Exo 20:21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God [was].

 

1Ki 8:11-12 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD. Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

 

Eze 10:4 Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, [and stood] over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD'S glory.

 

Thick darkness is the dwelling place of the LORD; the cloud that gradually radiates the brightness of his glory.

 

Job 22:12-14 [Is] not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are! And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds [are] a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.

 

The dark cloud covers the bright eyes of the LORD so the judgment of his brightness will not pierce through to man.

 

Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

 

Deu 4:24 For the LORD thy God [is] a consuming fire, [even] a jealous God.

 

Deu 5:22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

It says God is the brightest of fire that no man can see and live. And the voice of the fire comes out of a cloud, out of the thickest of darkness. The words of the law are in the shade, the darkest part of the fire. The brightness of this fire cannot be seen or understood by lowly man, so it must be shaded, cooled, and darkened with obscurity for man to be able to begin come near [to the LORD]. And the “jealousy” of God represents his “hot” anger because man has left the glory of the LORD, but the cloud represents protection from this hot jealous judgment.

 

Psa 49:3-4 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart [shall be] of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

 

Understanding the voice of the cloud of darkness begins with first knowing and realizing that the words are indeed darkness, a dark saying, an obscured word, which are the words of the law, the way of the world apart from the brightness of the LORD.

 

Rom 7:6, 14, 22, 25 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter. ... For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ... For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ... I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

 

The true “law” for the “inward” man (mind, spirit, Christ) is hidden in the darkness of the flesh which is via the darkness of this physical world. The true law is hidden in the letter of the law which is the physical words and books that are manifest through the darkness of this world. The brightness of the LORD is shaded in the words. The spirit of truth is hidden beneath the literal words because it is only through darkness that God can begin to gradually speak to the people. So remember the warnings that comes with these dark words of the literal letter:

 

2Co 3:6-8 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

 

This world is truly glorious [in its own light], but it is only a representation of the spirit that is even more glorious, once the gory of the countenance of Moses (i.e. the literal words of the book, law) is gone away.

 

Isa 28:9-15 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? [them that are] weaned from the milk, [and] drawn from the breasts. For precept [must be] upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This [is] the rest [wherewith] ye may cause the weary to rest; and this [is] the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which [is] in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

 

The stammering lips of the word can be a trap that causes confusion when not understood (lies and falsehood), so be careful to use the words wisely. It says those that understand the doctrines are “weaned from the milk”, where milk are the words that obscure the truth and cause confusion. But remember, the words must be first obscured because carnal man has a hard time seeing the truth of the spirit and therefore cannot see the brightness of his glory. So,

 

1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.

Milk is another symbolic representation of the truth being hidden in the words, within the meat of the words.

 

Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk [is] unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

 

The dark words are like milk that man must be weaned from to grow from a babe. The people will not hear if they are not first weaned. Because the word of the LORD, the voice from the cloud, can make the people fall backward, be broken, and snared because the truth is obscured in the dark saying, the dark cloud. Man must grow and let go of the milk before he can see the truth shaded by the cloud of darkness.