Understanding The Pillar of Fire

It appears that the “pillar of fire” was not actual fire at all, though it certainly looked like fire to those who observed it and recorded these amazing events. We have a clue in the verse above that states fire was in the cloud by night.

Some people are bothered by seeking to understanding the science behind events recorded in the Bible. There can be a real misperception about this pursuit. The fear seems to be that seeking to explain how a described event took place in the real world will take the “miraculous” out of the story and do God some sort of disservice.

While I understand this and appreciate the heart behind it, I believe this kind of thinking is completely wrong. Here are some questions to engage your mind about this:

If many of the great wonders witnessed in the Old Testament actually happened through God’s created world (science), do you think God would be honored for His people to find this out?

Let me go a step further.

Would God actually expect His people to find these things out with modern science? Would He see it as our great responsibility to use these tools He has given to discover how these wonders took place in days long past?

What would discoveries like this do for Christian apologetics? Everybody knows we are never going to find out how, in real-world science, everything King Midas touched turned to gold. (Why not? Well, because that story is a myth, right?) But what if it could be understood how things like manna, and the pillar of cloud and fire, happened in the real world? Would not the unbeliever then have a lot of answering to do to continue to maintain that the Old Testament accounts are simply fairy tales, right along side tales such as King Midas?

For far too long, Christianity has been lacking a data-rich apologetic. Many are “put off” by this concept. The modern Christian’s mind has been trained to think that a theological apologetic is far more important than an evidence-based apologetic. There are reasons as to why this is now the case (as it was not the case previously) which should probably be the topic of a future blog post.

Real-world data is fundamentally important to any claim of truth in the world, including Christianity. And within the story of the pillar of fire is another piece of evidence that should blow the socks off of anyone who comes to realize it. This type of understanding should lead to great faith in the Bible. No, they are not magical stories in a land far, far away. They are real, historical accounts of real people with real-world events transpiring around them, being led by a real and living and holy God.

Let me give you a teaser, then go listen to the full podcast episode.

If millions of people are wandering out in the Savanah-like environment of the Sinai peninsula with millions and millions of livestock surrounding them, the environment is going to do some pretty crazy things. If the conditions could all be reproduced again today, you would wake up every morning with white, edible flakes covering the ground, just as the Bible describes. And in the center of this massive camp would hang a pillar of cloud that would glow red at night through a chemical process called chemiluminescence.

To be more specific, as research scientist and physicist Dr. Gerald Aardsma states, “The pillar of fire was the pillar of cloud at night illuminated by chemiluminescence from dimers of singlet oxygen within its water droplets.”

Glory to God.

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Here are three additional resources on this topic:

• The BC Messenger podcast episode: Understanding the Pillar of Fire
• Dr. Aardsma’s research article: Understanding the Pillar of Fire
• YouTube video: The preparation of singlet oxygen