Appearances Night And Day

Jam tunc videtur Dominus nocte in columna ignis, et per diem in columna nubis, praecedens populum, et dux itineris factus. Nubes ista praecedens Christus est: Idem etiam columna, quia rectus, et firmus, et fulcieus infirmitatem nostram. Per noctem lucens, per diem non lucens, ut qui non vident videant, et qui vident caeci fiant. Potest et sic non incongrue accipi, quod Christi sacramentum tanquam in die manifestatum est in carne, tanquam in nube; in judicio vero tanquam in terrore nocturno, quia tunc erit magna tribulatio saeculi tanquam ignis, et lucebit justis, et ardebit injustis. Sanctus Isidorus Hispalensis,Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum Seu Quaestiones In Vetus Testamentum, In Exodum, Caput XVIII Source: Migne PL 83.296a-b

Now the Lord appears in the night as a column of fire, and by day as a column of cloud, going before the people, a leader on the way. 1 This cloud which goes before is Christ, and He is a column because He is upright and firm and our support in our weakness. Through the night He shines, and through the day He does not, that those who do not see might see and those who see are made blind. 2 And it is not out of place to receive this as the mystery of Christ on the day when he was manifested in the flesh, as in a cloud. In the judgement, however, it is as a night terror, for then shall be the great tribulation of the world like fire, and it shall illuminate the righteous and burn the unrighteous. Saint Isidore of Seville, Expositions of Sacred Mysteries or Questions on the Old Testament, On Exodus, Chap 18 1 Exodus 13.21 2 Jn 9.39