“Do you know how the clouds are balanced …?” (Job 37:16, NKJV)
The previous teaching concluded with Rev. 2:7: “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” In Rev. 21 the Bride is presented to Jesus as a city, the new Jerusalem (see verse 2 and 9 especially), and the rest of the chapter describes her in symbolic terms. The new Jerusalem are thus “a people”, and not a geographical place. In Rev. 22 the functioning of the city is explained in terms of Jesus the Saviour God, and two specific verses are important in this regard:
- Verse 2: “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
- And verse 14: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”
These Scriptures then make it very clear where Jesus finds himself after His death – He has been taken up into the spiritual realm, also called Abraham’s bosom (see the teaching of Day 578-580 and Day 581-583), paradise, garden of Eden, or then: third dimension. Like Jesus, the Tree of Life is there, and there are also other “spirits of just men” (Heb. 12:23), as had originally been in the garden of Eden, in Genesis (see Gen. 2:9 & 16). Jesus, and every person who died in Christ in the Old Testament (see the teaching of Day 504-505, Day 578-580, and especially Day 967 and Day 1095) are in what is essentially an invisible realm (for man), except when God allows that your spiritual eyes be opened. The term that encapsulates all of this, is the cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1).
As Jesus first demonstrated His later state of transition on the mount of transfiguration, He was overshadowed by a cloud (Matt. 17:5). The same event from the perspective of Luke 9:34-35, ASV) where it is described as follows: “there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my chosen: hear ye him.” God was in the cloud, as Isa. 19:1 (DRB) prophesies: “the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud”. Mark 9:8 (ASV), which also presents a version of the transfiguration on the mount, points out that everyone present, both those who were living (like Jesus and the three disciples) and physically not living (like Moses and Elijah) were prototypically “covered” by the cloud, or more correctly: became part of the cloud of witnesses: “And suddenly looking round about, they saw no one any more, save Jesus only with themselves.” Jesus entered into the cloud after his death on the cross.
Like Elijah and Enoch, Jesus was taken up into this great “cloud of witnesses”, also called Abraham’s bosom, paradise, garden of Eden, third dimension, or then: the cloud of witnesses.
Literally and figuratively Jesus joined the fathers who had preceded Him (Judg. 2:10; 2 Kings 22:20), those who had experienced a transition while alive (Enoch and Elijah), and those who had died (like Moses and Elisha) in his balanced cloud (Job. 37:11), “the cloud of his lightning” (ACV), “Yea, by filling He doth press out a cloud, Scatter a cloud doth His light.” (YLT).
As in the desert, “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud” (Ex. 16:10); as in the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, He now also says: “I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat” (Lev. 16:2); as Moses had prayed in Num. 14:14: “They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.” Indeed – “thick clouds cover Him” (Job 22:14). Ps. 104:3 makes it clear: He “makes the clouds His chariot”! He even hides Himself within it, Jeremiah explains in Lam. 3:44: “You have covered Yourself with a cloud.”
Job understood much of the cloud of witnesses. In chapter 38 and verse 36 he asks this rhetorical question – “Who can number the clouds by wisdom?” Based on 1 Cor. 1:24 we know that Christ is the wisdom of God, thus the Christ is numbered or established in the cloud of witnesses! David, understood much of the cloud of witnesses, too – in Ps. 68:34 he speaks of God’s strength in the cloud. From 1 Cor. 1:24 we also know that Christ is the strength of God, thus the Christ is numbered, or established, in the cloud of witnesses! How glorious is Isa. 4:5, in how it spells out the prophetic terms at stake: “then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.” Zion is the spiritual home of the Bride, another name for Abraham’s bosom, paradise, garden of Eden, third heaven or dimension, or then: cloud of witnesses! It is clearly not a physical space, at most a state of consciousness, a spiritual position in Christ, my Father’s house with many mansions (John 14:2)!
If the prophet Ezekiel (1:4) sees a vision of the prototypical Bride, it is covered in clouds: “Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.” Also in the prophet Daniel’s dreams (7:13) he described the risen Jesus the Christ as follows: “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.” The “they” entail much more than just “the Son of man” (= Jesus – 86 instances in the New Testament refers to Him in this way), clearly the other occupants of the cloud are also present! Thus, like Rev. 1:7 states: “Behold, He is coming with clouds”.
[In this light it is even clearer that 1 Thess. 4:17 does not point to the rapture, but to “translation” into the third dimension: “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”]
For this reason Jesus is able to, once He has been crucified, appear to various chosen people – Acts. 1:3 notes it as follows, in a beautiful translation of New Century Version: “After his death, he showed himself to them and proved in many ways that he was alive.” He was not visible to all people at all times, as the story of the visitors from Emmaus suggests: “But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” (Luke 24:16). Later, in verse 31, it is said: “Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
- Selah: Do you have some understanding of Jesus’ presence in the clouds?
- Read: 1-11.
- Memorise: 2:17.
