A Little Divine Direction

In the Book of Exodus, we see the first glimpses of the concept of a guardian angel. The Angel of Yahweh Himself protects and watches over the Israelites as they make their way out of Egypt. This angelic being guided the Israelites on their journey.

I want to point something out.

Exodus 13:21 “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.”

Notice during the day God’s personal angel goes before them unseen within a wrapped vortex of clouds, while at night there is a bright fire pillar. In the lightest moments of our lives, sometimes God is on the unseen side, guiding you with angelic interventions and not always noticeable on the surface.

But in the darkest times of our lives, humans look toward God more deeply than when things are good. This isn’t an absolute, but I noticed one can strip that understanding out of the text of Exodus. At night, or in the dark times, the pillar is far brighter than the cloud.

Higher-level interpretation aside, the plain meaning of the text shows us God sends angels to guide us toward our ultimate fulfillments. Our highest path, our ultimate good.

God usually does things in unorthodox ways. Our society today shrugs dreams off as nothing more than complex reconstructions of daily events. In biblical times, these were the fingerprints of the divine. Not every dream, of course, but we’ve all had those dreams we can’t shake off as something meaningless.

Sometimes, we might have a burning bush moment, where our King’s voice is so clear to us it can’t be mistaken for anything else.

John 10:27 “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.”

Moses had his own moment, which was the progenitor of the archetype of a call to adventure in the faith. He had been a fugitive living in the desert lands, escaping the wrath of the Egyptian officials after seeing one of his brethren mistreated, later murdering the taskmaster and believing he had hidden it.

But it’d be wise to understand Moses fled because he had far from a sterling existence after that incident, now forced to live apart from the comforts of Egypt.

Yet, by sending a manifestation of Himself, Yahweh, or in Moses’ case, I AM, called Moses out from his meager existence into something greater than himself.

In this moment, the literal voice of God guided Moses.

This isn’t always how our Heavenly Father guides us. People today think it is crazy to receive divine direction, or that special little coincidences are only products of a random world. Though, I will say, the laws of probability outshine randomness when you’re seeing something over and over and not specifically looking for it.

God has angelic helpers to guide us along our path, gently nudging us in the right direction.

Doors might close in our face because God had something higher in mind, or that path would only lead to misery. There might even be multiple doors and paths to guide you to the right thing. We have a sense of say in our lives, even with God’s sovereign will.

In the Book of Acts, specifically chapter 16, Paul receives a vision and concludes he must preach the gospel in a certain area other than Asia, because the Spirit prompted him, and the door was shut. History had to progress a certain way, after all, and the glory of the gospel message would be higher doing it God’s way. This led to the evangelism of the Hellenized and European world.

Divine direction and redirections are an amazing, valuable thing to keep within our mind.

While they say everything happens for a reason, sometimes the everything makes us find the meaning for ourselves.

Our angels are always watching over us, leaving little signposts to move us in a particular direction.

“Don’t you think this path would better suit your talents?” they ask us.

“You know, this person seems suitable for you,” they might say to us.

“That closed opportunity was for your own good,” they counsel.

“God wants to answer your prayers and lead you to the highest path, establishing your steps,” they’ll remind you.

We need to trust that inner feeling, or the voice of the Almighty and His angelic servants.

While also being careful not to fall for the traps of the enemy.

We walk by faith, not by sight, as the Bible admonishes us to understand. But there’s nothing wrong with asking for a sign when all you want is to do the best thing and not disappoint our Father in heaven.

You might receive hundreds of signs about something, or two. Using discernment and looking at them as a set of “God-winks” is the best course of action.

Even Gideon laid a fleece down before going ahead, because he wanted to be sure the voice was from the LORD.

Abraham asked questions, Joseph always gave credit to God in every situation, and David trusted God had a bigger plan all along and rose to kingship the right way.

Sometimes, we find our path later in life, rather than earlier on. I found my calling in my late 20s. It’s never too late to walk the path you’re supposed to be walking.

Trust God’s promptings, that inner voice, the universe, or whatever it is you might call it.

I know God exists and guides us, but not everyone has this understanding. Even Paul used the unknown god of the Greeks to the gospel’s benefit in preaching the God of Israel to a group of pagans.

Let Him lead.

He’ll take you places you’ve never imagined, on the right roads, with the right people.

It’s just a little divine direction.