We are fortunate to live in a time when there is a quite a bit of nature programming available that showcases the wonder and beauty of creation in immense glory and meticulous detail. One can imagine what it was like when there were swaths of unspoiled wilderness and fewer people.

One video shows an enormous school of anchovy known as a bait ball. The school swam in a manner resembling a storm or a tornado underwater.  The school is wide, thick and appears to predators as a huge swirling dervish. As long as the fish swim within the swirl where they are protected by reason of the sheer number there.

There are premises and provisions given to believers throughout Psalm 91, but the main condition under which those are obtained is in the first verse.  The premise that those remaining in his presence presumably close enough to be in his shadow.

You who sit down in the High God’s presence, spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow.  Psa. 91:1a [The Message]

An ongoing danger in the desert is the overwhelming heat of the sun.  The parching and dehydrating solar heat allows no respite, especially for people.

God went ahead of them in a Pillar of Cloud during the day to guide them on the way, and at night in a Pillar of Fire to give them light; thus they could travel both day and night.  The Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night.  Exodus 13:20-22 [The Message]

In my imagination I see the great cloud of his presence, several miles long and more miles high creating shadow for the entire lot of Israelites.  Even though they doubted him after the escape from Egypt and before the Red Sea, his visible presence, the cloud, protected them from the brilliant desert sun. 

Upon arrival at the end of the book of Exodus we see the visible manifestation of the presence of God [Shechinah], descending on the Tabernacle. 

Whenever the Cloud lifted from The Dwelling [Tabernacle], the People of Israel set out on their travels, but if the Cloud did not lift, they wouldn’t set out until it did lift.  The Cloud of God was over The Dwelling during the day and the fire was in it at night, visible to all the Israelites in all their travels.  Exodus 40:36-38

There must have been days and times when it seemed that the cloud was sitting and sitting.  Times when the travelers thought their journey was taking too long {how long, how long?}.  Believers have been saying the return of Christ is imminent since the first century-yet we are still waiting. 

Meanwhile, now like then, there are so many predators and anomalies that distract us from the direction of the cloud.  The weak and sick members are most susceptible to predators.  Weak believers threaten the entire population.  Distractions like extremists, naysayers, doomsday forecasters, lead weak believers astray at genuinely critical times. 

Much like the bait ball of fish or a herd of wildebeests, all need to follow the pattern and move in synchrony with the currents in spite of incursions by predators.  When sharks or lions attack it forces the prey to compact themselves closer and continue to swim.  What they cannot do is get frustrated and go their own way. 

If you haven’t figured it out, the cloud lift is a metaphor for the manifest move of God that will occur at rapture!