HE'S COMING WITH CLOUDS!
The Glory Cloud, the High Priest, and the Revelation of Christ in His Saints
Christianity has spent two thousand years looking into the sky for a glory that was promised to dwell within humanity.
Somewhere along the way, Christians developed this extraordinary picture of Jesus returning through the atmosphere, riding a cloud like some kind of celestial surfboard.
Apparently, one day we're all supposed to look up and see Jesus descending toward Earth like Goku arriving for the final battle.
LOL!
But here's the problem.
The cloud was never about transportation. It was about presence.
From the wilderness to the tabernacle, from the temple to the prophets, the cloud was a familiar symbol of God's glory, authority, and divine presence.
And when the New Testament speaks of Christ coming with clouds, it is drawing from that same world of covenant symbolism.
The high priest entered the presence of God under a cloud of incense.
Jesus ascended and was received into a cloud.
Daniel saw the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven to receive a kingdom.
The prophets described Yahweh coming on clouds in judgment.
And Paul declared that Christ would be glorified in His saints.
These images belong to one story.
The story of God's presence moving from the old covenant sanctuary into the glorified body of Christ.
And that changes everything.
1. THE GLORY CLOUD WAS THE PRESENCE OF GOD
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He led them through the wilderness in a cloud.
"And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way..." — Exodus 13:21
This wasn't simply a description of the weather.
The cloud represented Yahweh's presence among His covenant people.
It led them, protected them, and marked the place where God was making Himself known.
At Sinai, the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord rested upon it (Exodus 24:15–18).
When the tabernacle was completed, something extraordinary happened.
"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." — Exodus 40:34
The cloud covered the tabernacle.
The glory filled it.
And later, when Solomon dedicated the temple, the same imagery appeared.
"And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD." — 1 Kings 8:10
Verse 11 explains that the glory of the Lord filled the house.
Notice the pattern.
The cloud.
The glory.
The divine presence.
And when Ezekiel witnessed the glory departing from the temple, he described the presence moving away from the sanctuary (Ezekiel 10:18–19).
The cloud wasn't some meaningless decoration in the story.
It was part of the language of God's dwelling presence.
Now understand something important about that old covenant dwelling place.
The people did not have unrestricted access to it.
There was a veil.
A priesthood.
An altar.
Sacrifices.
Boundaries.
The Holy of Holies represented the dwelling presence of God, but only the high priest could enter, and only on the appointed day.
The entire arrangement illustrated separation.
Hebrews 9:8 explains that the way into the holiest had not yet been made manifest while the first tabernacle remained standing.
The glory was there, but the people were separated from it by the very covenant system through which they approached God.
And once a year, the high priest acted out a remarkable picture of how that separation would eventually be overcome.
2. THE HIGH PRIEST ENTERED THE PRESENCE IN A CLOUD
Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement.
The high priest entered the Most Holy Place with sacrificial blood.
But before approaching the mercy seat, he was commanded to take burning coals and incense behind the veil.
Listen to the instructions.
"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." — Leviticus 16:13
A CLOUD OF INCENSE.
Right there, in the Holy of Holies.
The cloud covered the mercy seat, the place associated with God's dwelling presence.
The high priest entered with blood under the covering of incense.
And that incense carries another beautiful layer of meaning throughout Scripture.
Psalm 141:2 compares prayer to incense ascending before God.
Revelation 5:8 identifies incense with the prayers of the saints.
And Revelation 8:3–4 describes incense ascending with the prayers of God's people before the throne.
Do you see the connection?
The high priest entered the sanctuary accompanied by the cloud of incense.
The incense represented the prayers of the covenant people.
Their representative entered the divine presence while they remained outside, awaiting the completion of the priestly work.
Year after year, the pattern was repeated.
The priest entered.
The incense cloud concealed him.
The blood was presented.
The priest emerged.
But the sacrifice would have to be repeated the following year.
In You're Already Home, I describe this as the High Priest's journey.
It was a shadow of something greater.
Because Jesus would fulfill what that annual ritual had been illustrating.
Not merely the offering of blood.
The priesthood itself.
The entrance into the true sanctuary.
The presentation of the perfect sacrifice.
And the revelation of the completed atonement.
The earthly high priest entered a room that represented heaven. Christ entered the heavenly reality that the room represented.
Hold on to that picture.
Because we're about to see the same cloud imagery at the ascension.
But first, we need Daniel.
3. DANIEL SAW THE SON OF MAN COMING WITH THE CLOUDS
Daniel 7:13 contains one of the most important visions in biblical prophecy.
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him."
Notice something that gets completely overlooked in modern discussions.
WHERE WAS THE SON OF MAN GOING?
Read it again.
He came to the Ancient of Days.
Daniel was not describing somebody descending from heaven onto Earth.
The Son of Man was approaching the heavenly throne.
And what happened when He arrived?
"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom..." — Daniel 7:14
Dominion.
Glory.
A kingdom.
This is an enthronement vision.
The Son of Man receives royal authority from the Ancient of Days.
Now watch how the vision develops.
"But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever..." — Daniel 7:18
Then Daniel 7:27 declares that the kingdom and dominion will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.
The Son of Man receives the kingdom.
The saints inherit the kingdom.
The representative King and His corporate people are inseparable in the vision.
Christ and His body.
The Head and His people.
The King and His kingdom.
And the Son of Man appears with the clouds of heaven.
That is not incidental.
Daniel is using the language of divine glory and authority to describe the vindication and enthronement of the Son of Man.
Now carry that image directly into Acts.
4. JESUS ASCENDED AND WAS RECEIVED INTO A CLOUD
Acts 1:9 tells us:
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."
A CLOUD RECEIVED HIM.
Does that sound familiar?
It should.
We've already seen God's presence revealed in a cloud.
We've seen the high priest enter the sanctuary beneath the cloud of incense.
We've seen Daniel's Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven toward the Ancient of Days.
And now Jesus ascends and is received into a cloud.
What is being revealed?
The heavenly enthronement of Christ.
The true High Priest entering the true sanctuary.
Hebrews 9:24 tells us that Christ entered heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us.
Hebrews 9:12 declares that He entered by His own blood, obtaining eternal redemption.
And Hebrews 10:12 announces:
"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God."
HE SAT DOWN!
The annual priestly work had reached its fulfillment.
The sacrifice was complete.
The perfect High Priest had entered the heavenly sanctuary.
Now compare that with the Day of Atonement.
The old high priest entered the Holy of Holies with sacrificial blood, concealed under the cloud of incense.
Christ entered the heavenly presence through His own sacrifice and was received into a cloud.
The old high priest would emerge from the sanctuary after completing the annual atonement.
Christ's appearing would reveal the fulfillment of His once-for-all priestly work.
This is why the ascension is so much more meaningful than imagining Jesus disappearing through the atmosphere.
The cloud wasn't telling us how far He traveled. It was telling us into whose presence He had entered.
And that brings us to Acts 1:11.
"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."
People read that and immediately imagine Jesus reversing His flight path.
Up one day.
Down another day.
Same cloud.
Same sky.
Some dramatic landing scheduled for a future generation.
But the biblical symbolism gives us a far richer picture.
They saw Jesus received into the cloud of divine presence.
He was concealed from their sight.
He entered the true sanctuary and was enthroned.
And His promised appearing would reveal the authority, glory, and completed work of the enthroned Christ.
The priest who entered the presence would be revealed through the fulfillment of the covenant promises.
That is the priestly significance of His appearing.
Now there's another dimension of the clouds that we cannot ignore.
Because throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh also came on clouds in judgment.
5. COMING ON CLOUDS WAS AN IDIOM OF DIVINE JUDGMENT
This is where understanding Hebrew prophetic language becomes essential.
When Yahweh was described as coming on a cloud, it did not require Him to physically travel through the atmosphere.
Sometimes it announced judgment against a nation.
Consider Isaiah 19:1.
"Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt..."
Yahweh riding upon a swift cloud.
Coming into Egypt.
Did the Egyptians need to watch the sky for a physical appearance of God?
No.
Isaiah was announcing divine judgment upon Egypt.
The cloud communicated Yahweh's authority moving against that nation.
Look at Psalm 104:3.
It describes God as the one who makes the clouds His chariot.
And Nahum 1:3 says:
"The LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet."
THE CLOUDS ARE THE DUST OF HIS FEET!
That is prophetic poetry.
The great divine warrior moving in power.
Judgment approaching.
And Jeremiah 4:13 brings the military dimension directly into the picture.
"Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind..."
Clouds.
Chariots.
War.
Destruction.
In the ancient world, advancing armies with horses and chariots could raise enormous clouds of dust.
That imagery helps explain why prophetic descriptions of judgment repeatedly bring together clouds, dust, storms, and approaching armies.
The cloud could signify divine presence.
It could signify concealment and glory.
And in judgment passages, it could portray the terrifying approach of divine authority through historical destruction.
God could be said to come in judgment without physically appearing in the sky.
That is how prophetic language worked.
And this is exactly the world of symbolism Jesus was speaking from when He announced the coming judgment upon Jerusalem.
6. THE SON OF MAN COMING ON CLOUDS IN HIS GENERATION
Jesus stood before the Jewish high priest and council.
They questioned His identity and authority.
And Jesus answered:
"Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." — Matthew 26:64
Sitting at the right hand of Power.
Coming in the clouds of heaven.
Where did that imagery originate?
Daniel 7.
The Son of Man receiving dominion, glory, and a kingdom.
Jesus was announcing His vindication.
The very authorities condemning Him would witness the consequences of His enthronement.
Now turn to Matthew 24.
Jesus had just announced the destruction of the Jerusalem temple.
His disciples asked about the things He had described.
And Jesus warned them about the events that would overtake their covenant world.
Wars.
Tribulation.
The abomination of desolation.
The destruction approaching Jerusalem.
Then Matthew 24:30 describes the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And in verse 34, Jesus establishes the time frame.
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
THIS GENERATION.
The generation standing before Him.
The generation that would see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.
The generation that would witness the destruction of the temple.
When the Roman armies came against Jerusalem, the judgment Jesus had announced was manifested in history.
The city fell.
The sanctuary was destroyed.
The sacrificial order came to its end.
The religious establishment that had condemned Jesus lost the temple around which its covenantal authority had been organized.
And the Son of Man was vindicated.
Just as Isaiah had described Yahweh riding a swift cloud in judgment against Egypt, Jesus used the language of divine cloud-coming for the judgment approaching Jerusalem.
The Romans were the historical instrument.
The judgment revealed the authority of Christ.
Nobody needed to see Jesus physically standing on a cloud above the Roman legions.
The prophetic language was already doing its work.
But Christ's vindication in judgment was only one part of the revelation.
The destruction of the old sanctuary coincided with the unveiling of the new dwelling place of God.
And that new dwelling place was not another building.
It was a body.
7. THE GLORY WAS MOVING FROM THE TEMPLE INTO A PEOPLE
Under the old covenant, the presence of God was represented within the tabernacle and temple.
The sanctuary was the appointed meeting place.
The priesthood mediated access.
The veil marked the boundary.
But Jesus identified His own body as the true temple in John 2:19–21.
And through Christ, the dwelling place of God was being revealed in an entire people.
Paul told the Corinthians:
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" — 1 Corinthians 3:16
Notice something.
He was speaking to a community.
YOU ARE THE TEMPLE.
Not a building.
A corporate body.
Ephesians 2:21–22 describes that community being built together into a holy temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit.
This was the great covenantal transformation.
The glory that had been associated with one earthly sanctuary was being revealed throughout the people joined together in Christ.
And Paul directly contrasts the glory of the two covenants.
Read 2 Corinthians 3:7–18.
The Mosaic administration was glorious, but its glory was fading.
The new covenant possessed a surpassing and enduring glory.
Paul calls the old administration the ministry of death and condemnation.
The new covenant is the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness.
And then he declares:
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory..." — 2 Corinthians 3:18
FROM GLORY TO GLORY.
There is the transformation.
From a covenant administration marked by veiling and condemnation into the unveiled glory of Christ.
For one generation after the cross, the early believers lived during that transition.
The Spirit had been poured out.
The new covenant body was being established.
Yet the old temple and priesthood remained.
Then Jerusalem was destroyed.
The earthly sanctuary fell.
The old covenant administration reached its historical conclusion.
And the body of Christ endured.
The dwelling presence of God was not lost when the temple was destroyed.
The true temple was the people in whom His Spirit dwelt.
And Scripture gives us a remarkable image of those people.
8. THE GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES
Hebrews 12:1 begins:
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses..."
A cloud of witnesses.
Now who are these witnesses?
Read Hebrews 11.
Abel.
Enoch.
Noah.
Abraham.
Sarah.
Moses.
The prophets.
Generations of faithful people who lived and died holding to God's covenant promises.
The writer gathers their testimony into one magnificent image.
A great cloud of witnesses.
Now bring the priestly imagery back into view.
The high priest entered the presence accompanied by incense.
The incense was associated with the prayers of God's covenant people.
Jesus entered the heavenly presence and was received into a cloud.
And Hebrews portrays the faithful as a cloud of witnesses, united in testimony to the same covenant promises.
In You're Already Home, I wrote:
"They are the temple. They are the cloud. They are the visible manifestation of the presence in the world."
That's the corporate picture.
The old covenant sanctuary represented the presence of God within a sacred place.
The new covenant body carries the presence of God throughout humanity.
One Spirit.
One body.
Many members.
The cloud is a beautiful image of that corporate testimony.
And now look at what the New Testament says about the appearing of Christ.
9. CHRIST WOULD BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS
Jude 14 declares:
"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints."
The Lord with ten thousands of His holy ones.
This belongs to the ancient imagery of divine judgment and the holy company associated with God's presence.
Jude immediately connects that coming with judgment in verse 15.
But Paul gives us an equally important dimension of the revelation.
Second Thessalonians 1:10 says:
"When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe..."
Stop right there.
GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS.
Not simply observed by them.
Glorified in them.
Christ's glory revealed in His people.
The divine presence manifested through the body of Christ.
Now consider Colossians 3:4.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."
Christ appears.
His people appear with Him in glory.
The Head and the body.
The King and His kingdom.
The one who received dominion and the saints who inherit that kingdom.
Exactly what Daniel 7 had been showing us.
The corporate body of Christ is the dwelling place of His glory.
And this is where the cloud imagery reaches its fulfillment.
The glory that had once been revealed behind the veil was to be manifested in an entire covenant people.
That is what Paul was anticipating.
Not the biological transformation of humanity into some new species.
The completed revelation of the new covenant body.
The glorification of Christ in His saints.
10. HIS PAROUSIA WAS THE MANIFESTATION OF HIS PRESENCE
Now let's deal with a word that has caused an extraordinary amount of confusion.
Parousia.
It's frequently translated as coming.
But the Greek word also carries the meaning of presence or arrival.
Paul uses it in ordinary correspondence to describe his own presence.
In Philippians 2:12, he contrasts his presence with his absence.
In 2 Corinthians 10:10, the word refers to his bodily presence.
The word itself does not describe someone traveling through the clouds.
It tells us about presence, including the arrival by which that presence is established.
And in Matthew 24, that language belongs to the covenantal manifestation of Christ's royal authority.
This matters because the issue wasn't how Jesus would travel from one place to another.
The issue was how His authority and presence would be revealed.
His kingdom was already being established.
His priesthood was already operating.
His Spirit was already dwelling in the early church.
Yet the old covenant temple continued standing.
The former order was passing away, but its complete disappearance was still approaching.
The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple would demonstrate that the old administration had reached its appointed end.
Christ's kingdom would not arrive as another political empire centered on another earthly sanctuary.
It would be revealed as the enduring kingdom of the glorified body of Christ.
The parousia was the manifestation of His royal presence and authority.
And the imagery of clouds brought together His vindication, His judgment, and His glory.
11. REVELATION TELLS US WHERE THE PRESENCE ENDS UP
Revelation begins with the announcement:
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him..." — Revelation 1:7
Notice the first-century relevance.
Those who pierced Him.
Those who rejected Him.
The generation that heard His warnings.
And Revelation announces from its opening verses that the things described must shortly come to pass and that the time is near (Revelation 1:1–3).
The same urgency appears at the close of the book (Revelation 22:6–10).
The promised unveiling was not being presented as something reserved for people living thousands of years later.
The covenantal judgment was approaching.
The old order would pass away.
And what does John see as the vision reaches its glorious conclusion?
A new heaven and new earth.
A new Jerusalem.
And then this extraordinary declaration:
"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them..." — Revelation 21:3
THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH HUMANITY.
There it is.
The destination of the entire story.
Not humanity forever separated from God.
Not the divine presence confined behind another veil.
Not another priestly system standing between humanity and the Holy of Holies.
God dwelling with His people.
And Revelation 21:22 declares:
"And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."
No earthly temple.
No sacrificial priesthood.
No curtain restricting access.
The old covenant architecture has fulfilled its purpose.
The glory is no longer represented as hidden away from humanity.
It is revealed in the living body of Christ.
In You're Already Home, I wrote:
"You are the temple. You are the cloud. You are the dwelling place of the glory that was behind the second veil."
And that is the revelation.
THE CLOUD WAS NEVER THE DESTINATION. THE PRESENCE WAS.
We've spent centuries turning the cloud passages into predictions about the atmosphere.
Imagining Jesus descending through the sky.
Trying to figure out what kind of cloud He'll ride.
Debating where He'll land.
Meanwhile, the Scriptures have been telling one magnificent story about the presence of God.
The cloud led Israel.
The cloud filled the tabernacle.
The cloud filled the temple.
The cloud of incense covered the mercy seat.
The Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven to receive a kingdom.
Christ was received into a cloud at His ascension.
His authority was manifested in the judgment of Jerusalem.
And His glory was revealed in His saints.
The glory that once belonged to the sanctuary is now revealed in the body of Christ.
This was never about a divine being commuting between heaven and Earth.
It was about the fulfillment of the covenant.
The completion of the priesthood.
The removal of separation.
The manifestation of God's presence in humanity.
The temple fell.
The veil's separating purpose ended.
The former administration passed away.
And the living temple of Christ remained.
So no, I'm not standing outside looking into the clouds, waiting for Jesus to appear on some supernatural surfboard.
I'm looking at what the Scriptures actually promised.
A glorified covenant body.
A people united in Christ.
The presence of God dwelling in humanity.
The glory no longer hidden behind a curtain.
The cloud was never the destination.
THE PRESENCE WAS.
And the presence came home.
We are not waiting for the glory to arrive.
WE ARE THE DWELLING PLACE OF THE GLORY.
Welcome home.
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