There is no question that someday our Lord will descend coming in the clouds. The clouds that took Him back to the Father will bring Him back. Those messengers from heaven emphatically affirmed that “…this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). He will literally be borne by the clouds a second time when He comes again.
However, there is a figurative usage of this concept of Him coming in the clouds. A failure to realize this robs us of truth and makes some verses hard to understand. The Old Testament poetically speaks about the Lord and the clouds. Moses described God as One who “…rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds” (Deut. 33:26). David said, “Extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him” (Psa. 68:4). Later, he pictures God as One “Who makes the clouds His chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind” (Psa. 104:3).
It was not just Moses and David who talked about the Lord riding on the clouds. As Isaiah saw the future of Egypt, who for years had dominated many nations, he described the judgment that was about to weaken that nation. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt” (Isa. 19:1). The judgment of that nation was approaching, and the cloud the Lord came on was swift. He came in the clouds into Egypt and this figurative usage of clouds is so powerful.
It may seem strange at first to consider that the Lord figuratively came in the clouds in the first century. This does not deny that in the future He will come in the same manner he left the earth, and Peter vividly describes that day in Second Peter chapter three. Perhaps this figurative usage can best be seen in the words Jesus spoke to Caiaphas and the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin.
He said, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds” (Mark 14:62). Matthew’s account adds one additional thought. “I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (26:64). He adds the word “hereafter.” It starts now—from here and henceforth! The ESV translates this word “from now on.”
Those men were to figuratively see the Deity of the man they were about to kill. What did they see? That same day they felt the earthquake, they saw the sun going down at noon and the veil in the temple ripped open. Three days later there was the open tomb, and fifty days later they saw and heard the events on Pentecost. Jesus had come in the clouds, and they saw it. Keep this in mind as you read the Bible.