God’s Character: The Cloud By Day!

God has had me in the book of Exodus lately I’ve been intentional about seeing God as my personal God, rather than seeing him as a God who is distant. I know God sits on high but I want God to sit on the throne of my heart and if I’m going to have that happen, I need to learn more about his character. So today let’s see him as the God who covers, corrects, and delivers. 

One of God’s names in Hebrew is Jehovah Mephalti which means The Lord my deliver. 

Remember in a previous video we mentioned when you see an “I” at the end of a Hebrew word that indicates possession, “I” means My! We have to remember to stand outside of the text as we read but as we work through find a way to make God our own personal God rather than just everyone else’s. God wants you to know him and he’s so multifaceted that we can perceive God to be whatever we need him to be at the moment. God is all that we need and can be everything and more that we need. 

God sent Moses to Pharaoh, demanding that Israel be set free, but Pharaoh would not let the people go. As time passed God sent plagues on Egypt each time demanding that Pharoah free God’s people. With every plague Pharaoh refused to change his mind and as Pharaoh’s heart became harder, Egypt’s land was further destroyed and each plague that followed was significantly more severe even unto God taking all the firstborn of every house that didn’t have doorposts covered in the blood of a lamb. God was serious about freeing Israel. We see the severity of God’s willingness to free Israel even at the Red Sea as the Lord caused the wheels to come off of the Egyptian chariots and the walls of the Red Sea to crash in on them.

After the miracle at the Red Sea, Israel found themselves in the wilderness complaining to Moses for water, and God gave them water. Then Israel complained to God about food so he gave them manna in the morning and quail at night. To Israel in the book of Exodus God was their deliverer. But we serve a God who is multifaceted he was a provider and a protector.

God can be all that you need whenever you need him!

As time passed Israel found themselves wandering in the wilderness with clothes that didn’t wear down and food that didn’t run out. God provided all that they needed but in Exodus 13:20-22 the bible says:

So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And 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 as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Jehovah Mephalti, God my deliverer, was big enough and God enough to lead Israel through the wilderness as a cloud by day and pillar of fire at night. I couldn’t help but wonder what God revealed about himself in the wilderness that we can make personal. God’s grand display in the wilderness for Israel says a lot about who God can be to us today because God does not change! As we work through this word, take it, internalize it, and let God come off of the far-off throne in the sky and allow him to sit on the throne of your heart, that’s his preferred position anyway. 

God is YOUR deliverer, when accusations come God is your deliverer, when your back is to the wall, God is your deliverer. When your bank account is more negative than your surly old grandpa God is your deliverer Jehovah Mephalti is your deliverer! 

He goes before you by day in the cloud and by fire at night, he will never leave you or forsake you, You only need to call his name! When Moses called on God to supply for Israel in the wilderness, God delivered as he was delivering! God is more than able to meet your needs, he can provide even while he is in the process of providing! He is able, he is Jehovah Mephalti!

God chose to reveal himself as a cloud. It’s amazing to look at our world and be able to see aspects of his character. 

God’s imprint is rampant throughout all of creation!

Clouds give us rain and that rain nourishes the land. The rain from heavy clouds brings life to the plants, sustains the animals, and replenishes waterways. In Deuteronomy 11:13-14 The Bible says:

“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil”.

God called for his people to love, follow, and obey him; if they did, he guaranteed they would be blessed. God showed up for Israel in the wilderness as a rainbringer for a reason!

I pray that as you love, follow, and obey Jesus he rains on your life, opens the heavens above you, and gives you a blessing that you cannot hold! I pray that the rain of Christ falls in your life so fully that you have to start giving it away because your hands are so full you don’t know what to do with it! He is more than able and he is more than willing. 

You have only three steps to love, follow, and obey and according to God’s word when the season comes and the time is right, 

It will rain! 

God is in the cloud, shielding you, covering you, guiding you, raining on you. Everyone loves a nice sunny day where you can go outside, take a walk through the park, go to a cookout, and play with the kids but what about when the cloud is gray? What about when God is the cloud that brings lightning that affects your sight and torrential rains that wash the weak and unnecessary things away? What about when the cloud twists just enough that a tornado touches down and uproots everything in your life? Is God still God if he’s the cloud that allows a tornado? 

Is God still God if he uproots everything in your life?

Many times in the bible God describes us as trees and plants and he does that for a reason. Psalm 1:1-6 says:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.

From my own experience, I can tell you that when you love, follow, and serve God sometimes he is the cloud that brings the tornado. The Holy Spirit is impressing on me that even though you have to face a tornado, even if things around you are going haywire, even though the world looks fallen and broken, even though the people around you have lost their minds, the tornado has an eye and it sits in the cloud. 

Just when it seems like everything in life is being uprooted, torn, apart, and shaken, you are in the eye! Jesus rids you of the things and people who aren’t for you and at the same time, he also keeps you. You are under the cover of his watchful eye, you are under the cover of his cloud and you are deeply loved by the God who is in control of all things! 

Israel began to know God as Jehovah Mephalti as the cloud that covers, and as the tornado that destroys and preserves at the same time. As they went into the wilderness. the Red Sea parted and they made their way to the shoreline. The Bible says the waters stood like a corridor for them. God destroyed Pharaoh as they were planted in safety. Even in the elements, God was teaching Israel about who he was! 

God was revealing his character as the great I AM!

God was causing Israel to have deeper faith as they were delivered. Jesus wants us to be planted in him like trees, if you know anything about trees they have deep roots and when a tornado touches down it’s only the largest trees with the deepest roots that get to keep standing. The Bible says in John 15:5:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing.

You might lose a leaf or a branch might snap but when you’re planted in Christ you can’t be uprooted! When you’re the tree and Jesus is the solid ground you’re planted in, everything around you might be destroyed but you get to keep standing, you get to keep living, you get to keep growing and you get to keep bearing fruit!!

Everyone wants the cloud that helps the rainbow exist but no one wants to meet the cloud that causes destruction.. The spirit of the Lord says both are for us!

When He says both are for us both the cloud that causes rain and the cloud that causes tornadoes are sent to bless us. There is a blessing in God’s Yes and in his no! There is a blessing in God’s left hand and his right hand. There is a blessing in his “go” and his “stay”! Jesus is the cloud that destroys, covers and keeps. But to get to the rain sometimes you gotta deal with a tornado or two.

He is the I AM… all that you need in any form that he chooses to take! Thank you, Jesus, that he is always for you even in the storm!

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