God Presented Himself to Israel In Clouds Whereas God, who had foreordained before the foundation of the world that he would send the Son of Man (God manifest in flesh) to reconcile the world unto himself, God faced a problem of presenting himself to the children of Israel for the means of introduction and instruction. Upon the occasion of presenting the Decalogue to Israel, God resorted to veiling himself behind the angel of the Lord in a burning bush. Moses, when turning aside to inspect the phenomena of the unconsumed bush afire, became fearfully affrighted at the magnanimous prospect of gazing upon Almighty God. One can only imagine the awesome and yet humbling feeling Moses surely felt, being in the presence of the Almighty and Holy Creator. Exodus 3:3-6 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. The fact of this supernatural phenomenon (death to look upon the full glory of God) is also evident in the record of God’s dealings with the Israelites, when the Lord committed himself to residing amongst the chosen people, first on the mount, and later in the desert tabernacle. The Lord instructed Moses to fix boundary lines on Sinai surrounding the “clouded presence of the Lord,” so as to keep people from inflicting self-destruction upon themselves by trying to touch or see his glory. These bounds were necessary so that He could dwell among the people. The Lord conveyed to Moses that he would appear unto them in a “thick cloud” and that the people could actually hear the voice of the Lord when he spoke. The people were even instructed to wash their clothes, and to avoid touching the border of the Lord’s presence. After three days of sanctification, there were great thunders and lightnings emanating from the cloud of the Lord, in so much that even after careful cleansing, the entire camp of the Israelites became affrighted. But as you might expect with human nature, people often reject Divine advice and eventually cast aside any healthy fear of the Lord, and seek to satisfy their curiosity by exploring where they sometimes ought not. Exodus 19:12-21 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. In the Old Testament, clouds were often symbolic of God's presence, and this was the case in instances other than the Sinai introduction. At certain times during Biblical history, the Lord God appeared to humans with, or within, a cloud, or clouds, as this was the most logical means available for God to appear. This was apparently not the case though when the Lord visited with Adam prior to the fall in the Garden of Eden. Apparently God visited Adam regularly in the Garden, and held intimate conversations with Adam concerning the dominion God had bestowed upon him. These casual walks by the Creator with Adam in the garden required no clouds to veil the presence of the Lord God. When God wanted to reveal Himself to the Israelites, He used a pillar of cloud to do so. Before the children of Israel ever reached Mount Sinai, the Lord God led them through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21-22 "And The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.") in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, so as to light their way in their journeys in the wilderness. In Numbers 12:5, we find that the Lord could also hear the murmurings of the people from his presence in the clouds. The clouded pillar was necessary for God to make his presence available, for the people could not absorb the dynamics of the impact of the awesome majesty of an unveiled God.