Lk.9:34,35 – But while he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

I remember one time reading about Sarah Edwards and her encounters with the Lord, she often described it as being swallowed up by God. I was reminded of those words while reading about the Transfiguration from Luke’s gospel as he described the apostles being overshadowed by the cloud and finally entering the cloud. I don’t want to get overly dramatic about this but I do not recall anything quite like this in all of the appearances of the cloud in the Old Testament. There was the cloud in Solomon’s temple, the cloud that led the children of Israel by day in the wilderness, and the cloud Ezekiel saw in the future temple in Jerusalem. I can’t remember anyone being swallowed by the cloud like the apostles were. Here are some thoughts about the cloud from the REFORMED EXPOSITORY COMMENTARY.

“Here was a greater manifestation of divine glory. The disciples had seen the person of Jesus shining in splendor, but now a glorious cloud came down out of heaven from God to envelop Jesus and the prophets, and possibly also the disciples themselves. This glory-cloud made the disciples tremble with fear, and well it should, because it was nothing less than the glory of God. The disciples were seeing what Moses saw when God descended on the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34–35), what Solomon saw when God’s presence filled Israel’s house of worship (2 Chron. 7:1–3), and what Ezekiel saw rising from the temple on the wings of the cherubim (Ezek. 10). They were seeing the glory of almighty God—his Shekinah glory—the radiant cloud that gave people a visible manifestation of his invisible majesty.”

So could this be a glimpse into the greater outpouring of God’s glory that would begin on the Day of Pentecost? Before Pentecost the glory of the Lord was reserved for prophets, priests, or maybe a king but today the Spirit is being poured out on all people. So thinking back to Sarah Edwards and the Great Awakening it appears that these colonials were totally caught off guard when the Holy Spirit began to fall on their meetings. It was as if they were actually being swallowed up by God. Maybe that’s what this encounter was all about on the Mount of Transfiguration, the day when all of us would be swallowed up into God’s Holy Cloud.