Following a Cloud to Canaan

When Moses led the Isrealites out of slavery in Egypt he certainly didn't do it alone. From the account recorded in the book of Exodus, it seems he had a lot of help from above, and this help appeared in a very unordinary way.

Now remember that when the history of that journey was recorded, the author didn't have modern words like "UFO" or even "airplane" to describe what was witnessed. Think about it, how would you describe a UFO if you couldn't use any modern words? I'd imagine you'd compare it to something that people would be familiar with. Even today people refer to "cigar shaped" or "saucer shaped" UFOs.

With this in mind, let's look at the first account of the strange object that appeared to lead the Isrealites shortly after they left Egypt:

Exodus 13: 21-22 (NIV)

By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

The object is described as a "pillar" - certainly a common visual picture for anyone who lived during that time. But what would we think today if we saw this object that is compared to a pillar of cloud and fire?

Looking at the event from today's perspective, I think that a large object like this that could move on its own would likely be some type of vehicle. Given the lack of roads, this vehicle probably would have had to travel off the ground - either hovering or flying - to be this mobile.

It's interesting how the object is described as a "cloud" during the day - you'll see this visualization used later in the story too. Do you think that maybe the craft actually used a smoke screen or mist to hide itself so it would appear less foreign to the people? Maybe the occupants were using this tactic to keep everyone as calm as possible as this huge group moved out of Egypt.

As far as describing the object as a pillar of fire at night, how else would you describe an object that was illuminated if you weren't familiar with electric lights?

The following event gives further evidence that this pillar was much more than just your average cloud:

Exodus 14:19-20 (NIV)

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, 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 seems this object was very mobile and it also seemed to be under some kind of intelligent control. I also wonder what the "angel of God" that is mentioned looked like. Do you think it might have been another smaller UFO? From what is recorded in the Exodus account we don't really know for sure, but the description of its movements would make this a reasonable possibility.

Parting the Red Sea

Now if you are open to the possiblity that a craft was assigned to assist Moses as he led the Isrealites out of Egypt, do you think it might have had something to do with this next event?

Exodus 14: 21-29 (NIV)

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen--the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Image by Monarca Lynn and displayed with her kind permission

I've had people ask me: "If the UFO was doing all the work, why did Moses have to extend his arms? Why didn't it just fly over and do its thing instead of making it look like Moses was doing it?" I think this was by design. Remember that if this object was a UFO, it was there to do the will of God. Since Moses was God's chosen representative to lead the people, the UFO was probably focused on providing technical backup for Moses, not to steal the show. In fact, this is exactly what Moses is told in a later passage:

Exodus 19: 9 (NIV)

The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you." Then Moses told the LORD what the people had said.

Manna and Quail

In a later account, the cloud is again involved in a miracle. As in the case of the parting of the Red Sea, I think it's entirely possible that the same craft helped out in the daily distribution of food to the Isrealites:

Exodus 16: 10-15 (NIV)

While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.  The LORD said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.' " That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.

 

The Cloud References Continue

As the journey goes on, there are a number of other references to God appearing in a cloud or using a cloud to perform certain tasks:

Exodus 19:16-22 (NIV)

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them."

But why all the smoke and mirrors? I think it was simply for the purpose of making an impression on the people by giving them a visual demonstration of power. God gave the Isrealites many new rules to follow, and he wanted them to know that he was serious. The following excerpt indicates that Moses also thought that this was the purpose:

Exodus 20: 18-21 (NIV)

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."  Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

Yet another example of cloud and fire being used to describe what the people saw:

Exodus 24: 15-18 (NIV)

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

 

How Were The Ten Commandments Engraved?

Another interesting aspect of the whole story is the Ten Commandments being inscribed on tablets of stone. This writing was apparently something like the people had never seen before, and Moses describes them as being inscribed "by the finger of God" and the writing was the work of God:

Exodus 31:18 (NIV)

When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Exodus 32: 15-16 (NIV)

Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Now I'm sure the content was from God and the engraving was done by the direction of God, but does God really have a finger that he writes with? If you look at this incident from a modern perspective, I think it's well within the realm of possibilities that the same type of laser engraving that we see used to make very nice stone monuments could have been used to engrave the tablets.

Of course, we no longer have the actual tablets available, so there's no way to know for sure, but looking at it from this perspective can often make the incident seem more real and believable to us. If we understand a little bit about how things might have been done, it's easier for us to see the whole event as being something that actually happened instead of just a myth or a fictional story.

What Else Did This Craft Do?

I'd venture to guess that this craft ended up doing a lot more than the book of Exodus records. In fact, from the following passages, it seems that eventually the Isrealites actually got kind of used to the craft being around. After a while it was probably as common to them as airplanes are to anyone who lives near an airport:

Exodus 40: 33-38 (NIV)

Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out--until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.

Image by Monarca Lynn

This article is an excerpt from the book

EARS: Evidence of Alien contact Revealed in Scripture

The Bible Files: UFOs in the Bible

The Bible Files
UFOs in the Bible

Of all the paranormal topics in the Bible, the existence of UFOs seem to almost be a no-brainer. What? Did I really just say that out loud? Many, many people gasp in disbelief when they hear this, and I think I know part of the reason why. When people think of UFOs, it seems they almost always think of little green (or grey) men with big black eyes who reportedly abduct people at night and perform hideous experiments on them. When I see toys and other items in stores that portray "aliens" or "UFOs" they always seems to picture these same little aliens.

If that WAS all that was out there, I'd have to agree that these little guys don't seem too nice, and they certainly don't seem to be very Biblical. When I first started looking into the whole topic I thought it was very refreshing to find that UFO researchers who are really into this type of stuff generally feel that this type of alien is actually only a small part of the extraterrestrial population. They usually refer to this particular group of aliens as the "greys."

So why do these greys get all the publicity? If you think about it, it's really not such a strange concept. Think about other things you see in our society. How many brand names of soda are there in the average grocery store? Probably dozens with many different flavors, but if you just believed what you see on TV, you might think that Coke and Pepsi were the only two soft drinks made. It's kind of the same thing with UFOs and aliens: you could say that the greys just seem to spend more money on advertising.

If there really are other aliens, you might be wondering why these groups don't "advertise" too. Why are the greys the only ones pictured in all the comic books and TV shows and shown on all the merchandise? Maybe the question we should be asking is "Where do we go to get the other side of the story?" Since this probably isn't the first article you've read on this web site you won't be surprised that I wanted to see what the Bible says about the topic.

I think that if you just look at what's actually in the Bible with an open mind, you can find dozens of UFO accounts. The nice thing about doing this is that it can help you see that there is a positive alternative to the "grey" abducting type aliens. People often ask if the aliens are angels or demons as if they can only be one or the other. Isn't it entirely possible - and actually more likely - that they aren't all exactly the same and that some are good and some are bad? Fortunately, all of the Biblical UFOs seem to be working for the good guys.

Now I want to be perfectly clear that I'm not trying to take anything away from the power of God. I'm not saying that God needs UFOs to perform miracles for him. But I do think that life exists outside our planet, and I think that God gives these beings the free will choice and opportunity to work with him the same way he gives us the choice to do positive things in our everyday lives.

I think the activities of these "good" aliens are actually similar to those of missionaries that many churches send overseas. They make contact in an honest effort to help people get a more accurate picture of God. If this is the case, is it really so far-fetched to believe that these off-planet missionaries often use UFOs as tools to perform certain tasks?

Since there are so many possible UFO accounts documented in the Bible, I'll be dividing the topic into a number of issues that I've called "The Bible Files."

This article provided the basis for the first chapter from the book

EARS: Evidence of Alien contact Revealed in Scripture

EARS Introduction

"He who has ears, let him hear"
Jesus Christ, Director of the EARS Project

"Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father."
- Jesus Christ, as quoted in John 16:25

I've come to believe that the Bible contains a lot of information that was published long before it could be fully understood. The situation is much like giving a microwave oven to people who lived during the American Revolution. They might think it was somewhat useful even though they only understood part of its value. After all, they'd see that it was a neat durable box to put stuff in with a handle that clicks the door shut. And there's even a window in front so you can see what's in there without opening it.

But they wouldn't see the REAL value of a microwave oven until electricity was available, would they? I think there's a lot of information like that in the Bible. Modern day events such as UFO sightings and breakthroughs in technology help us "plug it in" and really see what it was designed to teach us. The book itself has been around for years, but reading it now, in the light of the current world situation, helps shed a new kind of understanding on its content.

In your journey through the following pages, I invite you to join me in taking a new look at the contents of the Bible. I'll present the evidence, you play the role of the jury. Most of all, I hope you enjoy the ride and at the very least collect some good food for thought.

Introduction from the book

EARS: Evidence of Alien contact Revealed in Scripture