God’s Clouds – (5.) Moses and the Clouds of Glory
God’s Clouds – (5.) Moses and the Clouds of Glory.
“God thunders marvelously with His voice; He works wonders that we cannot understand.
He commands the snow, ‘Fall to the ground!’ And the downpour of rain, His mighty downpour of rain…
He loads the clouds with moisture and scatters His lightning-clouds…
Listen to this, O Job, and pay attention! Stand still and ponder the wondrous works of God;
Do you have any idea how God controls the storms, and causes the lightning to flash from His clouds?
Do you understand how the clouds are balanced in the sky, floating in the air, which are miraculous works of Him who is perfect in wisdom and skill? (Job 37:5-6, 11, 14-16).
Clouds truly are wondrous, and miraculous, and one of our Creator’s greatest inventions. Each cloud we see in the sky is unrepeatable, completely unique and always changing. They can be dark and foreboding, or light and joyous. They can pour down upon us light rain or heavy rain, a blizzard of snow or postcard snowflakes, driving hail or frozen ice. They can strike the earth with dramatic lightning or be a sun-drenched fluffball. Clouds can be practically luminous and filled with sunlight or monstrously dark without any light at all. It’s no wonder clouds have captured the imagination of poets, artists, pretty much all of mankind since the beginning, for they are just hanging there in the sky between heaven and earth, somehow floating and perfectly balanced in midair, above the earth yet still near us as well. Hopefully the science of clouds we now know will not remove the unpredictable mystery and glorious wonder of clouds. As author John Ruskin put it, “You may take any single fragment of any cloud in the sky, and you will find it put together as if there had been a year’s thought over the plan of it – a picture in itself. You may try every other piece of cloud in the heavens, and you will find them everyone as perfect, and yet not one in the least like another.” (The True and the Beautiful, 1858).
“Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of Lord Yahweh dwelt on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day God called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” (Exodus 24:15-18).
GLORY: the biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. God’s profound glory is independent of His Shekinah glory on earth. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth.
Fiery Clouds as Shekinah Glory. Shekinah is the Divine Presence, the appearance of God’s glory that dwells on earth, and implies God’s nearness, closeness, God’s with-ness to us. Shekinah is understood in Judaism, and then adopted by Christianity, to be the “uncreated light, fire and luminous cloud” that became visible when God made an appearance on the earth. God’s Shekinah glory announced His presence. Shekinah glory is not the full inner essence of God’s Being, since God is an invisible Spirit who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16). But instead, God’s Shekinah is the “out-raying” of that source of Light, like the sunbeams coming directly from the sun. We can’t even look directly at the sun, but we can see and feel and get the benefits of the sun though its rays. The Shekinah is the sunbeam from the “Father of Lights.” Isn’t it wonderful that the palmist exclaims that “Yahweh God is the sun!” (Ps. 84:11). Shekinah has been described as when the Omnipresent One becomes localized, when the Invisible One becomes visible. Shekinah is God’s visible glory pulsating outwards from the spiritual energy of God’s Being, the flowing out of light from the “consuming fire” of God’s essence. (Ex. 24;17).
DOXA (Greek word for ‘glory’ in the New Testament): Splendor, brilliance, the awesome light that radiates from God’s presence and flows forth from God’s character; is associated with his acts of power that are worthy to be honored, praised, revered; is often seen as a synonym to Shekinah glory; the magnificent excellence and dazzling greatness of God in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God’s Word is basically the story of God’s glory. Holy Scripture is the glorious story of God’s Presence on earth, His Shekinah glory dwelling with humanity through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In fact, rabbinic authorities have long taught that the Shekinah is present whenever two or three believers are gathered to study Torah. And the Christian have expanded that to say that “wherever two or three are gathered in God’s Name, He is in their midst.” Many biblical scholars have said, then, that the Shekinah glory is the nearest Jewish equivalent to the Holy Spirit of God.
Clouds as Theophanies. From the Greek words “Theo” (God) and “phaino” (to appear), a theophany is when God announces Himself in a visible form, and He makes a temporary appearance on earth for reasons of His own. A theophany is God’s temporary visible manifestation to remind us of His permanent presence in the world. A theophany is when God stoops to us in gracious self-revelation in a form that we can experience through our senses. The Lord God often announced His presence in a thick, radiant cloud.
Moses Entered the Cloud. It’s no contest… Moses gets the prize for the biblical character who has his head in the clouds most often. Whether it’s the pillar cloud of protection at the Red Sea, or when standing at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, or when appointing his seventy elders, or speaking with Yahweh in the Holy of Holies, or when worshipping in the Tabernacle, or the vast number of times he interacted with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, or when he followed the pillar of cloud every day.
The Luminous Cloud Covering the Tabernacle:
“On the day that the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, also called the tent of testimony. And at evening it was over the Tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: The cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted up from over the Tabernacle, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped.” (Numbers 9:15-17); “When the people of Israel had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the Tabernacle. And behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord Yahweh appeared.” (Numbers 16:42).
The Spirit is Placed on the Elders in a Cloud:
“So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And Moses gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and placed them around the Tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.” (Numbers 11:24-25).
The Cloud at the Entrance of the Tent of Meeting:
“Now Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting. Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his own tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the Tent. When Moses entered the Tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the Tent, and Lord Yahweh would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the Tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:7-11).
“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.’ And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And He said, ‘Hear my word: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?’ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He departed. When the cloud removed from over the Tent, behold, Mirian was leprous.” (Numbers 12:3-10).
The Glory Cloud on Mt. Sinai:
“As soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 16:9-12);
“And the Lord Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever… On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” (Ex. 19:9, 16-20);
“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.’ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick dark cloud where God was.” (Ex. 20:18-21);
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘Please show me your glory!’… Moses rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, ‘Yahweh! Yahweh! A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty!” (Ex. 34:4-7);
“… And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only the voice.” (Deut. 4:11-12).
The Cloud Inside the Tabernacle:
“So Moses finished the work of erecting the Tabernacle. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Ex. 40:33-35).
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy of Holies inside the veil, before the Mercy Seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the Mercy Seat… And he shall take a censor full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the Mercy Seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die.” (Lev. 16:2, 11-13);