Acts 1:9-11 - Why the Cloud?

Right after Jesus had given final instructions to the disciples (a.k.a. "Great Commission"),
“ ...he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.”
(Acts 1:9, New Living Translation, 2015)

Imagine the disciples peering into the cloud, asking each other, "Did you see that? Where did He go?"

It's not the first time that God hid in a cloud. He did so multiple times with Moses and the Israelites. (Pillar of cloud, Ex 13:21; Sinai, Ex 24:16; Tabernacle, Ex 40:34; Temple, 2 Chr 5:14)

However, Jesus had come to earth to REVEAL to us what God is like. So why the cover of a cloud at this point?

No one saw Jesus' miraculous conception. No one watched Jesus breaking out of the tomb. Why should His return to heaven be any different? He was "entering into His glory" (Luke 24:26) to "dwell in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see." (1 Tim 6:16; cp. Ex 33:20) To watch Jesus resume His full, heavenly glory would have been too much for them to bear. (Cp. Matt 17:2; Rev 1:17)

“10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men {angels} suddenly stood among them. 11 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!'” (Acts 1:10–11, NLT)

Jesus himself had already affirmed the ancient prophecy (Daniel 7:13) that,
“all the peoples of the earth ...will see* the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30, NLT) See also Rev. 1:7.

Jesus won't return IN a cloud, but sitting "ON the clouds," a judge's bench, to judge wrong-doing and set everything right again. Rev 14:14-16

Jesus, we didn't get to see You while you were on earth. We didn't see You leaving in a cloud. But we want to be ready in a way that we will "love Your appearing" when You return.  (2 Tim 4:8) Amen.

*That would mean every part of the globe, simultaneously. But that's another conundrum for another time.