Creator Of Clouds Series

Theme:  Creator of Clouds

Text: Job 36:27-33

Greetings: The Lord is good and His Love endures forever!

Introduction:

Illustration: I had my first flight from Chennai to Port Blair in Andaman Islands. I as so excited to see the clouds as sponges spread across the ocean. Everyone loves to look at the beauty of the clouds. The creation of “H2O”. There are many poems have given life to the clouds. As the clouds kiss the peaks of the high mountains. We also call it as fog, mist, and dew.

The Scripture utilises the images of clouds to signal the immediate presence of God in time and space. This is one of the biblical-theological themes that has not often been given due consideration. But the Scriptures teach us many by way of illustration or allusion, about the symbolic and redemptive-historical significance of clouds. We can understand that clouds are a feature of the weather. We are aware that Clouds are formed and their purpose – we have the meteorological and technological expertise to study them in great detail and to predict the weather quite accurately.

The Monthly Theme: – Creating Hands based on “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your Hand.” Isaiah 64:8. Today’s Theme is ‘Creator of Clouds’ our text is Job 36:27-33. The Hebrew so rendered means "a covering," because clouds cover the sky.

But throughout the Bible the Clouds indicate many spiritual meanings.  They reveal that they are used as Vehicles to reach the universe, and the presence and glory of God, and are the channels of blessings for every living thing on the earth. So, I would like to share with you that the Clouds are the Passage of God, they bring us the presence of God and they bring the blessings of God to humanity.

1. The Passage of God (Job 36:27-29)

Young Elihu spoke with a directness Job’s other friends did not use (Job 33:1, 33:31, 34:5, 34:7, and so forth). He also spoke with an authority that Job’s other friends did not. Elihu repeated these words, ‘Suffer me a little’, ‘Finallies,’ and ‘Lastlies,’ and concluding observations, spin and spin, and cause their congregations to suffer, and that not a little, but exceeding much. ‘He covers His hands with lightning’ (Job 36:32).

“God is great, infinitely so great in power, for he is omnipotent and independent, great in wealth, for he is self-sufficient and all-sufficient, great in himself, great in all his works, great. We know that he is, but not what he is. We know in part, but not in perfection. He is eternal, there is no counting of number of years. He is a Being without beginning, succession, or period, He ever was, and ever will be, and ever the same, the great I AM” (Matthew Henry).

Elihu again promoted the concept of the transcendence of God. He heard and sensed how Job demanded answers from God, and counselled Job to understand that God was beyond Job and beyond explaining things to Job. It was a powerful, good principle wrongly applied to Job’s situation. Elihu maintained that the affliction was sent for Job’s trial by God. (David Guzik).

The first place where clouds play a prominent role is in the flood narrative in Genesis 9:14-15. God placed a bow in the clouds – this rainbow is to be a reminder of God’s covenant with his people. So clouds reflect both his transcendent glory and his imminent approach to us. The apostle John tells us that there is a rainbow around the throne of Christ (Revelation 4:3).

God uses the Cloud as his vehicle. Job 22:14,  Job 37:15-17, Job 26:9, Job 36:29, Nahum 1:3, Job 37:11, Exodus 13:21-22. The Ascension of the Jesus through the Clouds (Acts 1:9-11). Christ’s Ascension into heaven is a literal and spiritual border crossing, a threshold he must cross and which expresses both his humanity and divinity. He ascends as a human but returns to his divinity in heaven. Jesus ascended into a cloud (Acts 1:9).  Jesus will return "with clouds" (Revelation 1:7). The return of the Lord through the Clouds (Beholds He comes - Daniel 7:13, Mark 13:24-26, Acts 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Revelation 14:14).

The cloud is also the symbol of the terrible and of destruction. Storm clouds represent God's powerful judgment (Isaiah 29:6). The day of Yahweh's reckoning is called the "day of clouds" (Ezekiel 30:3) and a day of "clouds and thick darkness" (Zechariah 1:15). The invader is expected to "come up as clouds" (Jeremiah 4:13). Joel 2:2 foretells the coming of locusts as "a day of clouds and thick darkness" which is both literal and figurative. Misfortune and old age are compared to "the cloudy and dark day" (Ezekiel 34:12)