Meeting in the cloud

Today's sky made me think of many things.  It was a display of God's splendor, creativity, power, and beauty.  We're in the midst of the spring season where warm days spawn impressive thunderheads, the kinds that rapidly rise like mushrooms, then collapse in an outflow of cool wind and sometimes rain.

Then after supper, the light show began (didn't we have enough beauty already?  What a gift!).  Golden, pink, with a half moon above, clouds near and far.

It's interesting to me that the book of Exodus is full of references to clouds.  The pillar of cloud was the visible manifestation of God's glory - if you could see the cloud, you knew God was near.  OK, he was near even without the cloud, but sometimes you and I need reassurance.  The cloud helped the people know when to go and when to stay.  The cloud moved between the Israelites and their enemies as protection.  The cloud was present and fearful and full of smoke and thunder on Mt. Sinai - a reminder, I think, that God was near, but that they should NOT approach him casually.  But Moses goes straight in, in to the cloud.

After the whole golden calf incident, Moses goes back in. Exodus 32-33 chronicles one of the most wondrous conversations in the entire Bible between Moses and Yahweh, a conversation of frankness and confession and intercession and boldness such as I've never read.  The cloud does that to you.  It separates you from the distractions and doubters, disorients you enough to re-orient you to what really matters.  The epicenter is Moses' request to see God's glory - amazing! Bold! I wonder what Moses thought when God answered in the affirmative?

Exodus 34 paints the picture:

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Later in the chapter we see what time in the cloud does to Moses:

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

I suspect that the glory we see in the clouds on days like today is just a glimmer of the glory we will one day see face to face.  Join me when you look.... imagine the LORD proclaiming his name and his character, and be willing to meet with him right then and there.  You just might leave with a radiance that won't come from anywhere - or anyone - else.