A few weeks ago we celebrated "Harvest Festival" in the church, which is always a very enjoyable Sunday service - especially when it's followed by a big lunch! At Harvest Festival Sunday we thank God for all His many physical blessings -- the sun, the rain, the fruits of the earth... blessings we're grateful for, even if we don't always talk as if we're grateful! Let's admit it, on other days, when it's not "Harvest Festival", it's very easy for us to whine and moan if the day's cloudy or drizzly; we look outside and say, "Ugh, what a gloomy, dreary day." Though, personally, I have to say that I've always really liked gray, rainy days. When the sky is thick with clouds and the sun can't break through, I always feel very cozy and safe, like I'm under a big blanket in bed. I can't stand the feeling of being "broiled" under the sun. But even if you don't like overcast days at all, you must admit that clouds promise blessing -- the blessing of rain without which we can't live!
Psalm 135 talks about these clouds God has created. Let's read verses 6 and 7 (read).
In the sphere of visible nature, clouds, like all of nature, are a symbol of God's power and blessing-- and more than just a 'symbol', clouds are a vehicle of real blessing in the natural realm. Psalm 147:7-8 likewise tells us: (read).
But clouds aren't only a vehicle of blessing in the natural dimension. There are clouds that announce and at the same time conceal the presence of God. (Read Exodus 19:9, 16, and 24:15-18).
What is this "thick cloud" into which God summoned Moses? I don't know, but I know what it did. It simultaneously manifested and concealed the presence of God. Because of the cloud, the nation knows that God is there, and because of the same cloud, the nation knows they cannot see Him. In this way the cloud teaches us a timeless lesson, which is that we can know that God is near--yes, we can even hear His voice, see His power, love and worship Him and know His fellowship... but, but, on the other hand there will always be, figuratively speaking, a CLOUD, a certain cloud, in which is concealed the infinite glory and eternal depths of God's very being which we can never plumb.
This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18, NIV-UK).
No one has seen God, even though several times the Bible tells us, quite literally, about people who did see God! Is this a contradiction in the Bible? It tells us people have seen God and people haven't seen God! No, it's no contradiction. Because even those people who saw God didn't see God. Why? Because there's always a cloud, because even the very manifestation of God is a cloud concealing God--what He reveals of Himself is a limitation accessible to our finite understanding, which necessarily excludes infinite depths of being in Him from all conceivable apprehension. There is always a "cloud".
Here's a quite elementary, primitive, but apt illustration! (Holding out my hand, palm forward, to the audience) Now I'm showing you my hand. I'm also hiding my hand from you at the same time, because when I show you this side (pointing to my palm), I'm automatically hiding this side (pointing to the back of my hand, which the audience can't see). You can't see both sides at once - it's impossible!
Now, if that's true on such a simple, physical, human level, just imagine how much more true it is on the level of God and the inexpressible, immeasurable degree of His eternal being. Whatever God shows us of Himself automatically excludes "everything else" that He isn't revealing to us of Himself at the same time. The very fact we finite creatures can perceive anything of God means that what we're perceiving is already a limitation, a finite phenomenon, which paradoxically means that what we are perceiving is both God and not-God at once. "No one has seen God", the apostle John tells us, and not by accident in the direct context of his exposition of the Eternal Word's Incarnation, because it is only Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, who has seen and known God the Father in the "cloudless" perfection of unlimited knowing.
Let's look at another place in the Old Testament where "clouds" come up: (Read Exodus 40:34-38)
Here's a wonderful paradox. Even though God surpasses all our capacities to fathom His essence, and even though even the most stunning revelation of His presence and glory hides more than it reveals, nevertheless this incomprehensible, uncontainable God abides among His people, fellowships with them, accompanies them, leads them and, in the unsearchable depths of His love, loves them. That's the mystery of the Presence of God: there where we cannot penetrate the infinite presence of God, right there, nevertheless, He is infinitely present and we can understand that He is infinitely present. To put it differently, the God Who is absolutely everywhere is absolutely able to be absolutely near, without contradiction.
This truth manifests itself in the highest degree--historically, personally--in the very person of Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God", "for it pleased God that in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily."
As God did in the wilderness, in the cloud as He led the nation, so now in Christ He abides with us, fellowships with us, accompanies us through life's long way, in Christ in Whom abides His infinite fullness, even if that's a truth we can't possibly encompass by human logic. It's enough that it's so. It's enough that the "fullness" is there, in Him, and that He is with us - Immanu El, our "God with us"!
Here is another picture of the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament, and note especially the way the nation responded to the movement of the cloud. (Read Numbers 9:15-22, with special emphasis on all the times the text says that the nation always responded immediately and exactly to whatever the could did; if it moved on, they moved on, if it stayed put, they stayed put)
May our following after Christ be as attentive and faithful, with full cognizance of that glory that once appeared to three disciples on a mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became whiter as light itself, and then, a cloud, a shining cloud, overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in Whom is all my pleasure. Listen to Him."
This very God Who unveils His glory in the cloud, gives us as well a cloud of witnesses, as it says in Hebrews 12:1; they are the witnesses of faith whose testimony provokes us to ruthlessly abandon whatever interferes with our all-out race for the goal and run with eyes fixed on the Originator and Culminator of our faith, Jesus Christ, Who promises that one day we will see the Son of Man "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). For, as it says in Thessalonians 4, "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." (Revelation 1: 7 - NASB)
Now, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6 - NASB)
But clouds aren't only a vehicle of blessing in the natural dimension. There are clouds that announce and at the same time conceal the presence of God. (Read Exodus 19:9, 16, and 24:15-18).
What is this "thick cloud" into which God summoned Moses? I don't know, but I know what it did. It simultaneously manifested and concealed the presence of God. Because of the cloud, the nation knows that God is there, and because of the same cloud, the nation knows they cannot see Him. In this way the cloud teaches us a timeless lesson, which is that we can know that God is near--yes, we can even hear His voice, see His power, love and worship Him and know His fellowship... but, but, on the other hand there will always be, figuratively speaking, a CLOUD, a certain cloud, in which is concealed the infinite glory and eternal depths of God's very being which we can never plumb.
This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18, NIV-UK).
No one has seen God, even though several times the Bible tells us, quite literally, about people who did see God! Is this a contradiction in the Bible? It tells us people have seen God and people haven't seen God! No, it's no contradiction. Because even those people who saw God didn't see God. Why? Because there's always a cloud, because even the very manifestation of God is a cloud concealing God--what He reveals of Himself is a limitation accessible to our finite understanding, which necessarily excludes infinite depths of being in Him from all conceivable apprehension. There is always a "cloud".
Here's a quite elementary, primitive, but apt illustration! (Holding out my hand, palm forward, to the audience) Now I'm showing you my hand. I'm also hiding my hand from you at the same time, because when I show you this side (pointing to my palm), I'm automatically hiding this side (pointing to the back of my hand, which the audience can't see). You can't see both sides at once - it's impossible!
Now, if that's true on such a simple, physical, human level, just imagine how much more true it is on the level of God and the inexpressible, immeasurable degree of His eternal being. Whatever God shows us of Himself automatically excludes "everything else" that He isn't revealing to us of Himself at the same time. The very fact we finite creatures can perceive anything of God means that what we're perceiving is already a limitation, a finite phenomenon, which paradoxically means that what we are perceiving is both God and not-God at once. "No one has seen God", the apostle John tells us, and not by accident in the direct context of his exposition of the Eternal Word's Incarnation, because it is only Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, who has seen and known God the Father in the "cloudless" perfection of unlimited knowing.
Let's look at another place in the Old Testament where "clouds" come up: (Read Exodus 40:34-38)
Here's a wonderful paradox. Even though God surpasses all our capacities to fathom His essence, and even though even the most stunning revelation of His presence and glory hides more than it reveals, nevertheless this incomprehensible, uncontainable God abides among His people, fellowships with them, accompanies them, leads them and, in the unsearchable depths of His love, loves them. That's the mystery of the Presence of God: there where we cannot penetrate the infinite presence of God, right there, nevertheless, He is infinitely present and we can understand that He is infinitely present. To put it differently, the God Who is absolutely everywhere is absolutely able to be absolutely near, without contradiction.
This truth manifests itself in the highest degree--historically, personally--in the very person of Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God", "for it pleased God that in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily."
As God did in the wilderness, in the cloud as He led the nation, so now in Christ He abides with us, fellowships with us, accompanies us through life's long way, in Christ in Whom abides His infinite fullness, even if that's a truth we can't possibly encompass by human logic. It's enough that it's so. It's enough that the "fullness" is there, in Him, and that He is with us - Immanu El, our "God with us"!
Here is another picture of the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament, and note especially the way the nation responded to the movement of the cloud. (Read Numbers 9:15-22, with special emphasis on all the times the text says that the nation always responded immediately and exactly to whatever the could did; if it moved on, they moved on, if it stayed put, they stayed put)
May our following after Christ be as attentive and faithful, with full cognizance of that glory that once appeared to three disciples on a mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became whiter as light itself, and then, a cloud, a shining cloud, overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in Whom is all my pleasure. Listen to Him."
This very God Who unveils His glory in the cloud, gives us as well a cloud of witnesses, as it says in Hebrews 12:1; they are the witnesses of faith whose testimony provokes us to ruthlessly abandon whatever interferes with our all-out race for the goal and run with eyes fixed on the Originator and Culminator of our faith, Jesus Christ, Who promises that one day we will see the Son of Man "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). For, as it says in Thessalonians 4, "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." (Revelation 1: 7 - NASB)
Now, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6 - NASB)
