The Man in the Enfolding Cloud

In Bible Study II, we looked at the Enfolding Cloud mention throughout scripture of God appearing to the Children of Israel to lead them. [Most notably, the enfolding cloud, fire to lead Israel through the desert into Canaan under Moses]. In all these short studies though, the main theme is God appearing , presenting Himself to man as the living real presence or face of God. The Face of God is also mentioned frequently throughout scripture: Jacob calls the place he struggles with an angel "Peniel", which has to do with the 'face of God'---and he like the Children of Israel who waited for Moses at the bottom of Sinai, found that man, in God's dispensation could indeed "see the face of God and live." The literal presence of God with man is also referred to in the 1)tabernacle, 2)the name Emmanuel-God with Us, 3)the Shekinah Glory upon the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, and 4)in the Bread of Presence. While we often note that, it does well to go into a little further explanation, to understand how God leads Israel into His presence, always accompanied by His deliverance. The Tabernacle or tent of meeting sat directly in the midst of Israel and in the land was located in 'Shiloh'. The tent of meeting stood in the middle of the camps of the tribes, and moved with the tribes. The abiding presence within the tabernacle was the living, breathing Shekinah Glory of God which sat in between two figures of Angels, on the top of the ark in the Holy of Holies, entered only by the High Priest. As Israel moved, the Tent of Meeting moved: as the Tabernacle moved, the Ark moved, and even in battle, the Ark , the seat of God's glory led Israel into victory after victory. How's that for Deliverance? The name "Emmanuel" God-among-us or with us, better, God in the Midst of Us, shows also this ever abiding presence of God with Israel.

While most do not consider how significant the shewbread of the Old Covenant was, the bread of Heaven appearing in the tabernacle and general worship, broken at meals and the Passover, and today representing even in liberal congregations a partaking of oneness with God and the tribes of Israel, present also at weddings, feasts and other commanded events, comes from several words related to the 'face of God': the Bread of Heaven, seen early in Manna, and in the shewbread of worship, is literally related in word origins to the face of God, so that the Bread of Heaven is also not just 'representative' but in essence a manifestation of God's Presence attending the partakers of the breaking of the bread. In xxxxxx one of the things still in the Ark was the bread of presence. When the bread is partaken of among the Children of Israel, it is the taking of identity, holiness and in the Presence of God, consecrating the Chosen People of God in the purposes of God.

A really wondrous and fascinating intimation of this, is in the name "Ihtzak" or Isaac, the Child of Promise, offered as a living sacrifice by Abraham the father of faith. When Abraham and Sarah received the promise of the son, they were both rather dumbfounded to think that a child would be born to them at their great age, and Sarah laughed, thinking it preposterous. However, the child's name "Ihtzak" means 'God laughed' and shares origins intimating again the face and presence of God, only this time in joy and amusement. [God is not trumped] This child of Promise and Sacrifice, made for the time to live, and calling the nation to faith, is spoken of in the New Covenant as the one in whose name we are saved.

Rom 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

It is God's presence with Israel in belief that makes them children! Through the son of the Covenant, the son of sacrifice, the son of Promise.

Now all of this leads to a consideration of how that Presence was manifested beyond the physical: simply, the progressive appearance of the cloud of fire and smoke/cloud by night, shows itself a little at a time. In Genesis 15 the furnace and lamp are mentioned as passing through the sacrifice which yields the Covenant of the Land and Seed:

behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

Later, as Israel leaves Egypt, it is a whirlwind of some sort which parts the waters leading the Children of Promise to the Promised land! Out in the desert the cloud by day and night attends Israel as a shepherd, keeping her enemies away in wrath, and providing light in the darkness. The wondrous appearance though comes in the progressive unfolding of the man in the enfolding cloud-

Exd 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that [was] in the camp trembled. Exd 24:15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. Exd 24:16 And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

The cloud also abode over the Tabernacle when it rested. [Num 9:22] and it appeared among the Praises of Israel ¹ when the Temple of Solomon was dedicated:

2Ch 5:13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers [were] as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up [their] voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, [saying], For [he is] good; for his mercy [endureth] for ever: that [then] the house was filled with a cloud, [even] the house of the LORD; 2Ch 5:14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.

In Isaiah 25:11 it is noted that God rides swiftly on a cloud, adding to the portrayal of the presence, and finally, in Ezekiel we begin to see a further revelation

Eze 1:4 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. Eze 1:28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so [was] the appearance of the brightness round about. This [was] the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw [it], I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

That amber and fire find definition in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament:

Rev 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet [are] like fine brass;

But the clearest appearance for the first time of the man within the 'whirlwind' or enfolding cloud shows the likeness of the man, defined as Messiah in Revelation:

Eze 1:27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. Eze 8:2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

Jesus and the Enfolding Cloud

While we normally think of the the pillar of cloud as only in the Old Covenant and in Revelation, except by referral, there are a few significant instances in the Life of Jesus which again show the attending cloud. One is on the Mount of transfiguration, against Hermon and Amana: those dazzling snows are mentioned as a type of Heaven in Song of Songs! As Peter, James and John gaze afraid on the shining white garments of Jesus, Yshua talking to Moses and Elijah, a voice from an enfolding cloud speaks:

And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

Even more amazing, though is an instance repeated millions of times and seldom read closely: the ascension of Jesus into the cloud(s):

Act 1:9 ¶ And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And the blessing of the day when He returns, the Deliverer of Israel, the man in the enfolding cloud is seen in the following passage:

Luk 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. and
Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

He came in obscurity in the early history of Israel, with just the hem of His garment attending in the furnace and lamp of the covenant with Abraham, attending and sanctifying the sacrifice---the holy plumbline down the perfect sacrifice which provided the Nativity of the Sand and Stars, the Land and Seed! He continues through Israel's history showing more of His countenance: the cloud appears in the desert, leading and protecting, it appears over the Tabernacle and on the Mercy Seat, and is referred to in Job as God's habitation, in Isaiah and others, and becomes fully revealed for the first time in Ezekiel when Israel's Deliverer comes back to get His children out of the unholy captivity in which they had been placed. "Who is this that comes out of the wilderness?" the Bride asks regarding the Bridegroom in Shir Hashirim

Sgs 3:6 Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

and the answer, by the end of both Covenants [truly one Covenant], is the Husband of the Bride, the Deliverer of Israel, the King and Messiah promised since the beginning of time. Just past the Greatest Sacrifice ever told, on Golgotha, when the Lamb and Son are one, this time, past Abraham and Isaac, the heavenly contract is complete, and a people who may partake of the divine nature and live forever in the Presence of God, the Holy Seed, the Chosen People is established for the Promised land of Canaan, the Heaven of God, obtained for all time, the gift to all Israel, to live in the Eternal Presence of their God. [ha, ha](God laughed) Elizabeth Best, @1996, 98;2007