Meditating upon the Clouds
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17 NKJV)
Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7 NKJV)
There are Clouds and then there are Clouds
There was a cloud that went with the children of Israel as they journeyed for 40 years in the desert (wilderness). There was the cloud that filled the tabernacle in the wilderness and the cloud that filled the temple in Jerusalem. There are clouds that the Lord uses to establish rainbows (the sign that the Lord would never again destroy the earth with a flood). There is a day coming when the Lord will meet saints (believers) in the clouds. And then there is the day when the Lord will come with clouds to begin His righteous reign after the judgments that will avenge His rejection by unbelieving nations.
Clouds Speak
Whenever I see a beautiful cloud, particularly if it contains a rainbow, I think of the Lord’s promise to come again. There is only one second coming, but His coming has at least two events associated with it. The first event is to remove Christians from coming wrath. The second event is for the Lord to reveal Himself to the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I have always been convinced that when the Lord comes with clouds, first to rapture the church and later to establish His righteous kingdom, that the clouds represent the Holy Spirit. However, sometimes the cloud is a singular noun and sometimes it is plural. And I began to wonder if the Lord was coming with normal clouds or if the clouds do represent the Holy Spirit and the glory of the Lord. It was a cloud (singular) that received the Lord in Acts 1. Yet the passage says that He will come in like manner as the apostles saw Him go into heaven. But in Revelation 1:7 He comes with clouds (plural).
I meditated on this and thought about the times I have seen a rainbow. One cloud may have been prominent but usually there were other clouds present. But again, the Lord says that He set the rainbow in the cloud (singular). So I am going to suggest that the Lord will be coming with natural clouds but those clouds will include the cloud of the Holy Spirit. In the old testament the cloud is a masculine word, in the new testament it is a feminine word and I will let my readers explain the significance of that. All I know is that when we watch the sky, the Lord is giving all of us a reminder of His promises. First of all He has promised to never again destroy the earth with a flood. Second, He has promised to come again. The first part of that second coming will remove “saved” Christians from coming destruction and the second part of that coming will be when the Lord comes back to the Mount of Olives to establish a righteous kingdom. And in between those two events nations and peoples who have rejected Christ are going to find out that the man who died to save them will also come to judge them for rejecting that salvation.
Different Clouds on Different Days
If you are like me, you like to see a beautiful sunset framed by peaceful looking clouds. If you are like me, you don’t like to see those angry clouds that develop, usually in the northwest or southwest in this part of the country, that bring tornadoes, hail and lots of property damage. The clouds that the saved are looking for are surely the ones that speak of peace. The ones that Christ rejecters are going to cause great grief.. All tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him according to the NKJV translation. But I think the KJV is better. It says that they will wail because of Him. The Lord is going to separate sheep from goats (believers from unbelievers) at His coming to reign, and when people and nations realize that they have been obstinate and rebellious and have turned away from the One who really loved them, they will certainly wail.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of August 20 and 27, 2023
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