Receiving the Promise of the Father

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel. (Exodus 40:36-38).

In the book of Exodus, God constituted the children of Israel as his chosen people. He chose one man, Moses, to lead his people out of the bondage of Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods of idolatry. But before God could show them the Promised Land, they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness as a preparation for the blessings of God that would come through them to all the nations in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). 

The cloud of light and fire—theophanies of God—were signs of the Holy Spirit at work, “revealing the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory” (Ex 33:9-10, CCC 697). To follow the rhythms of the cloud of light and fire, which guided the people on their journey, demanded obedience and watchfulness. The book of Wisdom states eloquently, “You gave your people a pillar of blazing fire to guide them on their unknown journey” (Wisdom 18:3).

We, in our time, are the kin of our spiritual father, Abraham, who “departed without knowing where he was going (cf. Heb. 11:8). Our journey to the Father requires obedience and trust. The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity give us a power which is not our own, the grace to follow Jesus, imitating his filial obedience to the Father. Like the Israelites, we must be watchful—listening interiorly in prayer for the signs of God moving in our daily lives. Following Our Master, we are strengthened and renewed by the Spirit. For “when the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that He might continually sanctify the Church, and thus, all those who believe would have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father (Lumen Gentium, 4).