What is a Coming of God? Part 3/3

Part 3 of 3

In this series, we’ve been exploring the possibility that Jesus’ “coming on the clouds” was a symbolic way of speaking about the spiritual meaning of the one of the most significant events in the First Century CE: The Jerusalem civil war, and subsequent Roman attack, culminating in the destruction of the Hebrew Temple.

But is this the only time Scripture describes God “coming on the clouds”? If there are other examples, do we see these “cloud comings” of God in history following a similar pattern of nature and timing?

Here I want to show how the nature of the rich, evocative language of trumpets, clouds, darkening of the constellations, burning up of the heavens and shaking of the earth’s foundations are ways the biblical writers spoke of and envisioned God “coming” in judgment. Though the actual means of rebuke was through the arrival of earthly armies in judgment.

But, this particular ‘coming of God’ was to be different. It was to be a climax of a cycle of redemption. It seems that there were more than apocalyptic metaphors intended – and more than that which were seen in its fulfillment. First century historians, like Josephus and Tacitus, record that many credible people reported seeing astounding apparitions of heavenly wars as well. They record heavenly signs, such as armies in battle, and flaming chariots of fire, encircling the skies of Judea. All this – just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The timing of these ‘Day of the Lord’ judgment events is within one generation of when Jesus spoke His words of warning. Warning that his presence would come like a two-edged sword, in judgment and redemption. Judgment on the people who rejected him and redemption to those facing persecution for having faith in him.

Jesus and his earliest followers stand in precisely this lineage of the Hebrew prophetic pattern when they proclaim a ‘coming of God’ in the coming judgment on Jerusalem and the new paradigm of freedom and faith that was emerging.

So let’s look more closely at these patterns of ‘coming of God’ events. Did the coming of God in the form of the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophesied presence in 70AD fit the biblical pattern of past comings of God in the Hebrew Scriptures?

Let’s take a look at several of these Hebrew prophetic precedents.

God’s Coming to End Saul’s Kingdom – 1000 BC

Then the earth shook and quaked, the foundations of heaven were trembling and were shaken, because he was angry. Smoke went up out of his nostrils, fire from his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and he came down with thick darkness [on the earth] under his feet. And He rode on a cherub and flew;

And he appeared on the wings of the wind. And he made darkness canopies around him, a mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky…The Lord thundered from heaven…And he sent out arrows, and scattered them, lightning…at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

(2 Samuel 22:8-16, emphases mine)

Notice the descriptions: God came down and God appeared. Did God visibly appear, like a Stan Lee Marvel movie walk-on cameo?

This would be difficult to comport with the worldview of the ancient biblical writers. God is Spirit, and later Scriptures say that no one has seen God (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 1 John 4:12). So we have no reason to believe that these prophetic authors held that these ‘comings of God’ were bodily or even visible. Nonetheless, they were very real and perceptible in the spiritual and social worlds of their hearers, for those who had “eyes to see” and minds to perceive the spiritual significance of divine involvement.

Notice also that the ‘shaking of heaven and earth’ were symbolic ways of describing the decline of a nation. For example, in Haggai,

Tell Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, that I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations…

(Haggai 2:21-22)

For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations…

(Haggai 2:6-7)

Likewise, the shaking of the temple system of Old Covenant Israel is symbolically described as God shaking the ‘heaven and earth’ of old in 70AD:

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.’ And this word, ‘Yet once more’ symbolizes the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken…

Hebrews 12:26-28

God Comes in a Cloud Against Ancient Egypt – 700s BC

Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at hispresence; and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians.

(Isaiah 19:1-2)

Notice that God’s coming to Egypt is described as sending the Egyptians to fight a war. The Egyptians are depicted as acting as God’s instrument, doing the divine will, in this prophesied war.

God Comes to Judge Nineveh – 600s BC

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and He reserves wrath for his enemies…in whirlwind and storm is his way, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; the blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by his presence; the world and all the inhabitants in it.

(Nahum 1:2-5)

In this cloud-coming judgment God’s presence is prophesied to destroy the world. But we know from the context and from history that the biblical authors mean the world of Nineveh – not planet earth.

I hope you’re beginning to see a biblical-language paradigm for this-worldly symbolic Divine appearing, in the form of temporal events whose spiritual significance was intelligible to their hearers as fulfilled within a generation of their prophesying. This stands in marked contrast to the literalistic, far-futuristic, science-fiction caricatures that – through our collective cultural amnesia – have pervaded our public discourse on prophecy and eschatology.

What I’m suggesting is that just as Jesus’ “coming on the clouds” was a symbolic way of speaking about the spiritual meaning of first-century temporal events, so there are other recorded “cloud comings”of God in history following a similar pattern. These can shed valuable light on an often-overlooked aspect of biblical prophetic speech.

Here are several more examples that taook place during the time of Israel’s exile.

God Comes to Judge Egypt in the Time of Nebuchadnezzar – 500s BC

The day is near, even the day of the LORD is near; It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. A sword will come upon Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia; When the slain fall in Egypt…And they will know that I am the LORD, when I set a fire in Egypt…I will also make the hordes of Egypt cease by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land; and they will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. (Ezekiel 30:3-4,8, 10-11)

Notice the “Day of the Lord” mentioned here is a local judgment – or war – on Egypt. According to the author of Ezekiel, God says the acts of Nebuchadnezzar are really from him, and God intends to make his presence in that war known. The army is used as an instrument of judgment in God’s hand to judge Egypt, just as the Roman army was used to judge Jerusalem.

God Comes to Judge Edom in the Time of Nebuchadnezzar – 500s BC

YHWH is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them…the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood. All of the host of heaven will be dissolved. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood… a great slaughter in the land of Edom…For YHWH has a day of vengeance…From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. (Isaiah 34: 2-6, 8-10)

Notice that Jesus quotes from this passage in Isaiah when Jesus prophesies the Destruction of Jerusalem to his disciples in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). Isaiah says that the whole host of heaven will be destroyed, the very sky will be rolled up like a scroll and God’s sword will be bathed with blood and in the sky. This is cosmic and universal-sounding language describing local events with spiritual implications.

God Comes to Judge Israel at the Time of the Babylonian Exile – 500s BC

…I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face… All flesh shall see that I, YHWH, have kindled it…Thus says YHWH: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. …all flesh shall know that I, YHWH, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath.

(Ezekiel 20:33-35,47-48; 21:3-5, emphasis mine)

Behold, [God] goes up like clouds

And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined! Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved…I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void;

And to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,

And all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness,

And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger. For thus says the LORD, The whole land shall be a desolation,

Yet I will not execute a complete destruction. For this the earth shall mourn and the heavens above be dark, because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it. At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees;

They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; Every city is forsaken, And no man dwells in them. And you, O desolate one, what will you do?

(Jeremiah 4:13-14, 23-30)

Notice the references back to creation. Is the prophet saying that God is going to terraform the planet? No. This is poetic and apocalyptic language to describe a war – the end of the world as they knew it.

God Comes To Judge Ancient Babylon Using the Medes – 500s BC

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt, and they will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. See, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation, and to destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. Like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, all will turn to their own people, and all will flee to their own lands. Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished. See, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

(Isaiah 13:6-11, 13,15-19, emphasis mine)

Is this verse saying that the earth was blasted with asteroids and falling stars? Were the sun, moon and stars all destroyed so that they wouldn’t shine anymore? Did the earth come out of its usual orbit and shake?

No.

This is apocalyptic and symbolic language describing the shaking of the political powers of a nation – specifically, the ramifications of the Medes on the social, political and religious order of Babylon. The ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘sun, moon and stars’ language here refers to the shaking political order of the nation itself, just like the symbols you see on a nation’s flag today – a red sun for Japan, an earth for Brazil, the crescent moon and star for Islam, the 50 stars for the States of America. All universally recognized national, political and religious symbols. This same use of symbols in language is present in Biblical times.

God Comes During the Maccabean Period

For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and will make you as the sword of a mighty man. YHWH shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord YHWH will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south. YHWH of Hosts will defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. YHWH their God will save them in that day (Zechariah 9:13-16)

Bows and Arrows, Swords and Slings, Wine and Bowls, and altars. Battle meets ritual in this prophetic depiction of war.

Jesus, in his apocalyptic claims, when he says he will come to the followers of his generation to judge and save, uses this same kind of language. Not only that, but Jesus actually quotes these passages. Wouldn’t it be wise of us to consider that perhaps Jesus meant to use these passages in the same way as they were used by their original authors?

I hope the idea of using symbolic language to uncover the spiritual meaning of Divine appearings is plain now. Temporal events were interpreted according to their inner significance to the soul of a nation, in a way that their original hearers understood. This stands in marked contrast to the woodenly literal, endlessly-deferred, sci-fi interpretations that – through pious repetition – have lit up our airways, bookstores, and movie screens with tales of a highly abstract future woe.

I think it is interesting that, although a contextual view of the apocalyptic language used in these descriptions suggests that these descriptions were meant to be interpreted symbolically instead of literally, in the ‘coming of God’ that Jesus predicted, which came in 70 AD, there actually were literal occurences of these events as well. As if to underscore their importance, and say, “Hey! Pay attention! This coming is really really significant!”. I will leave you with some highlights from Josephus. You can read more of these outstanding ‘signs’ of the times on a page on my site called “Signs”, HERE. 

Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Sections 2 and 3

War 6:289 (6.5.3.289) Thus there was A STAR RESEMBLING A SWORD, which stood over the city, and a COMET [Hailey’s], that continued a whole year.

War 6:290 (6.5.3.290) Thus also, before the Jews’ rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the eighth day of the month of Nisan, and at the ninth hour of the night, so GREAT A LIGHT shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which light lasted for half an hour.

War 6:297 (6.5.3.297) a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it,

War 6:298 (6.5.3.298, 299 -300) and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sunsetting, CHARIOTS AND TROOPS of SOLDIERS IN THEIR ARMOUR were seen RUNNING about among the CLOUDS and surrounding of CITIES. Moreover at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a QUAKING, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.”

Riley O’Brien Powell earned her BA in Art History from Wheaton College, M.Div from Princeton Seminary, and M.A. in Education from Harvard University. She is a mother of four, raising them with her husband, Skip Powell, MD. She is a covenant participant and theologian-in-residence at Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can find more of Riley’s writing on her blog, at Living the Question.