Shekinah Glory in Jesus Messiah
Shekinah Glory in Jesus Messiah.
“Glory To His Name”, Congregational Hymn (youtube.com)
“The Word became flesh and lived with us, and we saw His Shekinah, the Shekinah of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).
In keeping with the Shekinah glory resting on the Mercy Seat in the wilderness Tabernacle, and that God’s glory is best revealed in love, we are not surprised that St. Paul refers to “the glory of His grace.” (Eph. 1:6). “Isn’t it interesting that grace and truth is more glorious than the brilliant light and flame? And that Christ’s love is more glorious than the luminous pillar of cloud?” (Charles Spurgeon).
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. God’s profound glory is independent of His Shekinah glory on earth. 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.
SHEKINAH: The Divine Presence, the appearance of God’s glory that dwells on earth, and implies God’s nearness, closeness, God’s with-ness to us. Shekinah is understood in Judaism, and then adopted by Christianity, to be the “uncreated light, fire and luminous cloud” that became visible when God made an appearance on the earth. God’s Shekinah glory announced His presence. Shekinah glory is not the full inner essence of God’s Being, since God is an invisible Spirit who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16). But instead, God’s Shekinah is the “out-raying” of that source of Light, like the sunbeams coming directly from the sun. We can’t even look directly at the sun, but we can see and feel and get the benefits of the sun though its rays. The Shekinah is the sunbeam from the “Father of Lights.” Isn’t it wonderful that the palmist exclaims that “Yahweh God is the sun!” (Ps. 84:11). Shekinah has been described as when the Omnipresent One becomes localized, when the Invisible One becomes visible. Shekinah is God’s visible glory pulsating outwards from the spiritual energy of God’s Being, the flowing out of light from the “consuming fire” of God’s essence. (Ex. 24;17).
DOXA (Greek word for ‘glory’ in the New Testament): Splendor, brilliance, the awesome light that radiates from God’s presence and flows forth from God’s character; is associated with his acts of power that are worthy to be honored, praised, revered; is often seen as a synonym to Shekinah glory; the magnificent excellence and dazzling greatness of God in Christ.
The mystery of glory reaches its crescendo in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was glory in a minor key. Here was the eternal Son of God, who emptied Himself of His glory in heaven to become a man, identifying with unglory, a tarnished image of Himself. We see occasional snapshots of His undisguised glory in the Gospels, such as the Transfiguration, but for the most part, He put His weighty splendor aside for a season.
Muted Glory. From most appearances to the interested observer, Jesus was only a man, an extraordinary man but certainly not God in the flesh. True, a unique spiritual genius, a miracle worker, a scholar of Torah, but still your basic human being. He was not given to sanctimony, He did not have a halo. But we all know that appearances can be deceiving. Sure, He was born in an animals’ cave, raised in Jewish Law, was hungry and thirsty, and hung out with those common types not given to glory or associated with glory in any way. Yes, Jesus was “humble, riding on a donkey,” an excellent metaphor for Jesus’ life. And yet, despite appearances, Jesus contained God’s pure glory, and despite human appearances, “This Son is the radiance of the Shekinah gory, the very expression of God’s essence...” (Hebrews 1:3).
Shekinah in the Minor Key. Jesus and the Father have been enjoying Shekinah glory since before the world began (John 17:5). The Hebrew Bibe is full of the Father’s Shekinah, which only anticipates and points toward the Son having His turn to bring God’s Shekinah to earth. In order to take on flesh, though, Jesus had to “empty Himself” (Phil. 2:7) of that dazzling glory. Jesus Christ brought a muted Shekinah glory with Him to mankind to please the Father and fulfill God’s purpose of sharing their Shekinah with everyone on the earth. Yahweh’s Shekinah in Jewish history was the vital beginning of the story that was completed in the Son. In Jesus, Shekinah became intensely Personal. Jesus is Shekinah incarnate. Jesus is Shekinah glory in the flesh, the Light of the world. In the face of Christ, we see a somewhat disguised 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. We mere humans required a lower wattage of God’s heavenly light. Nonetheless, 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).
Because Jesus was fully human, the earthly appearances of God’s Shekinah glory in Him were much of the time subdued, but some were dramatic, and some are literally other-worldly:
(1.) “In the countryside nearby were some shepherds spending the night in the fields, guarding their flocks, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the Shekinah glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified…” (Luke 2:8-9).
Heavenly Light. The shepherds in the country just outside of Bethlehem, sleeping on the ground near their flocks, comfortably settled in for the night in the fields as usual, suddenly were filled with fear at the Shekinah glory, heavenly light from the Father, blazing all around them in the dark sky. The Angel of God was with this bright light, and the shepherds were understandably terrified. The Angel calmed the fears of the shepherds, and all of a sudden once again something heavenly happened… All at once, there was a vast army of angels filling the sky with light and praising God! (Luke 2:8-14, ). We see here the Shekinah light from heaven being brought to earth by the angels to join forces with the light-filled glory of the Messiah, the “Lord of Glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8).
(2.) “… You have kept the good wine until now!’ Thus, the first of Jesus’ miraculous signs He did at Cana in the Galilee; Jesus manifested His glory, and His disciples came to believe in Him.” (John 2:11).
Glory in Cana. John mentioned that this first miracle of Jesus was “the beginning of signs Jesus did.” (2:11). Signs point the way, they identify something. And John believes the many miracles, or signs, point to the power and grace of the Lord and identify Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. John said this miracle in Cana “manifested His glory, and the disciples believed in Him.” (2:11). Glory is the radiant presence of God, the honor due His stature and Name, the dignity of His character and Being. Glory is the heavenly weight of His splendor that causes people to believe in Him. And this marvelous miracle of turning water into wine, to keep the wedding host from being humiliated and to keep the party going, revealed the power and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Messiah of God. One wouldn’t think an isolated miracle like that in a backwoods village with a relatively small number of people would constitute a revelation of glory. But it did. Jesus certainly deserves some extended applause after that demonstration of divine grace. Glorify His Name! Applaud His glory!
(3.) “We saw His majesty with our own eyes. For we were there when He received honor and glory from God the Father; and the voice came to Him from the grandeur of the Shekinah glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with Him!’ We heard this voice come down out of heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 1:16-18).
Transfiguration. Peter, James and John were privileged to get a taste of what the Shekinah glory can look like in the Person of Jesus. Peter even wrote about his experience many years later, and it was obvious he never got over it, On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’ body and clothing turned bright and radiant, a dazzling white with a heavenly light. There was a dense cloud that was somehow lighted from within. And to confirm God’s holy Presence in this glorious event being witnessed, the Father spoke from the glorious cloud about believing in Jesus His Son and listening only to Him. The Transfiguration was an historic moment in the gospel story, and is repeated in Matt. 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. In the Transfiguration, we find the dazzling eternal appearance of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, filled with Shekinah glory from heaven, the true nature and essence of Christ.
(4.) “After saying this, Jesus was taken up before their eyes; and a cloud hid Jesus from their sight.” (And Mark went into even greater detail), “Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and then they could no longer see him. Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy.” (Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-52; Acts 1:9).
The Ascension. The pillar of cloud, considered by Jewish authorities to be the Shekinah glory of God, came down from God’s presence in heaven to bring Jesus back to the Father. The cloud is a symbol of divine presence in Scripture, and was literally a manifestation of God’s presence on earth, an appearance of His Shekinah glory. Did God the Father descend from heaven in a cloud in order to escort Jesus back to heaven? A 5th century painting of the Ascension depicts Christ from the side view climbing to the top of a hill, and grasping the hand of God which emerges from a cloud above the hill, pulling Jesus into heaven. The Father may not have been sitting on His throne twiddling His thumbs while waiting for Jesus to make His appearance in heaven. God couldn’t wait. He wanted to personally escort His Son through the gates of the Kingdom. Just like the cloud led the Israelites through the wilderness, the cloud led Jesus into heaven.
(5.) “I was traveling to Damascus with the full authority and power of the high priest. I was on the road, and it was noon, when I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions. We all fell to the ground, and then I heard a voice saying to me, in Hebrew, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me? It’s hard on you to be kicking against the ox-goads!’ I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And the Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me! Get up and stand on your feet!” (Acts 26:12-16).
Bushwhacked from Heaven on the Road to Damascus. Roughly four years after the Ascension of Christ, we find a zealous Pharisee from Jerusalem named Saul, highly educated in Scripture and obsessively anxious to follow the Law. Saul appeared to be the Temple’s attack dog against the believers in Jesus, a combination of a relentless detective inspector and the prosecuting attorney all rolled into one. He was only too happy to capture and imprison anyone following this dead man Jesus of Nazareth who didn’t conform to the Law. Saul found himself on the road to Damascus to pick off a few believers, when his life took an unexpected turn. He had a personal encounter with the Shekinah glory of the risen Christ. Suddenly at noon a bright light flashed around them, flaring directly into Saul’s eyes. This was not a vision, this was literal reality, a painfully blazing light from heaven. This light was not an earthly phenomenon, a simple
(6.) “He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across His chest. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in His right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came forth from His mouth. And His face was like the sun in all its brilliance.” ( 1:13-16).
The Glorified Christ. Long after the Transfiguration, St. John had another encounter with Shekinah glory in the Person of Jesus on the isle of Patmos. John sees a Jesus that is fearsome and practically unexplainable. John reacted to his other-worldly vision the same way that Daniel reacted to the Shekinah in Daniel 10. he fainted dead away, flat on his face. Who wouldn’t? John’s vision of Jesus brought to the surface many symbols of Christ’s attributes. John’s description in many ways represents eternal truths about the glorified person of Christ, who seems to reveal Himself best in metaphor and symbol and imagery. Christ’s white hair represents His eternal wisdom and purity, His status as the divine Elder who commands universal respect. His robe that reached to His feet points out His priesthood, as does His gold sash. Jesus appears, then, as the High Priest who boldly walks into God’s presence and obtains forgiveness for His people. Christ’s eyes of flame symbolize His eternal knowledge, able to judge rightly, able to probe and peer into the hearts and minds of each person. His blazing eyes know impurity when He sees it. In noting Christ’s voice, John was trying to describe the indescribable. His voice was so pervasive and continuous and unrelenting, it was like the sound of a waterfall, or maybe ocean waves, which signify in Scripture the sound of multitudes of voices speaking at the same time. The voice of Jesus was a sublime mystery… somehow His voice was understandable, yet it was in heavenly surround-sound. Christ’s feet were like polished and refined bronze, representing His ability to stand firm beautifully and permanently. The face of Christ has absorbed the uncreated Shekinah Light of glory for all eternity, and so, like in His transfiguration, Jesus’ brilliant countenance shot forth dazzling sunbeams, too bright to stare at, like the pulsing brightness of the noonday sun at its height. The two-edged sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus represents the Word of God and the power of His message, a sword that can do heart surgery when skillfully wielded by the soul’s surgeon, Jesus Christ. After witnessing this mind-boggling appearance of the risen Christ, this is the moment when John fainted, and Jesus’ right hand helped John regain his consciousness. The first words Jesus says to John are, “Don’t be afraid.”
(7.) “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and lament in anguish, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and great glory, in brilliancy and splendor.” (Matthew 24:30).
The Second Coming. The Shekinah clouds signaling God’s divine Presence figures importantly in end times activities. Just as the angel declared to the disciples after Christ’s ascension in Acts 1:11, Jesus will in the end return to earth in the clouds in the same way that He ascended into heaven in the clouds. So here in Matthew we see Messiah Jesus predicting that He would return as the conquering King, accompanied by the luminous cloud of the Shekinah glory. This time, the Shekinah clouds herald His return to earth from His glory in heaven to bring us to the Father. Jesus here is quoting Daniel 7:13-14, certifying that He is the fulfillment of Daniel’s messianic prophecy. “I saw, coming with the clouds of heaven, someone like a son of man. He approached the Ancient One and was led into His presence. To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His rulership is an eternal rulership that will not pass away; and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Time and again we read in the New Testament about Christ returning in the clouds of heaven, the cloud of Shekinah, “… And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with kingly power and majestic glory.” (Mark 13:26); “And then we who are left still alive who remain on earth shall simultaneously be caught up along with the resurrected dead in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.’ (1 Thess. 4:17); “Then I looked, and there before me was a white cloud. Sitting on the cloud was someone like a Son of Man with a gold crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand… The One sitting on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth as harvested.” (Rev. 14:14).
(7.) “I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, ‘See! God’s Shekinah is with mankind, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and He Himself, God-with-them, will be their God… I saw no Temple in the city, for the Lord of Hosts is its Temple, as is the Lamb. The City has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Shekinah glory gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”(Revelation 21:1-3 and 22-24).
Glory Land. Here we see the final fulfillment and purpose of Shekinah glory… God’s divine Presence in all its dazzling light, dwelling with the redeemed, and providing light for the entire new heaven and new earth for all eternity! The radiant light of God, the Shekinah glory in all its fullness, is now completely revealed. God no longer has to hide His light under a bushel for us, and we are finally equipped to witness Shekinah in all its brilliant glory. Sing it out… “I’ve got a home in glory land that outshines the sun!” And now we can glorify the Lord to our heart’s content forever. We are free to acknowledge God’s greatness, and applaud His beauty and power. We can fully magnify Him and praise Him for His goodness. We can laud and honor God for His character and faithfulness. We can then jump for joy and rejoice with the angels in glory and sing, “Amen! Truly! This is the truth! Praise and glory, wisdom and thanks, honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen! So be it!”
Over In The Gloryland – YouTube
ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2016 | Alison Krauss “Gloryland” (youtube.com)