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)
2. The Presence of God
God’s presence Leviticus 16:2, Deuteronomy 4:11, Shekinah appearance (Numbers 16:42, 1 Kings 8:10-12, Ezekiel 1:28). Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. And the glory of the Lord settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud. (Exodus 24:15-18).Clouds continued to play a significant role in the further revelation and theophany at Sinai.The cloud on Mount Sinai was synonymous with God's glory (Exodus 24:15-16, Exodus 33:9).
God led his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness by means of the pillar of cloud. Continuing his redemptive work among his people, the Lord came and dwelt in the Tabernacle in the pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night guided Israel, showing God's intimate presence (Exodus 13:21). The Lord appeared in a pillar of cloud and forsook them not (Nehemiah 9:19). He promised that when he came, He would “appear in the cloud above the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2).
The Voice of God from the Cloud: Jesus climbed up the high mountain, which was probably Mount Tabor or Mount Hermon. They see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah in dazzling white clothing and assume that they should make shrines in which to honour and worship the divine presence (Matthew 17:5).
3. The Passing of the Blessings of God
Clouds are beautiful creation. It exists and disappears quickly. It changes its forms and appearance in a few seconds. Clouds always suggest things beyond our control and knowledge. Clouds are part of the natural phenomena God created, which act according to his will. They are metaphors pointing towards signs and events to come, illustrating God’s intervention at particular times. They represent thresholds and liminal spaces between heaven and earth, highlighting that our grasp of the cosmos is limited and still is today despite much human development and scientific advances.
God "binds up the waters in his thick clouds" (Job 26:8) and the "clouds are the dust of his feet" (Nahum 1:3). Yahweh "commands the clouds that they rain no rain" (Isaiah 5:6), but as for man, "who can number the clouds?" (Job 38:37); "Can any understand the spreading of the clouds?" (Job 36:29); "Does thou know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?" (Job 37:16). Job compares the passing of his prosperity to the passing clouds (Job 30:15). The design of this are past finding out, so some render the words, "he restrains the drops of rain"; he withholds it from the earth, which causes a drought, and so brings on a famine, "he subtracts", or draws out, or draws up, which he exhales by the heat of the sun out of the earth and out of the sea (Psalm 135:7, Amos 5:8). "Clouds without water" are false teachers who promise much but give nothing (Jude 1:12).
Elihu analysed the water cycle of evaporation, distillation, and rain and used it as an example of God’s brilliance and beauty as a Designer. Elihu proceeds to give instances and proofs of the greatness of God through rain a common phenomenon, as Eliphaz did in Job 5:9. The phenomenon of condensation (Job 36:27b) and precipitation (Job 36:28), and evaporation (Job 36:27) are the evidence of Elihu’s meteorological knowledge. Rain are drawn up in small particles, but form large bodies of waters in the clouds; and which are let down again upon the earth in small drops, in an easy and gentle manner, and so soak into the earth and make it fruitful.
This is a wonderful instance of God's power, wisdom, and goodness, and is beyond our comprehension. No mortal man can tell how the Almighty parts and divides those large quantities of water in the clouds, that sometimes hang over our heads, into millions and ten thousand times ten thousand millions of drops, even innumerable; and causes these waters in such a manner to descend on the earth; lets them not fall at once, or in waterspouts, which would wash away the inhabitants of cities and towns, the cattle of the field, and the produce of the earth, as at the general deluge (John Gill).
Conclusion: God created clouds, man created many poems and stories in relation to clouds. Clouds are blessings to humanity.
