By Dr. Rick Chesher
In the blog, I did on the 7th of Aug. 2017, I talked a about the purposes of the Cloud and what that meant to Israel. I went on to talk about how that Yahshua told His disciple about when He went away that He would send to them another comforter, or one like Him who would come and do basically the same things that the could had done for Israel. This was a reference to the Holy Spirit coming and indwelling the believer.
I ended that blog by posing the question, will we see the cloud again? I then said, well that is a subject for another Blog. Well, this is that Blog, and I am excited to be able to do this study, and write about it. As I thought about what to write, I thought, it would be nice to know just what happened to the cloud, why we don’t see it today, and will it come back again?
Let’s look at 1 Cor. 10:1-4, in these verses I want to take a look at some of what Paul says about this idea of the cloud. In verse 1, Paul tells the congregation at Corinth that he does not want them to be unaware. But look at what he begins to explain. Now, I want you to see something here. Paul is talking to the congregation at Corinth. Corinth had nothing to do with Jews, in fact was a city with about 750,000 in population. Corinth was a hub of trade, and had a large amount of trade brought in by ships. So also, a lot of sailors and those women who would cater to them. Corinth was where the temple of the goddess Aphrodite/Venus, which were
The Greek/Roman goddess of love. This temple had 1,000 women who served as the temple prostitutes there. There was so much sexual immorality there that the city became known as the city of immorality.
Know the reason I bring this up, is because if you look at verse 1 of 1 Cor. 10, Paul says this, “our fathers were under the cloud”, interesting way to think about the believer’s in Corinth. Once again, this subject is for another Blog. Paul brings up that the fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. Now, this idea of being “under” the cloud needs to be looked at a little closer. The word under in the Greek means under, beneath, underneath, but it can also be to be covered under. If you look at Ex. 13:21-22, the pillar of cloud went before them by day, and the pillar of fire by night so they would be able to see. And this pillar of cloud or pillar of fire never left them. Even in Ex. 14:19-20, the pillar cloud moved behind them holding Pharaoh’s Army at bay while the waters were being parted. So, the idea is that they were covered. Look at Ex. 40:34-38, When they set up the Tabernacle and made it ready for service, the cloud, or His presence came down on the Tabernacle to the point that Moses was not able to even enter the Tabernacle.
Another meaning of under could be in an inferior sense, and we can see what I mean in 1 Cor. 10:5, But Yahweh was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wildness for sexual immorality, and disobedience of worshipping other gods, and sacrificing to them. So, the idea of being under the cloud Had no affect on how they behaved. And if you look at Scripture Yahweh’s presence had moved outside the camp because of what they had done.
Look at 1 Kings 8:4-14, this has to do with the dedication of Solomon Temple, and as the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant into the Temple and placed it in the Most Holy place the cloud filled the Temple and the priest were not able to continue ministering in the Temple, much like what happened with the Tabernacle in Ex. 40 as they dedicated the Tabernacle.
Throughout the period of the Kings, the Cloud was always associated with the Ark of the Covenant, and the mercy seat of Yahweh. The presence of His glory was enjoyed until the Babylonian take over. Look at Ez. 5, we see Yahweh saying that Israel had been more disobedient than all of the nations that had surround her, so Yahweh was going to execute judgment against Israel, and He would cut them off because they had defiled the His sanctuary with detestable practices and abominations.
Look at Ez. 9:3-11, verse 3 says that the glory of Yahweh rose from above the cherub where it had been, meaning the Most Holy place and went to the thresh hold of the temple, He called to the men who were clothed in white linen. He tells the men in white linen to pass through Jerusalem and put a mark on every person who has sign and groaned over all of the detestable practices that have been practiced, but they are to kill everyone else.
Now look at, Ez. 10:18-19, we see that the glory of Yahweh of Israel left the Temple, and stood above the Eastern gate, and if you will look at Ez. 11:22-25, you will see that He left Jerusalem and moved to a mountain east of the city, this is most likely the Mt. of Olives. The Mt. of Olives is where a future event is going to take place as well. After the Jews returned to Jerusalem, which was, after their 70 years captivity in Babylon, and Yahweh as the Shekinah glory never returned.
Wow, what a bleak story if we were to leave it there, but there is more to the story than meets the eye that we have to look at. It is amazing to me how merciful and how much grace that Yahweh extends to His people. If it were left to us, most of us would have already washed our hands of each other long ago. In fact, many of us today have washed our hands of each other. We see this by all of the division among the body of Messiah, and the way we treat one another. Aren’t you glad that Yahweh doesn’t treat us the same way we treat each other? And maybe, that is something we ought to be giving a lot of thought about. We are the ones, that are supposed to be carrying around in us the glory of Yahweh, and His Son Yahshua Messiah.
But look at Haggai 2:2-9, in this passage Haggai the prophet is given a word that he is suppose to take to the King of Judah, to the High Priest. Now, let’s set this up. In about 587 BC King Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, made his third trip to Jerusalem, this time tearing down the walls of the temple and city, found in 2 Kings 25:8-21, which can also be found in Jere. Chapters 30-40. Now the people had fallen into discouragement, and apathy had set in because many of the hopes of the Jewish people were unfulfilled, and there was a famine in the land Haggai 2:9-11 and it Haggai spoke to the idea that they had become defiled.
Now, back to Haggai 2:2-9, the prophecy is as such, the question asked is, does anyone remember the in its former glory? Then Haggai says this is Yahweh’s declaration and tells them that Yahweh is with them. Then, Haggai says that Yahweh is going to shake the heaven and the earth, and all of the riches of the nations will come to Jerusalem so they could build His house. But it will not be the same as before. The final glory of His house will be greater than the first, and that He will provide shalom in this place. Now, if you will think about this and ask this question has that ever been fulfilled? The answer is, no it has not been fulfilled to this date, and must be a future event.
So, we could say that the third temple was built already, but I don’t believe that Herod’s temple was ever a legitimate temple, because the Ark of the Covenant was never there. But we could say that the glory of Yahweh was there. Look at John 1:14, we see in John 1 that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with Yahweh and the Word was Yahweh, and if we jump down to John 1:4, we see that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But, John goes on to say, and we observed His glory, the glory as the One and only Son of the Father. Yahshua had also come from the Mt. of Olives into the Eastern Gate as the presence of Yahweh had left at one time.
Some might say, well there is a third temple that will be built, so I think we have to look at this and see if this is what we are to look for. Look at Daniel 9:27, in this verse we see that there is going to be a firm covenant with many for one week. The word many is an interesting word in the Hebrew. It can be translated many, but it goes deeper than that. It can also mean elders, which I believe makes a lot of sense. Israel is not yet ruled by the elders, meaning, the Sanhedrin or they are called the 70 elders, but Israel has them in place. So, this covenant would have the elders signing off on this covenant. Also, this covenant is for one week, or 7 years, there has been other covenants that were signed and broken, but not one for 7 years. Also look at Dan. 11:31 which once again talks about the Abomination of Desolations that defile the temple by offering up their own sacrifices.
In this this Daniel passage, we find that the sacrifice will be restarted, but if you will notice that the Abomination of Desolations will put a stop to the sacrifice. And in 2 Thess. 2:1-4, we see that there is a man called the man of lawlessness, and the Abomination of Desolations, both are the same individual. What he is going to do is to set himself up in Yahweh’s sanctuary and demand to be worshipped as Yahweh, this will defile the temple and it will no longer be considered clean. Yahshua Himself gave witness to this in Matt. 24:15-16, when He tells people that when you see the abomination that cause desolation flee. But, Scripture speaks of another temple in Rev. 21:22. John says that he looked for the sanctuary and explains that Yahweh and the Lamb were the sanctuary, this could be explained that their presence where the sanctuary where He dwells with His people.
But will there be another cloud to follow? Now, there are a number of Scripture about Yahshua and the cloud we can look at in the New Testament. Look at Matt. 17:5, this one is from the transfiguration of Yahshua, and it says that, a bright cloud covered them and they heard a voice saying, this is My, beloved Son, I take delight in Him, and to listen to Him. Once again it was the bright cloud that covered them.
There are others in the gospels that basically record the same thing. But, let’s go to Acts 1:9-11, in this passage Yahshua is being taken up into the heavens by the cloud. This must have been awe inspiring to the disciples because they stayed there gazing into the heavens. As they were looking two men, most likely angels, asked them why they were standing there looking into the heavens, that Yahshua would return in a cloud. This actually is also used by Paul in 1 Thess. 4:17. This verse is the verse that many say means that there will be a rapture.
We need to look at this a little closer. The word that is used to be caught up can also mean to be caught to the cloud. There were some early theologians that started the idea of a rapture. It was started by John Darby in the 19th century and C.I. Scofield picked it up after that, so this rapture theology came very late in time. So, it looks like in Scripture that we would be caught to the cloud instead of up into the cloud. Which seems to point to that we will see this cloud again.