The Light Cloud of the Incarnation

Her. 1.168 Zach. 2:17: Let all flesh stand in awe before the face of the Lord, because he has been raised from his holy clouds. 1.169 The term 'flesh' being homonymous signifies many things, as it stands for the God-breathed writing itself. For when it is said in the Psalms, 'To give food to God to all flesh' (Ps 50:12), it stands for all mortal animals being sustained by food in living, as also in: 'All flesh is gathered according to its kind' (Gen 15:28). And when the Apostle writes: 'For who has ever hated his own flesh? But nourishes and warms it' (1 Cor 12:3), the body joined to the rational soul is signified, as it is possible to learn from the apostolic word itself having this: 'In this manner men ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. For who has ever hated his own flesh?' (Eph 5:28), and the following.

1.170 But there is also when only men are revealed by the designation of flesh, as in: 'Hearken to prayer, to you all flesh shall come' (Joel 2:28). And it comes to God in relation and disposition, not the irrational, but the humanity, being made worthy of the bountiful gift of the Holy Spirit by the one saying: 'I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy' (Joel 2:28). 1.171 This so-called flesh, being rational, is receptive of divine awe; for indeed, 'to stand in awe from the face' of the one appearing to it is commanded, concerning which the pure of heart, saying, send up a prayer: 'Appear your face and we shall be saved' (Ps 41:2). And he gives the reason hereafter for why all flesh ought to stand in awe before the face of the Lord God, bringing forth: 'Because he has been raised from his holy clouds' (Zach 2:17).

1.172 But holy clouds are not those that cause sensible rain, but those that bring the spiritual downpour, according to that said in Isaiah concerning Israel, by way of allegory called a vineyard, from the face of the Lord: 'I will command the clouds not to rain upon it' (Isa 5:2), because of the thorns and not having grapes as fruit. 1.173 For of the vineyard being allegorized, the clouds were also taken up in harmony, sometimes raining to water, sometimes being prevented from doing this. Concerning such rain-givers, again in that same prophet, it is commanded by God:

“Let the clouds rain down righteousness.” For since righteousness is a virtue of the rational soul, it is not the sensible clouds that pour rain, but the divine prophets, being called clouds by upward analogy.

Since therefore the Savior has come forth from these clouds to fulfill the law and the prophets, for this reason “let all flesh stand in awe from the presence of the Lord” (Ps 96:1) the God, which was predicted and shown when the prophecy having this character was fulfilled: “The God of gods shall be seen in Zion” (Ps 50:5), and he shone so that “we might behold his glory, as the only-begotten from the Father” (Jn 1:14).

Having come forth from the holy clouds, which were interpreted to be Moses the great hierophant and the prophets who possessed the Holy Spirit, he arrived upon a light cloud, having mounted upon the world which is among us, Egypt which is called by analogy. And the prophecy concerning these things begins from this place: “Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and he shall come into Egypt, and the works of her hands shall be shaken” (Isa 19:1).

Having been transferred from Egypt to the place concerning the earth, in harmony the light cloud shall be raised to the humanization of the Savior, the God the Word sitting upon that which had gone forth from Mary.

For what light cloud does not have the weight of sin, or the flesh of Jesus which did not consist of the union of man to woman being heaviest, but from the Holy Spirit having come upon the virgin not having experience of man, and upon whom the power of the Most High overshadowed, to make the born one holy without marriage. And even more the lightness and thinness of the lordly cloud is revealed from the fact that it was not made by sin nor did the soul of Jesus know it.

For nothing else drags and weighs down the soul of men like lawlessness, being compared to a talent of lead, because it searches and drags down those practicing it; but the soul of Jesus was not tried by this weight, “having loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Ps 119:160); nor did he have “neither deceit in his mouth” (Ps 33:13) which scatters the sins of all, the one having it.

Therefore it was necessary for the Savior, having come forth from his own holy clouds, fulfilling the pre-proclamations concerning him, to be established kingly upon the...