Meet Me in the Clouds

God has made use of clouds from Exodus through the book of The Revelation to show his power, his might, his glory, or his many other attributes. In Exodus, Jehovah used a pillar of fire to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt during the night and a pillar of a cloud to direct his people during the day. Exodus 13:21, 22.

Jehovah demanded sacrifices as atonement for sin to be burned on the altar, the smoke rising to heaven whether it was animal or grain sacrifice. Clouds of smoke from the incense often filled the Tabernacle and God appeared in a cloud upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Leviticus 16:2.

He used clouds or the lack of them to execute judgments in great storms or in prolonged droughts as in I Kings 17 against King Ahab. In 2 Samuel 22:10-15 God wrapped himself in canopies of darkness and thick clouds in the sky. God also adorns the clouds with rainbows to show the covenant between himself and man. Genesis 9:14-17. The LORD brought visions to his prophet Ezekiel.  ^“And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire” Beasts came from the midst sharing a glimpse of the glory of God.

In Hosea, God compares the goodness of Ephriam and Judah to an early dew and a morning cloud. Hosea 6:4.

Christ as the Son of Man will appear in the clouds as shared in Daniel 7:13, Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26, Luke 21:27, and The Revelation 14:14. We will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and glory. God also speaks to his Son from a cloud. Matthew 17:5 and Christ was received by a cloud out of the disciples’ sight. The Acts 1:9.

Christ shall again come in the clouds, The Revelation 1:7. When the LORD returns, it will be “with a shout and the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.

I had planned on writing about the shapes that occur with the clouds in the sky, animals, faces, and pillars, but when I thought of the pillar of clouds, my mind wandered off into another path.