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A Primer on the Glory of God, Part 1: What is God’s Glory?

Isaiah 6:1 ¶ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

First, we must begin with my basic presupposition: to speak of God is to speak of the God who has eternally existed as one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Any reference to God’s glory can speak of the three in One, or of any of the individual persons in the Godhead. We determine this based on the context of the passage in question.

In relation to God’s glory, notice two things here. First, notice the language of fullness. In verse 1, Isaiah sees the train of the Lord’s robe ‘fill[ing] the temple.’ Second, the seraphim declare that ‘the whole earth is full of his glory.’ Jonathan Edwards picks up on such language relating to fullness as he describes God’s glory (externally) as “the emanation and true external expression of God’s internal glory and fulness.” God’s glory is his own internal fullness, or “his infinite fulness of good.” God is an “infinite fountain of holiness, moral excellence, and beauty” (Works of Jonathan Edwards (Banner), vol. 1, p. 100). In light of God’s fullness, which fills the temple, and indeed fills the earth, it should be no surprise that he is declared, not simply to be holy, but, to be ‘holy, holy, holy.’ There is a fullness to God’s holiness.

The Hebrew term in Isaiah 6 translated glory is כָּבֹד (kabod). The word generally denotes weight, abundance, honor, wealth, or riches, with weight being the primary reference. To speak of God’s glory is to speak of his weight or abundance. He is not simply holy, he is ‘holy, holy, holy;’ he is holy to the brim; he is, as it were, weighed down, or filled up, with holiness.

God’s abundance cannot be contained:

  • 1 Kings 8:27 ¶ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

He is ‘full of grace and truth’:

  • John 1:14 ¶ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

His love and faithfulness know no bounds:

  • Psalm 36:5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

His joy is full:

  • Psalm 16:11 ¶ You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy.

He is rich in wisdom and knowledge, his judgements are unfathomable:

  • Romans 11:33 ¶ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways

To speak of God’s glory, therefore, is to speak of his fullness; in all his attributes he lacks nothing, being perfectly complete. He is, as it were, operating at maximum capacity. A glorious house is a full house; a glorious stomach is a full stomach; a glorious mind is a full mind; and a glorious God is a full God.

Next, notice the result of the revelation of God’s glory in Isaiah 6: ‘…The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke’ (v. 4). Because God is glorious, because he is weighty in his abundance, his presence shakes whatever it touches:

  • Exodus 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
  • Psalm 68:7 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah 8 the earth quaked.

However, it is not only the temple, or the earth, that shakes when God reveals his weight; Isaiah himself is shaken: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone…’ (v. 5).

The first great test of your experience of the glory of God, therefore, is whether it has shaken you to the foundations. When such fullness intersects with sinful man, it undoes him from the inside out like an earthquake. This is why, in the presence of Jesus Christ, some men and women fell before him as though they were dead, some gave away the great majority of their wealth, some gave up their occupations, and all gave up their claims to greatness and personal glory. When you have experienced such weight, you realize that you yourself are light. ‘All have sinned,’ says the Apostle Paul, ‘and fallen short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23). If you were put in the balance with God, the scale would tip dramatically, flinging you to a place that you do not want to be. You will either be shaken by his glory, or, ultimately, crushed by his glory.

From this context the gospel comes to us. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal God of glory, makes himself nothing in our place, that we might be weighed in the balance and want nothing. He ’empties himself’ that we, by faith, might be counted as though we lacked nothing. The great Heavyweight lives a life of glory, and dies the death of a sinner, that we lightweights might make weight, or measure up, through him; He gives up his honor that we might be counted as honorable and he gives up his riches that we might be rich in him:

  • 2 Corinthians 8:9 ¶ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

This is a heavyweight gospel, from a glorious God.

A Drop in the Bucket

Every other year, as the Olympics roll around, my mind gravitates back to one great scene in Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell has abstained from competing in the Olympics on Sunday, to honor the Christian Sabbath. As the pomp and pageantry of the Olympics plays out on the screen, Liddell stands in a pulpit, reading from Isaiah 40.

The stadium is full, and Liddell reads, ‘the nations are as a drop in the bucket, and are accounted as small dust in the balance.’

The race goes on, the crowds cheer on, and Liddell reads on, ‘He bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as a vanity.’

A runner strides with all his might, biting the dust in defeat. He reads on, ‘Hast thou not known?’

Another runner crosses the finish line, giving his last great burst of energy to break the tape, and still he reads on, ‘Has thou not heard…that the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not? Neither is he weary.’

He ends the reading of Isaiah 43: ‘He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no strength, He increaseth might…They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary…’

I witnessed the pomp and pageantry again tonight. I saw Russia’s spectacle – a sordid history in digital technicolor. And so did God. He saw it all when it happened, and what he saw was another drop in the bucket. Babel, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia, et al – all drops in a bucket, all dust on the scales. We enjoy our 15 minutes of fame and flame, and we fizzle out. And God races on, as powerful as ever, never growing faint or weary.

Jesus Christ is our true and greater Olympia.  He is greater than Zeus, the greatest of the olympians (Acts 17:28), for his power is the power of life. He takes on the flesh of man, and with joy runs the race before Him (Heb. 12:2), being crowned with the wreath – the crown of thorns – on the cross, before saying, ‘It is finished.’ And because it is finished – because he lived the life we couldn’t live and died the death we deserve, taking the very last drop of the wrath of God- we do not need the accolades of the earth. We do not need to run fast to prove that we are worthy of our existence. We do not need the affirmation of judges and nations. It is finished.

The true Judge of the earth stood on that great scale of God and was found wanting – not an 8 from the Russians, but the perfect judgment of God, not because of anything lacking in him, but as a substitute, standing in our place, receiving our own judgement. And now we, who are dust on the scales, are exalted to heaven by him. You don’t have to run that race. It is finished. He takes dust and he makes them stars. He takes less than nothing and makes exalts it to the heavens. He takes the weak and makes them mighty. He takes the weary and makes them soar like eagles.

All the nations together are a drop in a bucket. But a drop of the blood of Christ makes insects into eagles, beggars into princes, dust on the scales into jewels in a crown.

 

Even These May Forget, Yet I Will Not

  • Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

My poetic paraphrase and expansion:

Zion says, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken?’
But God says, ‘Zion, Zion, you are mistaken.’

‘Can a mother forget her nursing child?
As she cries for food will she be reviled?

Even these may forget, yet I will not.
For my covenant with your fathers I have not forgot.

I have burned you into the palms of my hands.
And your walls before me continually stand.

See the holes in my hand and the wound in my side.
How can I forget those for whom I have died?’

Looking Up and Seeing Again

  • Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

One of the most profound experiences of my life happened at about 4:30am in the year 2000 or 2001. They say nothing good happens that time of day, and I think that’s true for those who tend to hit the clubs and parties until the wee hours of the morning, but it’s not true entirely. It was December or January, and I was in a john boat heading down a ditch en route to a duck blind with two friends, excited about the upcoming hunt. I was in the middle of the boat, lying down on my back, as I often did, in order to keep the cold wind from smacking me in the face. But something was happening in the sky – something that I had never seen before.

I saw a shooting star – and then another, and another. Stars were shooting all over the place. It looked like the heavens were coming down, one star at a time. I didn’t know what was going on. But I was profoundly moved. I had never seen such beauty. I had never been in awe of the night sky before then. I found out later that I had witnessed a meteor shower. At 19 years old, sadly, I didn’t even know what a meteor shower was.

The visual impact of the meteor shower was intensified because my friends and I were in the middle of nowhere. We were in the woods, deep in the Mississippi river bottoms of northeast Arkansas, far away from any city lights.

The image of the night sky on that occasion still lingers with me. I’ve tried to watch showers since, but it’s near impossible where I currently live, being in a metropolitan area. I have, however, made a tradition with my oldest daughter over the past several years. Each time I go home for Christmas I take her out into a cotton field, away from all the lights, and we sit on the hood of the car to stare at the stars. They’re so much brighter in the Arkansas delta than they are here. It never ceases to move me.

As I was driving home tonight I noticed the full moon peeking out behind some hazy clouds. I made a mental note to myself of how often I just ignore the moon. So often I treat it as if it’s just background light, nothing really to take note of. I’d rather stare at a computer screen.

I bring all this up because lately I’ve been thinking about the planets and the stars. It all started with an interview I heard from Mars Hill Audio. Ken Myers conducted a fascinating interview with Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia, a book which sets forth the position that C.S. Lewis’ governing principle in the structure of the seven Narnia books is based upon the seven celestial bodies of ancient astrology. I don’t have time presently to write at length about this, but the discussion was stimulating to say the least.

That discussion led me to check out an audio book about the planets from the local library, which again, was fascinating.

And finally, I happened across D. James Kennedy’s book, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac, at a local Goodwill, and purchased it for a quarter. I’m presently reading it with delight. I know the book has gotten some flack, and possibly deservedly so, since Kennedy does seem to conflate natural and special revelation to a significant degree. But it is fascinating nonetheless, and well worth reading.

The main takeaway from all this at present is that I do not want to become someone who is mesmerized by a television screen while completely oblivious to the wonders that are all around me in nature. The header image on this blog is of a swimming pool positioned near the ocean. I once heard John Piper comment on staying in an beachfront hotel that had a swimming pool near the ocean. It struck him as preposterous. Why do you need a pool when you’ve got the Pacific? It’s man’s pool vs. God’s pool. And God’s is greater.

But we can control our little pools, get them to just the right temperature, build diving boards, have televisions on the patio and bar stools in the water right in front of the screen. Aren’t we awesome? Not really.

Modern science has had the unfortunate impact of disenchanting creation. Yet creation remains enchanting, if only we take the time to look. Stars are just balls of gas burning at extremely high temperatures to the modern mind. C.S. Lewis brushed back against this mentality in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (who, by the way, treads the dawn?) when the retired star Ramandu notes that even in our world a star is not simply a ball of gas – that’s only what it’s made of (not what it is).

I’m taking a physical geography class presently. It’s all about clouds and precipitation, floods, solar angles, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the like. It’s all very technical. Yet it’s all very awe-inspiring, if we have eyes to see. But television and computer screens have dulled our vision. Sometimes you just need to get out in the dark and look up and say, ‘Who created these?’ (Isaiah 40:26).

In the vision of John set forth in the book of Revelation, he sees risen Christ thus:

  • Revelation 1:16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Stars in his hand and face like the sun. Indeed, the heavens declare the glory of God.

A while back I was driving to church with my family. It was early in the morning and we were admiring the sunrise. My daughter said, ‘You know daddy, the stars never go away. The sun is just so bright that we can’t see them in its light. I learned that at school.’ From the mouth of babes…

In those words a 6 year-old preached to me a powerful sermon that she didn’t know she was preaching. Immediately a passage came to my mind:

  • Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

It’s not that the sun and moon are necessarily going to be done away with in the new heavens and the new earth. Rather, it’s that the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will shine so brightly that their light will be swallowed up in it. I look forward to Christmas vacation so that I can see the lights of the delta, but more so I look forward to that last day when the glory behind their glory, which surpasses their glory, will be revealed in all His brightness. Come, Lord Jesus.