Where my loved ones gone . . .

Willie Nelson does a classic rendition of the song “Uncloudy Day,” in which the first verse goes,

Oh, they tell me of a home
Far beyond the skies
Oh, they tell me of a home
So far away
Yes, they tell me of a home
Where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me
Yes, they tell me
Of an uncloudy day

At the Rapture, Paul tells us that “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thess. 4:17).

Through history, ongoing discussion has been about, “Well, what are the clouds?” They’re not storm clouds.

“One of the standard ways of understanding that passage is to say the clouds are really angels, the heavenly host, but that’s not it,” says Jordan. “When the Bible talks about the Lord of hosts, it’s talking about a host of angels.”

Matthew 26 says the Lord is going to come “in the clouds of heaven.” Hebrews 12 begins with, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses . . .”

Jordan explains, “It’s not talking about a cloud of water vapor. It’s talking about a big group of witnesses. It’s talking about all the people he’s listed in chapter 11. You can use the word cloud in the sense of talking about a big group of people, not just like a cloud in the sky.”

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In a passage that prophetically looks toward the Second Coming of Christ, II Samuel 22:8-13 says,

[8] Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
[9] There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
[10] He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
[11] And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
[12] And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.[13] Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.

“This is a psalm of David that matches Psalm 18,” says Jordan. “The issue is under his feet was darkness and thick clouds.”

Psalm 97 says, “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.
[2] Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

Jordan explains, “The way he made darkness pavilions round about him is with clouds that veil off his glory. If you get clouds that are thick and dense enough to black out the sun . . . I’ve flown into a cloud bank that looked just as dark as night but when you flew into it, the clouds were just as light and white. What the darkness really is is a shadow.

“You get these thick clouds with water vapor in them and they block off the sun and under the bottom of that cloud you really have a shadow and it looks dark, but they’re just as white as can be because it’s the optics of the thing. What the cloud does is veils back the sunlight. Around the Lord He does the same thing. He has clouds to sort of veil off His glory.”

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In I Timothy 6:16, Paul writes about God, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.”

Jordan explains, “Paul’s talking about the light of the majesty of the manifestation of His person. God as being God cannot be limited by time or space, but because He is God, and He does have a creation that He has made, He chooses to manifest Himself to His creation.

“He chooses to do that in a geographic location. That’s part of what the third heaven is about. When He does it, it’s in a blazing representation of light and it’s called ‘the glory of God.’ But when that glory appears (when the manifestation of his person appears) it is so overwhelming that you can’t approach to it. So He veils it off in the Scripture over and over, and what He veils it with are clouds. The clouds put a filter, as it were, on the glory and what you have to veil off that light to which no man can approach is a ‘pavilion round about Him.’

“According to the dictionary, a pavilion is a temporary building erected for the use of an exhibitor. In other words, God builds a temporary structure around Him in which He exhibits His glory and the pavilion is made of clouds.”

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I Kings 8:10-13 says, “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
[11] So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
[12] Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in thick darkness.
[13] I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.

Jordan says, “Notice what happens in verse 12. In other words, what that cloud is doing is holding back, making it so you could approach to the Lord.

“This happens all through the Old Testament back there with Israel. In Exodus 19, the Israelites had the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. The cloud represented the Lord’s presence in their midst, but it’s a cloud because it’s engulfed. It’s veiled off.

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Exodus 19:9 says, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.”

Verse 16 says, “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.”

Jordan says, “There’s the cloud in which the glory of God is and what you’re seeing is the majesty of His glory but it’s veiled so they could look at it.”

Exodus 20:21 says, “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

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In Nahum, is a passage that while historically referring to God’s judgment of Nineveh, is looking forward to the Second Advent. It reads, “God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
[3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

Jordan says, “The Book of Job also talks about the Lord’s Coming and it’s like a whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet. So when the Lord has a dustup what happens is you have clouds. You know when somebody’s whipping across somewhere, they make a big cloud plume and it encompasses them. In a case like this, when it comes to the atmosphere, God’s presence makes such a disturbance in the atmosphere that it generates clouds, storms.

“At the Rapture, Believers will be caught up into this giant pavilion that accompanies the presence of the Lord and the clouds will veil what’s going on from everybody else.”

(Editor’s Note: To be continued . . . )