Reading Creation 3b: Thanking God for clouds, our teacher
By Gerry Straker, 20 May 2020
We've been thinking about how to read creation through the Word of God, and what God's creation teaches us. We've thought about sunshine and began to think about clouds.
James Jordan writes this: “When we step outside and look up, what do we see? We see the blue sky of day, and the black starry sky of night. We see clouds and heavenly fire (lightning). We see rainbows and falling stars. We hear thunder. The Bible tells us that these are not merely natural phenomena. They are pictures of heaven, revelations of God’s glory, dimensions of His home. With new eyes, we can see this world also as God’s house.”[1]
In this blog post we saw
- Clouds give rain
- Clouds give rain for blessing
- Cloud of God’s presence
- Clouds of God’s judgement
Now, we continue with:
5. Clouds and the Lord Jesus
Blessing
Jesus’ coming was prophesied to be a blessing like that of showers of rain! David sings this in 2 Samuel 23:3-4 (this is Dale Ralph Davis’ translation):
‘Ruler over mankind- righteous!
Ruler – fear of God!
And as the light of morning (when) the sun rises,
Morning without clouds,
Because of brightness, because of rain
- grass from the earth.’[1]
A cloudless morning of sunshine and rain - from clouds, both for blessing! The coming of the King and the Lord will be blessing like that of clouds bringing rain: ‘May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! (Psalm 72:6). ‘Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.’ (Hosea 6:3). 'In the light of a king's face there is life, and his favour is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.' (Proverbs 16:15).
His presence on earth
‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.’ (John 1:14). Literally the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Jesus fulfils the glory-cloud of Mount Sinai, the tabernacle and the Temple – He is the presence of God on earth.
At Jesus’ transfiguration, Jesus face shines like the sun, and his clothes become white as light. Moses and Elijah appear, and while Peter offers to build tents, ‘behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ The Lord speaks from the cloud to his disciples about Jesus! God had spoken from the mountain to the people; now God speaks from the mountain to ‘endorse’ Jesus on earth speaking to the people.
The judgement on the cross
Jesus experiences the darkness on the cross in the language of Joel 2:2 ‘a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!’ (see also Isaiah 5:30). Jesus experiences the cloud-presence of the Lord as an enemy, since he became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). To be foresaken means to experience God's presence as judgement; after all God is omnipresent, there is nowhere he is not present!
This means that we can experience the cloud-presence of the Lord as blessing. (See ‘Cloud of the Holy Spirit’ below).
Back to his Father’s presence
Jesus returns to heaven to rule in front of his disciples: ‘as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.’ (Act 1:9) Jesus returns to His Father’s presence.
Judgement
At Jesus’ resurrection he is given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). That’s when, coming with the clouds of heaven, he receives all authority, worship and the kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14). And so, ‘The Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory’ (Mark 13:26) is a way of saying ‘the reigning Son of Man’ – this reign begins at Jesus’ resurrection, and continues through his ascension and his rule at His Father’s right hand. And his reign – the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory - is seen when his words about his judgement on the Temple come true. (Have a listen to this sermon on Mark 13 for more on this).
6. Cloud of the Holy Spirit
Although you won’t find the word ‘cloud’ in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit is given to the Church, as James Jordan points out, it is God’s glory-cloud that is given to the Church:
- It was on Pentecost that God gave the law from Mount Sinai.
- Acts 2:2 it ‘fllled the entire house’ like the glory-cloud filled the Tabernacle and Temple.
- The cloud covered Mount Sinai with wind and fire and thunder: Acts 2:2 describes ‘a sound like a mighty, rushing wind’; Acts 2:3 decriscribes ‘tongues as of fire’ resting on each disciple.
- Now the people are filled with the Holy Spirit (2:4).[2]
Peter, referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit calls the gift of the Holy Spirit: ‘times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.’ (Acts 3:20). We have the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Lord in us as individuals (1 Corinthians 6:19) and as the Church (Ephesians 2:19-22).
The Welsh hymn writer William Williams refers to God’s presence with us now using the Old Testament imagery:
‘Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the healing stream cloth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all the journey through;
Strong deliverer,
Be thou still my strength and shield.’
7. Clouds of Providence
Clouds and their mix of hiding the sun and bringing blessing have been rich soil for Christians to describe the (sometimes strange) providence of God:
Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards wrote this to her daughter as she grieved his death: ‘My very dear Child, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud!’
Charles Spurgeon wrote of Christian suffering like this: ‘It is pleasant to pass over a country after a storm has spent itself--to smell the freshness of the herbs after the rain has passed away, and to note the drops while they glisten like purest diamonds in the sunlight. That is the position of a Christian. He is going through a land where the storm has spent itself upon His Saviour's head, and if there be a few drops of sorrow falling, they distil from clouds of mercy, and Jesus cheers him by the assurance that they are not for his destruction.’
William Cowper in his hymn: 'God moves in a mysterious way,' wrote this:
‘Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.’
Lives lived under threatening clouds will instead burst and rain down on us blessings from God!
The patterns in creation that picture our lives would be very interesting to explore further!
8. Clouds of teaching
Clouds bring rain and God’s teaching, God’s Word is described as rain bringing growth.
‘May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.’ (Deuteronomy 32:2).
‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.’ (Isaiah 55:10-11).
The Prayer Love in The Valley of Vision has this beautiful line: 'When I feel the tender rain may I think of the gospel showers that water my soul.'[3]
9. Clouds of blessings promised
‘Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it.’ (Isaiah 45:8)
‘And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land.’ (Ezekiel 34:26-27).
‘Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.’ (Zechariah 10:1).
10. Clouds of God’s presence for us
'Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.' (Isaiah 4:5)
‘For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
[1] James Jordan, Through New Eyes, 51.
[2] Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Samuel, (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1999), 244.
[3] James Jordan, New Eyes, 274.
[4] 'Love' in Valley of Vision, 161.