A Sojourner's Quest

I N T R OD U C T I ON / 1 1

The Great Adventure: Sojourning to the Promised Land One of the great motifs of Scripture is the idea of pilgrimage, the sojourn of the freed slaves of Jacob’s clan from Egypt to the Promised Land. While the idea of spiritual pilgrimage today means a physical journey toward a place of sacred or religious significance, for us as believers in Christ the notion of sojourn or pilgrimage is our identity. As those called out of the world to pursue the city whose maker and builder is God, we undertake a journey with a specific destination, with a particular route, led by God’s own Spirit, with an intent to see at the end of the journey the Great King of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. For us who believe the Christian life is a journey, a quest of adventure and discipleship, a movement where our faith and devotion to the living God leads us on an adventure of faith. We are strangers and aliens in this world, for we belong to Christ. The Israelites on their journey from Egypt were led by the cloud and the fire which rested over the Tabernacle by day and by night respec- tively. Exodus chapter 40 details the nature of their travels: whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, then the children of Israel would set out on their journey to the Promised Land. They limited their movements to the cloud’s sign: if the cloud was not taken up from the Tabernacle, then the people of God would not set out till the day that it was taken up. This visible, tangible sign of the presence of the Lord, the cloud of the LORD which was on the tabernacle by day, and appeared as fire by night, remained in the sight of the entire company of God’s people, and led them throughout all their journeys. It must have been a remarkable sight to see the cloud and the fire each day and night over the Tabernacle, and to know that the Lord was leading his people day by day, mile by mile, to the place of their homeland, to Abraham’s inheritance. It is clear that they moved as God led them, and remained in place while the cloud remained. Such a visible, powerful image of God’s leading bound the community together, with the tabernacle in the center of the tribes, who journeyed day by day to the place God promised for his servants. What a vision, and what an adventure!