Our continuing premise is how the spoken word of God (creation) is a veiled projection of divine truths and principles, the same truths and principles expressed in Scripture. Our consideration of the law and prophecies of the early and latter rains briefly referenced the identification of clouds as identifying the presence, power and glory of the Creator. This is a very basic understanding, as the evidence for this relationship saturates Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The cloud was the frame for the divine covenant symbol of the rainbow. According to Moses, even the pagans recognized Yahweh’s presence in the cloud pillar hovering over the Tabernacle that led Israel through the wilderness (Num 14:14). The divine presence in the cloud filled the Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple at their dedications, being expressed as Yahweh’s glory. The Heavenly Father speaks from the cloud at the transfiguration mount. Luke’s account describes how the cloud enveloped all seven on that mount (Christ, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, John and God). Jesus left earth for the right hand of his Father in a cloud (appropriately) and returns with power and glory in the ‘clouds’ of heaven. A cloud is the clothing of the rain bowed angel (immortalized saints) in Revelation 10, which is a snapshot of the atonement when the divine nature will cover the faithful with immortality (1 Cor 15:51-54; 2 Cor 5:1-4).
Caught in the cloud and the air on the Transfiguration Mount
This subtle consistency of the identification of clouds with the presence, power, nature and glory of our Creator invites us to examine the shadows of Scripture for its hidden light. Just as our Creator took light out of darkness (2 Cor 4:6), so we are invited to draw light out of the shadow lessons of divine expressions, pursuing our Heavenly Father’s image and likeness. We noted how the cloud from which Yahweh spoke on the mount of transfiguration fully embraced Christ, the living and the dead (Luke 9:34). Paul expresses this same image in his letter to the Thessalonians, a reference dramatically wrested by the serpent philosophy based religious orders of the flesh.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:16-18).
The image on the transfiguration mount perfectly matches Paul’s comments. Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah were with Jesus in the air and in the mount and in the cloud. It was the promise of an immortal transfiguration for all those ‘in’ Christ when he returns with our heavenly reward to clothe the faithful with the heavenly tabernacle made without hands (2 Cor 5:1-4) and the eternal abiding places (mansions, John 14:1-3,23) prepared for us and what Paul calls our citizenship reserved in heaven (Phil 3:20-21). This is the reward Jesus will bring with him to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev 22:12). Meeting our Lord in the air and the clouds is the image of immobilization. This is why the faithful in Hebrews 11 are identified as a great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1). Along with the Thessalonian Ecclesia they await the awarding of the cloud nature promised on the Mount of Transfiguration when the living and the dead were caught up in the clouds and the air with Christ.
The cloud generated by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement to save his life confirms this promise of the cloud nature.
“And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not” (Lev 16:12-13).
This is the first of the three events inside the Most Holy on the Day of Atonement. These three events portray the three immobilization events in the divine plan: (1) Jesus Christ; (2) the extended family of the High Priest at the beginning of the millennial Kingdom and (3) the rest of the world at the end of the millennial Kingdom. These three immobilization events are shadowed for the exclusive witness of those with seeing eyes and hearing ears in other divine rituals, such as the three great feast weeks at the three primary harvest stages: Feast of Unleavened Bread: barley and flax; Feast of Weeks or First fruits: wheat; Feast of Tabernacles: vineyard.
Dust nature to cloud nature … by fire
The High Priest must first take two handfuls of incense into the Most Holy and toss the incense onto the flames to transfigure the dust into a cloud that covers the mercy seat, by the action of the fire. This is a detailed image of the atonement or immobilization of our Messiah. Incense was made by pulverizing four equal spice ingredients into a fine powder. Dust is, of course, a symbol of mortal nature as Adam was made from the dust of the earth and we are consigned back to that dust by the terms of the curse of sin and death. However, this is not just any dust. It is a sweet smelling dust, reflecting the divinely approachable behavior pattern of our Messiah before his transfiguration from dust to cloud through the fire. The four aromatic dust components in each hand of the High Priest parallel other double four salvation shadows. The four men and four women on the gopher wood ark of salvation, the two sets of four stone surfaces upon which the finger of God wrote the words of the covenant (10 commandments) and the two rows of four carcasses in Abram’s heaven and earth covenant (Gen. 15), the foursquare altar with the four blood sacrifice categories (burnt, peace, sin and trespass), the outer and inner foursquare configuration of Israel surrounding the Tabernacle (political exterior and spiritual interior), and the four cherubim with four wings with the four wheels within four wheels. These all serve to present a divine pattern of doubled fours in the context of a salvation theme. These are only a few of the many examples of this Scriptural pattern within a pattern.
The two handfuls of incense are converted by the fire into a cloud. The fire serves as the conversion process, presenting the image of the salvation of our Messiah through the suffering of his death. The transfiguration from aromatic dust to aromatic cloud portrays the change from cursed mortal nature to blessed immortal nature. Appropriately, this action saves the life of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. This confirms our understanding that this first Day of Atonement ritual foreshadows the eternal saving of the life of the ultimate High Priest. This personal atonement of our Messiah is shadowed in other divine rituals, such as the atonement for the Christ-altar over seven days so that this altar might be used for the congregation (Exod 29:36-37). This recreational cloud projection of the nature of our Creator is consistently presented throughout Scripture. These thoughts are merely a meditation seed offering the promise for a greater harvest, of witnessing a greater measure of divine glory reserved exclusively for seeing eyes and hearing ears.
Our next commentary will extend this water/word relationship to the spiritual application of bodies of water. This will hint at the immense depth and breadth of how Creation’s gospel confirms divine truths and principles.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One