Cloud

Acts 1:9 - These were his last words. As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud.

What is Luke, the author of Acts, trying to convey here?

Does the language of God, clouds, and disappearing acts make sense to the audience he's writing to?

For the audience, a light bulb would have gone off when they read these statements from Luke. As good students of the Torah, they would have been very familiar with the language of God dwelling in clouds and even disappearing, seemingly forever. 

GOD went ahead of them in a Pillar of Cloud during the day to guide them on the way . . .

The people kept their distance while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

It was now the morning watch. GOD looked down from the Pillar of Fire and Cloud on the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic.

. . . whenever Moses entered the Tent, the Pillar of Cloud descended to the entrance to the Tent and GOD spoke with Moses.

Then Solomon said, GOD said he would dwell in a cloud . . . 

It's almost as if the author is trying to convince the audience one last time that this man Jesus, the one taken to a Roman cross, the one persecuted by the Jewish religious leaders, the one who couldn't possibly have any connection to the God of their understanding - in fact shared the same dwelling places of the God they'd grown up to believe in. 

Have you ever been in a situation where two seemingly unconnected things were all of a sudden connected in a way that blew your mind? 

There's another point to this story.

According to the narratives of the Old Testament, there was a time when the God of Israel stopped talking. God went away. From dwelling in a cloud by day, leading the Israelites, to completely shutting off for hundreds of years. The Israelites thought it was over, done with. God had left the building. 

And now, it seems that the same thing's happening again. But, there's one striking difference. 

For the Israelites in the Torah, they'd never seen God. They saw a cloud. They saw fire. They saw glimpses of the divine. For the Israelites, the departure of God left them without direction.

Luke here is writing that this time it's different. This time God's leaving something behind. Not only is Luke connecting the God of the old covenant with this man Jesus who's ushered in a completely new concept to the world he's been a part of, but he's leaving something behind . . . a light, a marker, a guide, a spirit.

For the audience, this would have been a mind-blowing concept, that Jesus would leave in a cloud. The only God they knew up to this point dwelled in clouds and couldn't be seen.

I can see the people reading this for the first time, looking back and remembering the times they'd watched Jesus, listened to his words, criticized him, applauded him, and watched in amazement. As they read these words, it came full circle. The One whom they'd believed in for so long, who lived in clouds, who spoke from a distance, had been right in front of their eyes. 

May we recognize today that God is not at a distance, but with us, guiding us, compelling us to take part in an amazing plan of restoration.