The Cloud as a Type of Baptism

…coming with the clouds (Daniel 7:13), and he set down what follows. Ezekiel likewise says that he saw a firmament with the seraphim beneath it, and on the throne he saw a man, or rather the likeness of a man, whose upper parts, he says, resembled amber, while from the loins to the feet he was like the appearance of fire (Ezekiel 1:22–27).

In each of these visions he subtly hints to us at an image of the glory that befits God and of the mystery of Christ. Nothing, then, prevents us from understanding that here too the Lord was seen on a light cloud for a most useful and necessary purpose. For the cloud fills out for us a type of spiritual rain and dew, and of saving baptism itself.

Indeed, the blessed Paul says that those of Israel's blood were baptized in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). As they crossed that deep desert, the cloud hung over them by day, and by night a pillar of fire went before them (Exodus 13:21). Through both of these Christ was being portrayed, that is, the mystery concerning him: justification and sanctification in faith and holy baptism.

So the Lord, coming to cleanse and transform the Egyptians, in a manner fitting God and spiritually, of course, had to be seen on a light cloud. For there was no other way to scrub from the soul of those in error the stain ingrained in it except through holy baptism; and we hold that the cloud is a type of that baptism.

And the cloud is very fittingly called light. For we are baptized for the putting away of sin; and as we turn away from ungodliness as from a burden truly hard to carry, we become, in a way, winged by this, and learn to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and to keep our hearts on high.

As for the Lord's sitting upon the cloud, I think it shows this: sitting hints to us at either rest or authority. So Christ rests, not in any way in worship according to the law, but rather in the perfection that comes through holy baptism; and in this way he has come to reign over those on earth.

He says that the handmade things of Egypt will be shaken before his face (Isaiah 19:1). For once holy baptism had been revealed and Christ had shone forth, it was wholly necessary that the playthings of the ancient deceit should vanish and the snares of the devil be seen broken to pieces.

For the devil had caught in his net, for ruin and destruction, practically every nation and race, but the Egyptians more than the rest. They were the most superstitious of all, perhaps outdoing even the Persians and Assyrians in error, although the God-inspired Scripture says of those peoples' land that it is a land of carved images (Jeremiah 50:38).

He says that the heart of the Egyptians will be overcome, yielding, as I think…