Nov. 18 Glory of God

November 18 - Glory of God

Yesterday I wrote about the Shekinah - the presence of God ... in the clouds, in the fire that led the people of Israel. When God was present on earth, it was called Shekinah. (shuh - kine' - uh).

There are actually quite a few references to this in scripture and I want to look at some more of those today.

Exodus 24:17, "To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain."

The glory of the Lord is something that I don't know if we fully understand. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says that it refers to God's majestic beauty and splendor and the recognition of that by people on earth. But, the other part of God's glory is His holiness.

In Psalm 19:1, we find that the "heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." He is the King of glory in Psalm 24 and in Psalm 57:5 we find that He is exalted above the heavens and His glory is over all the earth. He is jealous of His glory in Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols."

God's glory is proclaimed by creation and is a great theme of praise by mankind!

Glory also refers to the dwelling of God with man - Shekinah. When the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and then rebuilt, God's Shekinah glory never returned to the temple. The people of earth didn't see a return until Jesus was born.

Luke 2:9, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified."

With Jesus' birth, God returned to earth to dwell among His people.

John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and lived for awhile among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Stephen sees the glory of God in Acts 7:55 and Saul is blinded by it in Acts 9:3.

We will see the glory of God when Jesus returns to usher in the New Kingdom. Revelation 10:11-12, "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, adn showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."

God's glory is present. Praise the Lord!