Behold, he comes with the clouds

The cloud rider

Revelation 1:7 “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even every one who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Yes, amen.”

One thing I know about this life that God has given me, the things that make up this thing we call life are in a constant state of degradation and change. The gifts that you receive for Christmas, will grow old, break and be thrown away, the car that you drove off the lot will rust and one day wind up in a junk yard, the place where you dwell and have sought to make into a home, someday someone else will dwell in it and seek to make it a home, the place that the Holy Spirit resides in, your fleshly body, no matter how many vitamins you take, how many times you go to the gym, how many procedures you subject yourself to, one day, the body that your eternal soul resides in will die. You will spend somewhere in eternity, it is a matter of the choices that you make that decides your eternity.

Just as this life is but a vapor, a breath, as we breath, we must understand as Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If our hope is only is this world and the things of this world, then we will be most miserable. We must understand that each day that we are given is a gift, we only have so much time alloted to us. What we do with this gift of time on this earth, determines our eternity. So, where will we cast our hope? Where will we cast our eyes? Where and how will we spend our time? If we cast our eyes on him, the one that was pierced, the cloud rider, then we must understand in doing that, that we need to be in a state of daily transformation, of daily exodus.

The Exodus of the believer -

The one coming with the clouds - this idea of the one coming on the clouds, is found in several places in the Old Testament. If you want to understand the New Testament, it is important to understand the Old Testament, don’t ignore it. In the Old Testament we find the cloud motif (or idea) in Deuteronomy 33:26 ““There is no one like God, O, Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, and with his majesty through the skies.” We find it in Psalm 68:32–33 “O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praise to the Lord, Selah to the one who rides in the highest heavens of old. See, he gives forth his voice, a mighty voice.” We see it again in Psalm 104:1–4 “Bless Yahweh, O my soul. O Yahweh my God, you are very great. You clothe yourself with splendor and majesty, you who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a tent curtain, the one who sets beams in the waters for his upper chambers, who makes clouds his chariot, who rides on the wings of the wind, who makes his messengers the winds, his attendants a flame of fire.” and again in Isaiah 19:1 “An oracle of Egypt: Look! Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. And the idols of Egypt will tremble in front of him, and the heart of Egypt melts in his inner parts.” One more time we see it in Daniel 7:13–14 ““I continued watching in the visions of the night, and look, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingship that all the peoples, the nations, and languages would serve him; his dominion is a dominion without end that will not cease, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.” All of these cloud references were not accidental, they were done on purpose, partly because in ancient times, the worshippers of Baal had a description of Baal, they called him “the cloud rider” or he was known as a storm god, one who brought fertility to the land, etc. So, we see that in the Book of Revelation, John was mixing at least two parts of scripture, to show that Jesus was literally God with us. The real cloud rider of the Old Testament is the cloud rider of Revelation 1:7 “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even every one who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Yes, amen.” One day, he will

The seat of Satan - Revelation 2:12–17 ““And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: “This is what the one who has the sharp double-edged sword says: ‘I know where you live, where the throne of Satan is. And you hold fast to my name and did not deny your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. But I have a few things against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent! But if you do not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword from my mouth. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give to him some of the hidden manna, and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, that no…” Babylonian magicians, overthrown by Persia, thrown out of power, set up their new place of learning and power. Babylon who in Revelation 14:8 “And another second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who caused all the nations to drink from the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”” is condemned

One day -