Author: Hollisa Alewine

Our Footsteps series has considered the signs of Messiah’s coming within key verses of the Song of Songs. Our most recent text is a prophecy of the final wilderness “of the people” and the Mishkan (Tabernacle) of Israel:

What is this coming up from the wilderness
like columns of smoke
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
with all the scented powders of the merchant? (So 3:6)

Israel emerges from the wilderness of the peoples in Clouds of Glory. When we look for evidence of how Yeshua is working among us to gather us, the Wilderness Mishkan is a logical place to look. Last week, we took a close look at the “two witnesses” of fire in the wilderness that amazed and terrified the surrounding nations. There was the fire of two altars that never went out, one of sacrifice and one of incense, each with its column of smoke. There was a pillar, or column, of cloud by day and one by night, the night pillar revealing fire in the darkness. And according to the sages, the two tablets in the Ark of the Covenant produced two tongues of fire that cleared the area of the encampment of serpents and scorpions when the cloud and Ark stopped. Sound familiar? Hint: Acts Two.

This description of the “two witnesses” sounds very much like the Midrash’s description of how the Mishkan settled down:

“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.” (Re 11:5)

The Midrash Rabbah to Shir 3:5 describes why the nations marveled at the Israelite camp in the wilderness:

“When Israel was roaming from encampment to encampment in the Wilderness, the Pillar of Cloud would sink in the evening and then the Pillar of Fire would spring up, and the smoke of the burning pyre atop the Outer Altar would rise straight up, unaffected by the wind, and two darts of fire would issue from between the two staves of the Ark and incinerate the snakes, fiery serpents, and scorpions before the Israelites. [commentary to Ex 40:38]