power: the day He redeemed them from the enemy,” They limited God. They confined God. They held God back. And, of course, our reaction… what's our reaction to that? "How crazy could they be? How in the world could they forget God's power because it was right there? I would never have done that. If I walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, there's a pillar of cloud and a fire before me every single day, I would never turn my back on God. I mean, He went before the 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 40 years right in front of their eyes. I would never have done that."

What you see by tempting God, by limiting God, by confining God, they upheld His work. The work could not be done. They couldn't go into the Promised Land. By holding God back, they limited Him. Is it possible that our concept of God, our idea of God, could hold us back? Could our perception of God actually weaken our faith and make it impossible for God to accomplish His work? I think that's another great question. The Israelites confined God in so many ways. They didn't wait till the holy of hollies to do it, they tried to do it with the golden calf, right. “No here's the god that brought us out and that's this little gold thing.”

You see, now we might not be that silly to say a golden calf, but we have more modern ways of doing it, don't we? And so we have to be careful with that. We have to be careful not to put God in a box. Because you see here just a little bit later that when Solomon dedicated that temple, he had the right perspective. He said, "The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you." So when they started out, they had it right. And I think that's an amazing thing to think about. Because whoever we imagine God, He's always something better. He's always something greater than we can even conceive in our puny little physical ways of thinking.

So to confine Him to anything less, or anywhere else, or this particular place, doesn't that do a great disservice to our amazing God? Because He is certainly more far-reaching than we can even imagine. Because He is awesome. He is astounding. He is the absolute God who can do whatever He pleases. And, oftentimes, we forget that. And the Days of Unleavened Bread are one of those opportunities that we could rehearse the awesome acts of God and the amazing things that He promises to do in our life as well. Because God says He's with us. He's a present aid with us. He is a resident God with us.

In fact, in Exodus 33:13, God gives us some insight into this concept of not only the cloud and the fire, but His glory. And I think it begins to open up our minds a little bit more, maybe expand our thinking to really imagine the awesomeness of this God that we serve. Exodus 33:13, I think God brings us to a definition, defines some terms for us here. Exodus 33:13, as Moses is readying to give people the law, lead those people to the Promised Land, he has a special request for God.

Exodus 33:13, Moses says, "Now therefore, I pray, if I found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider this nation is Your people." And God said what? "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

Moses wants to know God's way. How did He show him the way? "My presence will go before you. You will know the way." Sounds vaguely familiar knowing the way, isn't it? In fact, we read a little bit further down, verse 18, "Moses said, ‘Not only show me Your way.’” He says, "Please show me Your glory." Verse 19, "Then the Lord… Then He said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you…” “My own name” He's saying, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'll have compassion on those who I will have compassion."

"But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Here's a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. And so it shall be, when My glory passes by, that I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I'll take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.’" Now you remember that story, but did you notice God defined His glory.

It wasn't just His brilliance. It wasn't just this brightness. It wasn't just this overwhelming light. Did you catch it? Moses says, verse 18, "Please show me Your glory.” Verse 19 "Then the Lord said, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you,’" God's connecting glory with goodness. Let's think about it another way. God's defining His glory as His holy, righteous, perfect character. Who God is, His goodness, that is the essence of God. What's glory to God? His goodness, His character, His temperament, His love, that's what make Him God.

The light, the brightness, that's nice, that's wonderful, it's a manifestation, the thunder, the sound, stupendous, awesome, amazing. But God Himself is holy, righteous, good, the perfection of love, the perfection of truth, the perfection of grace, all His goodness, He said to Moses, God is righteousness. His ultimate goodness is what He talked to Moses about. And so He proclaims who He is. He said, "I will proclaim the Eternal, the Righteous One." That God is there. It's one of His names. That He's a God who heals. That's His character. He's God who loves. He's an awesome God. He's our Shepherd. He's our King. He's our Counselor. He's our God. He's our leader. He's our pioneer. He's our Master and on, and on, and on.

Those names proclaim not only what He does, but who He is. Who He is. That's His nature. That's what He's like. And so a few verses later over in chapter 34, we see it expounded a little bit more. Chapter 34 verse 5, it says "The Lord descended in the cloud…” of course, we know which Lord this is. "The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord " So, God once again showing Himself. How does He proclaim Himself? I think He's still answering Moses' question, "Show me Your glory."

Says, "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed…" What did He say? What did He proclaim? "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children into the third and fourth generation."

And as God proclaimed His awesome nature to Moses, what was his reaction? "So Moses made haste, bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Then he said, ‘If I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we're a stiff-necked… and pardon our people,’” he says, "pardon our iniquity and our sins, take us as Your inheritance." You see, "go among us, have Your very presence with us." You see, the very real glory of God wasn't the flaming fire, it wasn't the cloud, it was all these attributes that He is mentioning here. His mercy and long-suffering, and goodness and truth and forgiveness. That's who God is. That's His character. That's His character.

And so the glory isn't a physical attribute like a light and the cloud, but it's a spiritual radiance of the character of God. And when we come before that presence of God, it immediately evokes worship. Ezekiel came into the presence of God in Ezekiel 3, knocked him out for seven days. Daniel envisioned God, lost all strength and passed out into a deep sleep. Remember those stories? Peter, remember Peter was with Christ. Christ said, "Throw your nets over here," they said, "Forget it there's no fish out there." The nets were breaking as they brought the up fish.

Remember what Peter's reaction was? He said to Jesus Christ, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord." You see, the presence of God was not just something that they were awed by the fish, by light, but they were awed by Him. By that holy, righteous, perfect character that just flows out of Him. That's His glory, His awesomeness. That's what astounding. That's what's amazing. That's what's good. It's everything that's godly.

So when a sinful person needs the glory of God, it's like being hit with a ton of bricks. It just drains out any concept that we have any goodness, that we have any righteousness, that we should have any pride in us. Just drain immediately out of us. So the awesome God took the opportunity, and no wonder He took that opportunity to show His greatness as He led His people into His presence. And that's where we begin to fill in because we have a part with this whole concept of God's glory. There's a New Testament aspect of that where we get to fill in.

And we can begin to read about it over to John 1, the very beginning of that chapter. John 1:1 because it gives us the information we need to know who was that God that led them? Who was that God in the wilderness? Who was the Eternal that walked with them, that led them, that protected them, that was resident with them, that was present there with them for those 40 years?

Well, John, 1:1, says, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and nothing without Him was made that was made." So we see some of God's attributes, attributes that were in Jesus Christ. "He was life… He was the life of the light of men" in verse 4, continuing verse 4, it says that He was the one that provided life, “the life of the light of men." Verse 5, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn't comprehend it." That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.

And just reading that terminology there, I think it helps us then to connect with this representation of the cloud, and the pillar, the glory of God. Because in verse 14, we're told, that Logos, that spokesman, that “Word became flesh” and what did that Logos do? It says, "and dwelt among us,” and that's the Greek equivalent for the word tabernacle. That Jesus Christ, the Word, dwelt, shâkan, in Hebrew, resided among us. Physically, He was among His people, but where's God's presence today? Where is His glory today?

Way back when they said it dwelt in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat in the tabernacle. But here is that glory of God, the one that led Israel through the wilderness also shown to be the Creator, the life-giver, the God who's always there was with the Father from the beginning, the spokesman, leader, the life-giver, the same God that became flesh. And so it winds clearly from the fact that the God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And everything that the God of the Old Testament was is in Jesus Christ, and He is our divine guide. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

The end of verse 14, it even tells us, "Not only did the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," it says, "we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full…” holy, righteous, perfect character, “of grace and truth." So that summarizes the glory of God, and what it means to us. We see the fullness of grace, the fullness of truth, the excellence, the preeminence of God. And with that dwelling not only among us but in us, can we make it through the wilderness of this life. Can we be led through the challenges or the desert of this world. Absolutely. It is remarkable to see a little bit later here in the book of John, John 17:20.

John 17:20, we read this on Passover. Maybe we didn't catch this little aspect of this passage. Here, Christ is praying for His people, not only the disciples but praying for us who would come as well. He says "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word,” of course, that's us by extension rather, right. He says, "that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You; that they may also be one in Us.” So we have this unity between the Father and Jesus Christ, and you and I. The results should be “that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

Now we get to the remarkable part. Christ says, "And the glory, which You gave Me I have given them." He's transferred His glory to us that they may be one just as we are one. Have you ever thought about it that way? We can take on the glory of God. We've been granted the glory of God. Christ says, "He has given it to us." Are we exhibiting the glory of God in our lives? It unifies us with the Father and the Son. It is their glory, and that glory is to reside in us. It's to reside in us because we're said to be the temple of the living God. We're the temple of God, and God's glory resides in His temple.

And so as you begin to think about that, if we have put on Christ, if we are converted, if we have God's Holy Spirit, that's what Galatians 3:27 says. It says we “were baptized into Christ and put on Christ." If Christ is in us, we have the glory of God in us. And what shape does the glory of God take? It takes on His character. It takes on this attitude. That's certainly what Ephesians 4:24 says. Write it down, Ephesians 4:24 that says, "put on the new man which was created according to God." And how was He created? It says, "In true righteousness and holiness."

That's godly character, we have to be exhibiting the glory of God through the character of God that's showing through us, and in us. And it's no wonder as you think about the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that stayed with the children of Israel for 40 years through the entire time of trial and testing, it took them out of Egypt and took them to the Promised Land. Does the Spirit of God in us lead us to the ultimate Promised Land? To the Kingdom of God? It should. It should. It took them through the Red Sea. And by God's Spirit does it lead us as we face the challenges and the trials around us.

At Sinai, they received the Law through the power of the Spirit of God. We too have the Law of God. We understand what sin is. He's given it to us so that we can overcome, and we can be led through the wilderness of this world on this amazing journey, the ultimate promised land of His Kingdom. Will He ever leave us? Will He ever forsake us? You see without the goodness and the glory of God in us, we would never make it. We'd never have access to the Kingdom of God.

So, we're reminded of that. The Days of Unleavened Bread reminds us that, you know what, it doesn't matter how much unleavened bread we eat. Doesn't matter how much leavening we've thrown out. It's not going to get us to the Kingdom. But those are wonderful object lessons that teach us to remember the big picture, to remember the fact that we have God in us, guiding us through the wilderness of life. And God's presence isn't just before us, it's not just ahead of us, but it's in us. So we have then the responsibility to continue to live sin-free according to that holiness because His glory that is in us is there by His Spirit.

We're reminded of that in 2 Corinthians 3:17. 2 Corinthians 3:17 reminds us of that very presence and perhaps an Unleavened Bread reminder. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Now if we harken back to Moses and the presence of God with him, and we're reminded of the presence of God with us. It says, "The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." But verse 18, he says, "But we all," all of us, "with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

So Unleavened Bread reminds us we can be transformed with God's help into a holy people, into the image of Christ. That's the power of God's glory in you. So let's continue to put on the character of Jesus Christ more, and more, and more, His goodness, His nature, His temperament, His love. Let's allow these Days of Unleavened bread to motivate us even more deeply to develop His holy, righteous, perfect character as we determine to thoroughly reflect God's great glory.