There is no greater joy in life than walking with God. Anyone who has walked with God for sometime will tell you: Walking with God along the Dark Way is lonely, frightening, and even heartbreaking, but Christ is always there leading us. Oh, what a life he blesses us with along the way!
As we discussed in Part 1 about God leading us in the Wilderness Way, learning to walk with God is a process. That process will take a lifetime, Immediately following the previous passage in Exodus 13 we read,
And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. (20,21)
God had suddenly and recently led the Israelites out of Egypt. Then He led them by the unconventional way toward the Red Sea. And soon (Ex 14:1-4) He would have them change course once more to even appear to be lost in the furious eyes of Pharaoh. But they hadn’t even gotten to that point yet. For now, He was reinforcing His guiding Presence via the cloud and the fire.
You might also like: Part 3: Learning to Walk with God: Going Forward by Turning Back
Seeing this story from the other side of the cross, and being reminded that all they went through was for my (and, if you are in Christ, your) example (1 Cor 10:1-7), and again reminded of the Wilderness Way already discussed, the lesson of the fiery guiding pillar moves me forward this day.

My Lord will (without a doubt) lead me in unconventional, seemingly purposeless paths. He will (absolutely) have me travel through times of darkness if it is necessary to accomplish His good plans. But the fiery pillar of The Comforter will lead me through the night. His Word is, after all, “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105).
Move forward today in Spirit-given faith and the illumination given from the applied Scriptures. This is what it is to “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).