seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 14:19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
It appears there are two entities at work here in verse 19. There's the Angel of God and the Pillar of Cloud.
The commentaries don't agree. Some completely ignore the Angel of God and only discuss the pillar of cloud.
Here's the commentary from the easy English commentary.
The LORD’s angel’ was God’s servant. He was travelling with them in order to protect the Israelites. The tall cloud moved to a place behind the Israelites. Then the Egyptian army was in darkness. They could not see the Israelites. That meant that the Egyptians could not fight the Israelites during the night.
Another site named Tough Questions Answered offers this explanation stating the angel and the pillar of cloud are the same.
In order to give the Israelites time to break camp and prepare themselves for crossing the sea (the remainder of the day and almost the entire evening were used in the process of getting the Israelites out of their camp and across the sea), the angel of God, who was in the form of a pillar of cloud, moved from the front of the Israelites to the rear, as a barrier between the Egyptian army and the Israelite camp. The Egyptians cannot attack with the angel of the Lord protecting the Israelites.
GodVine breaks it out like this.
It has been thought by some that the angel, i.e., messenger, of the Lord, and the pillar of cloud, mean here the same thing. An angel might assume the appearance of a cloud; and even a material cloud thus particularly appointed might be called an angel or messenger of the Lord, for such is the literal import of the word מלאך malach, an angel. It is however most probable that the Angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus, appeared on this occasion in behalf of the people; for as this deliverance was to be an illustrious type of the deliverance of man from the power and guilt of sin by his incarnation and death, it might have been deemed necessary, in the judgment of Divine wisdom, that he should appear chief agent in this most important and momentous crisis
That the Israelites might not be dismayed at the appearance of their enemies, and that these might not be able to discern the object of their pursuit, the pillar of cloud moved from the front to the rear of the Israelitish camp, so as perfectly to separate between them and the Egyptians. It appears also that this cloud had two sides, one dark and the other luminous: the luminous side gave light to the whole camp of Israel during the night of passage; and the dark side, turned towards the pursuing Egyptians, prevented them from receiving any benefit from that light.
That the Israelites might not be dismayed at the appearance of their enemies, and that these might not be able to discern the object of their pursuit, the pillar of cloud moved from the front to the rear of the Israelitish camp, so as perfectly to separate between them and the Egyptians. It appears also that this cloud had two sides, one dark and the other luminous: the luminous side gave light to the whole camp of Israel during the night of passage; and the dark side, turned towards the pursuing Egyptians, prevented them from receiving any benefit from that light.
Well I don't know if it's one entity or two. This is one of those questions for someone much more talented at scriptural interpretation than I. I do buy that the cloud must have moved between the Egyptian army and the Israeli refugees. All along the cloud has been a pillar of light bright enough to light the area so that over 2 million people could travel day and night. So it must have been lighting a pretty large area. If it had been that bright, the Egyptian army would have had not problem slaughtering massive numbers of refugees. It makes sense.
I wonder if the cloud also suppressed the noise that must have been generated by two million people. I know that a tornado make a deafening sound. I wonder if that cloud made a sound that would overpower the noise that had to be quite loud considering there were over 2 million humans running form Egypt.
