The word "cloud" is in the New American Standard Bible 153 times. (131 in the OT and 22 in the NT) In most cases if refers to God in or on a cloud. In other words the imagery shows us God has placed Himself in a cloud so that one would not be blinded by His light.
The pillar of cloud is God
Exodus 13:21 The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud...
Exodus 13:22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Exodus 14:19 The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.
Where it says He will come up as clouds, in clouds or riding on a cloud, most of the time it refers to God's coming in judgment. The imagery cannot be seen as God literally sitting on a cloud at His coming. Cloud or clouds represents God's presence. And every time He came in judgment, He usually used another nation to overtake another.
Judgment against Egypt
Isaiah 19:1 (NASB)
Message to Egypt
19 The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift
cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at
His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
Jeremiah 4:13-14 (NASB) 13 "Behold, he goes up like clouds, And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!" 14 Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?
Ezekiel 30:3 (NASB) 3 "For 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.
I want to point out that "the day of the Lord" is when He makes a coming, a Parousia. Most Christian's do not know what the "the day of the Lord" is. They thinks it's the Lord's Day Sunday. This is where many lose the truth of the bible.
Isaiah 13:9-13 (NASB)
9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning
anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from
it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth
their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its
light.11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their
iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the
haughtiness of the ruthless. 12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens
tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of
hosts In the day of His burning anger.
There is a lot more scripture showing proof that the "the day of the Lord" is always when He comes in judgment. At the bottom of this page are a boat load of verses that clearly show how God comes and how He makes his presence known, but NEVER does He Himself appear visible in His comings. It's His poetic, non literal use of language to describe God's intervention is from heaven. And since Jesus was to judge like the Father, why can't Christians in the 21st century see the same type of coming in Mathew 24? Answer because they want it to be physical just like the unbelieving Jews did in the first century. And the same reasons why they cannot see the Parousia (coming) in the year 2020
Ezekiel 30:18-19 (NASB) 18 "In Tehaphnehes the day will be dark When I break there the yoke bars of Egypt. Then the pride of her power will cease in her; A cloud will cover her, And her daughters will go into captivity. 19 "Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt, And they will know that I am the Lord""
Nahum 1:2-6 (NASB) 2 A jealous and avenging God
is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance
on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to
anger and great in power, And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty
unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust
beneath His feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the
rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. 5
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. 6 Who can
stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath
is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him.
Zephaniah 1:14-17 (NASB) 14 Near is the great day of the Lord, Near and
coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the Lord! In it the warrior cries
out bitterly. 15 A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A
day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of
clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the
fortified cities And the high corner towers. 17 I will bring distress on men So
that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung.
In Zephaniah's prophecies we see the same kind of imagery. And in
Revelation we see the same thing, the clouds are His coming in judgment
and the dust of the Lord's feet.
Joel 2:1-11 (NASB) 2 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy
mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the
Lord is coming; Surely it is near, 2 A day of darkness and gloom, A day of
clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So
there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor
will there be again after it To the years of many generations. 3 A fire consumes
before them And behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden
before them But a desolate wilderness behind them, And nothing at all escapes
them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses,
so they run. 5 With a noise as of chariots They leap on the tops of the
mountains, Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a
mighty people arranged for battle. 6 Before them the people are in anguish; All
faces turn pale. 7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like soldiers;
And they each march in line, Nor do they deviate from their paths. 8 They do not
crowd each other, They march everyone in his path; When they burst through the
defenses, They do not break ranks. 9 They rush on the city, They run on the
wall; They climb into the houses, They enter through the windows like a thief.
10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow
dark And the stars lose their brightness. 11 The Lord utters His voice before
His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His
word.
The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it?
Here again we see imagery identical to Revelation. His coming in the clouds refers to God coming in judgment and using another nation to overtake another. This is even seen in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 that describes what would happen at the Destruction of Jerusalem.
The Bible teaches us "The Day of the Lord" is when God came in the clouds in judgment. This happened numerous times in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament. These are examples of what happens when He gets mad. He tells us right up front He is a jealous God and if you turn to other Gods like material things, including the internet, He may have to get your attention. There is no more bible to tell us of any future comings after the first century. But I assure you that there are. Just not in the sense of what most Christians believe. Everyone of His comings were never physically in body form. Though every eye saw Him, in the sense of what He did, it all happened spiritually.
I believe many comings have taken place over the last 2,000 years. Not every one of them were identical to what happen in the first century but they were invisible when He came in the clouds making it out to be spiritual. God has a hand in everything, so nobody can deny a coming that may have occurred during any war. Look at the 21st century specifically this year, 2020 Who do you know that can clear the streets and keep people home, temporarily stop pollution. Basically, put a halt to everything. God uses suffering in our lives to educate us. God has used us in the same way He did in the old and new testaments. He used our sin to bring about his plan. Everything that we have gone through, God has meant it for our good.
Our next study will be on another Parousia happening now!
Jesus indeed came in judgment in AD 70 in a non bodily sense to judge Old Covenant Israel, just as He promised in Matthew 21:33-43; 22:1-14; 23:29-39; etc. And just like God came in judgment in the Old Testament. The same language (imagery) can be seen right now in 2020
We have shown that God returns Spiritual not Physically. So those that see Christ returning in the future, evidence shows it would be Spiritual just like every single time in the bible.
Boatload of verses Coming in Judgment. Read every one for an understanding of how God comes. Genesis 11:5; 18:21; Exodus 3:8; 13:21; 16:10; 19:9-20; 24:15-18; Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 9:15-22; 11:17; Deuteronomy 4:11-24; 5:22; 31:15; 33:2; 1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chronicles 5:13-14; Psalm 18:4-15; 46:6; 50:3; 96:13; 97:1-5; 98:9; 104:3; 144:5-7; Isaiah 26:21; 29:3-6; 31:4; 34:2-10; 40:3-10; 60:19-20; 64:1-3; 66:15; Jeremiah 4:12-28; 51:24-25; Ezekiel 1:27-28; 10:3-19; 30:2-12; 32:7-8; Daniel 7:13; 8:10; Hosea 8:1; Joel 2:10-11, 31; 3:15-16; Amos 5:16-24; 8:8-9; Micah 1:2-16; Nahum 1:2-6; Zephaniah 1:2-18; Zechariah 1:15-16; 9:14; 14:2-6; Malachi 3:5.
I do hope you read more at http://abideinthelamb.x10.mx