Cloud of Anger

Lamentations 3:43-44 are set in parallel:

A. You covered yourself with anger and pursued us

B. You have slain and not spared

A’. You have covered yourself with a cloud

B’. So that no prayer can pass through.

Both A sections speak of Yahweh hiding Himself behind a veil - first of anger and then a cloud. The B sections are also parallel: The prayers that cannot pass through are prayers for rescue, prayers like “Spare me!”

The parallelism of cloud and anger offers a perspective on Sinai and Yahweh’s sanctuaries. Yahweh descends to Sinai in a cloud, and that same cloud enters the tabernacle, where Yahweh is “covered” on His throne. From the perspective of Lamentations, that cloud is a covering of anger that deflects prayer. Yahweh doesn’t display Himself openly because He comes to dwell in a broken world among a rebellious people. His being covered in the sanctuary is a sign that Israel and the world are under the reign of wrath. Yet, the fact that Yahweh remains hidden also means that He restrains His wrath.

Prayers cannot penetrate the cloud of anger, so Israel needs someone to go into the cloud on their behalf. First, of course, this is Moses, then Aaron and his sons. In the sacrificial system, the animal is a priestly mediator who enters the cloud by becoming the cloud.

And then finally the Lord emerges from the cloud and shows His face in the face of Jesus: The age of anger gives way to the age of grace. Yet, simultaneously, the Lord’s emergence into the open also means that He no longer winks at sin but sets a day of judgment. And in Jesus, the church enters the cloud, becomes the cloud, so that our prayers are heard in Jesus’ name.