Choice Word: “Kavod” (Glory)
Choice Word: “Kavod” (Glory).
CAUTION: SKIM AT YOUR OWN RISK. In this era of amazing advances in technology, there are sometimes unexpected consequences that turn out to be harmful to our Christian faith. One of these harmful improvements is the flood of believers who read scripture online, on the smart phone, on the computer screen. I’m convinced there should be a warning label on every one of the online Bibles… CAUTION: SKIM AT YOUR OWN RISK. So many of us now read the Word like we would read our emails or social media or the daily news. We skim the material hurriedly, superficially, carelessly. We skim the Scripture. Skim-reading the Bible doesn’t really bury the seed very deeply, of course. And in our skimming, we would be more likely to just skip over an important word or phrase without thinking, a word that could be vital to the whole passage. The fact is, the Bible is full of single words or short phrases that are too important to simply gloss over as if it wasn’t there. There are times in the Word when single words are intended to feed us, nourish our faith, stimulate us to think at a deeper level about the biblical text.
There are single words in Scripture that are like stop signs asking us to stop and consider carefully, to pause before moving forward in the reading. This series on my blog will try to unpack some of these power-packed words or phrases in Scripture… Words like: Behold; Rejoice; Truly; Woe; Blessed; Beware; Come; If. And I will attempt to also explore the meanings of some short phrases that are single words in the original biblical language, such as “Himeni” (Here I am); “Shema” (Listen and Do’); “Splagchnizonai” (deeply moved with compassion); “pistence” (believe), and “kal-v’chomer” (How much more). If it is poetically possible to “see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower, and hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour,” as William Blake once imagined, then certainly we readers of Scripture can find a world of meaning in a single word, we can grasp something profound in a simple phrase.
God’s Glory. The biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal Presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth. When God’s glory makes an appearance, we can get everything from angels and trumpets and fire and earthquakes, to lightning and clouds and wind and thunder, to smoke and voices and blinding lights and foreign languages, to open graves and resurrected bodies and torn curtains and noontime darkness, to miracles galore.
Glorifying God is to acknowledge and applaud the awesome reality of God’s presence in the world; to make His presence heavier and more obvious; to magnify Him by enlarging His name and reputation in the world; to live in a way that strengthens God’s credibility; to honor God in a way that reveals His truth and makes Him less hidden; to live in a way that preserves God’s glorious Name and Personhood; to follow God in a way that helps others to recognize God as the ultimate Person of Substance; to publicize and promote His glorious name by demonstrating His character; to be a guardian of God’s goodness and spiritual power in the world; to recognize the true and eternal status of God in a life-changing way.
“Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man. From what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from his waist down, he looked like a burning flame, shining with splendor. All around Him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me.” (Ezekiel 1:26-28, NLT).
The Fire of His Glory. Time and again in Scripture, God turns out to be a fire. Is there a better way to describe God’s glory? He is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24) that gives light, sparks love, judges sin, and purifies like a refiner’s fire. Somehow, the Lord is a Person and yet a fire that kindles faith and declares His presence. How were the people alerted to God’s presence on Mt. Sinai? “And the glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites like devouring fire on the top of the mountain.” (Ex. 24:17). “Mt. Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire.” (Ex. 19:18). When we are confronted with a fearful, overpowering fire, our natural response is to be in awe of its power, and that is a natural reaction when seeing God’s glory. We respond with fear and awe and a healthy respect. Somehow, God can be our friend as well as a consuming fire. We are able to talk with this Fire, like Moses on Mt. Sinai. Sometimes the fire is small and seemingly manageable, like the burning bush. Other times it appears to be out of control, a raging wildfire managed only by God. But make no mistake, in His glory He is a devouring fire. “Offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; for our God is indeed a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29, AMP).
“Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you. Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when His Shekinah glory is revealed. If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Shekinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you!” (1 Peter 4:12-14; from The Complete Jewish Bible, translated by Dr. David Stern).
Shekinah Glory. Let us tiptoe into deep waters, into a tremendous mystery within this particular title of the Holy Spirit. There are so many inspiring aspects to this title, the Spirit of Glory, that we might as well take our time wading in. God’s glory can be described as the weighty, majestic, and fiery presence of God on the earth when He wants to localize Himself. God’s glory is what He looks like when He chooses to make an appearance. God is indeed everywhere, but apparently there are those times when He wants to appear on earth. The Jewish scholars between the Testament periods developed a wonderful word for “dwells,” Shekinah, which sums up for them, and us, God’s personal, divine presence on earth. So these two terms, Shekinah and glory, have come to mean much the same thing, and the two terms are often spoken as Shekinah glory, both terms together. And now the Holy Spirit comes to mind. When we see Shekinah glory, the fire of the Holy Spirit inevitably appears as well, in the midst of the glory, as a part of the glory. Since God is a “consuming fire,” it is not surprising that fire usually demonstrates God’s presence. All three of these spiritual realities, God’s glory, Shekinah glory, and the fiery Spirit, seem more or less indivisible. I’m not sure how one would separate one from the other, even if we wanted to do so. All three have to do with God’s localized presence, with God settling in and making a dwelling place.
Shekinah literally means “the One who dwells, settles in, resides, makes Himself at home.” The supernatural power of God’s presence has an understandable effect on nature. Shekinah Glory bursts the earth at its seams. Nature doesn’t seem prepared for God’s glory and seems to sometimes have a difficult time managing something so otherworldly. After all, God’s glory is weightier than the universe, it has more substance to it than the entire world. Even a sliver of Shekinah glory sends the earth into turmoil. Isaiah asks for God’s presence and what it would take for Him to make an appearance in Isaiah 64:1: “Tear the heavens apart and come down!” Or perhaps you like the way David puts it in Psalm 144:5: “Bend your sky, O Lord, and come down.” One dramatic example is described when God’s glory made an appearance on Mt. Sinai… “Mt. Sinai was enveloped in smoke, because Yahweh descended onto it in fire. The smoke went up like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently, as the sound of the heavenly shofar grew louder and louder; All the people experienced the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking on the mountain; To the people of Israel, the glory of the Lord looked like a raging fire on the top of the mountain.” (Ex.19:18 and 24:17). The heavenly fire from the Holy Spirit was a fearful and awesome part of Shekinah. God’s glory, the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit. What a fearful package of uncreated light from the essence of God Himself. The Spirit of Glory is one way of putting it. Another translator says: “The Spirit of the Shekinah, the Spirit of God.” Another put it this way: “The Shekinah glory of the Spirit.”
Glory Moments. There are many fiery Shekinah-glory moments in the Scriptures. Sometimes the “dwelling” of God is momentary, of short duration. In these cases, the fire of the Holy Spirit is present for a particular purpose, there one minute and then gone the next. Other times God’s presence is intended to remain for a time, a reminder that God promises to eventually be with us eternally, that He will be present with us in His Shekinah glory forever.
(1.) Shekinah glory illuminated the uncreated world with God’s presence, before there was any natural light from the sun or moon (Gen. 1);
(2.) Shekinah glory lit the flaming sword of the cherubim that miraculously turned in every direction, guarding the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3);
(3.) Shekinah glory was there at Yahweh’s “signing” of the Abrahamic Covenant, with a flaming torch and smoking oven from heaven (Gen. 15:17-18);
(4.) Shekinah glory was there at the burning bush with Moses, and the Angel of Yahweh speaking from within the bush which was never consumed ((Ex. 3);
(5.) Shekinah glory was present in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, to provide protection, guidance, and an assurance of God’s presence during their wilderness journey (Ex. 24, 33, 40).
(6.) Shekinah glory descended powerfully on Mt. Sinai at God’s giving of the Law of Moses. See the description of the Glory’s effects in the paragraph above (Ex. 19, 20, 24);
(7.) Shekinah glory was present with Moses when Moses asked to see God’s glory, and the Lord passed before Moses and declared His character and essence (Ex. 33-34);
(8.) Shekinah glory came down from heaven onto the altars to confirm the sacrificial system in the Tent of Meeting before the people and their leaders (Lev. 9).
(9.) Shekinah glory descended into the Holy of Holies and filled it, dwelling over the Mercy Seat and between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place for God during the journey (Ex. 40:34).
(10.) Shekinah glory came upon the two disobedient sons of Aaron in the Tabernacle and executed them for their unholy “strange fire” after a warning not to do so (Lev. 10:1-3);
(11.) Shekinah glory came down and filled Solomon’s Temple with his Presence at the Dedication ceremony, leaving the people awestruck at the power of the Holy Spirit (Ex. 13 and 19, and 1 Kings 8, 1 Chron. 7);
(12.) Shekinah glory was represented by the Holy Spirit in the passage about the Refiner’s Fire that will cleanse and purify God’s people (Malachi 3:2-3);
(13.) Shekinah glory was seen in a quick fashion in Gideon’s calling (Judges 6:21), David’s claiming the threshing floor for the future site of the Temple (1 Chron. 21:27), and on Mt. Carmel with Elijah calling down the fires of God to defeat the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18);
(14. Shekinah glory was mentioned in many heavenly visions throughout the Hebrew Bible, including the vision of Isaiah 4:5 in which the heavenly fire of God’s presence will protect and illuminate Jerusalem with a canopy of heavenly fire; Ezekiel’s vision in Ezek. 1 in which he saw what looked like fiery coals burning like torches, and fire flashing with brilliance like lightning; and Daniel’s vision in Dan. 7 in which he witnessed the Ancient of Days sitting on a throne of fiery flames and wheels of burning fire, and a stream of fire flowed from the Ancient One’s presence. The Holy Spirit was alive and well during all these spectacular visions.
Glory in the Flesh. All of these passages that involved fire and Shekinah glory in the Hebrew Bible were vital to the story of the Faith before Christ, and are actually anticipating and pointing to the Shekinah fire fulfillment in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. God’s presence was an important chapter before Jesus, but it now becomes intensely personal. Jesus is Shekinah incarnate. Jesus is Shekinah glory in the flesh, spiritually full of the fire of the Spirit. In the face of Christ, we see the muted version of God’s glory, shekinah in the minor key, because we wouldn’t be able to manage an appearance of His glory in its fullness. The Son of God is the spiritual radiance of God’s Shekinah presence. Christ is the permanent dwelling place of God’s glory, which is gloriously multiplied by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s life (Col. 2:9; John 14:9; Heb. 1:3; 1 John 3:2).
Handel: Messiah | And the glory of the Lord | VOCES8 & Academy of Ancient Music
“I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27, NIV).
Here we find St. Paul summing up the gospel in two joined phrases… “Christ in you the hope of glory.” He is offering here the greatest mystery of all, a phrase that states the “word of God in its fullness.” There is no other religious leader who actually intends to dwell in his followers. Mohammed didn’t promise that, Buddha didn’t, nobody did, except Jesus Christ. This phrase is only the first part of the mystery. An additional divine secret was revealed by God here: the God of the Jews, the Chosen People, who himself was Jewish, is promised to the Gentiles as well! The Hebrew Scriptures talk about the salvation of the Gentiles, but nowhere is there a sense that God himself will dwell within the Gentile! This is something utterly new, unexpected, unprecedented. This revelation had people scratching their heads in Israel. “Christ in you,” the Bible says. Not merely near you, or around you, or with you, or for you, but in you. This is the mystery for the ages, revealed to the world, to Gentile and Jew alike, by the Son of God. The Trinity of God wants to make a home in us! The Creator of the universe wants to live in us and enjoy fellowship with us!
Expecting Glory. It’s clear to St. Paul that Christ in us produces a related mystery: the hope of glory, an expectation to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore all of creation. With Christ in us, we expect a coming time for our glorification, when we will be lifted into the glory of His presence, sharing in His divine nature, sharing meals together for all eternity. Christ in us produces an expectation of reaching glory-land, of being a full participant in heaven’s glory. “There is a divine mystery – a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded, and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for His people, and God wants everyone to know it! (Colossians 1:26-27, the Passion Translation).
CeCe Winans – King of Glory (Official Audio)
“Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty! The Lord, mighty in battle! Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts – He is the glorious King! (Psalm 24:8-10).