The Glory of God

“The Glory of God”,  is from my forthcoming book The Tabernacle: A Personal Journey

Around 1440 B.C., in an unusual mountain top encounter, God gave a man named Moses exact instructions on how to build a tabernacle. Moses followed God’s directions exactly. Then he wrote about it in the Pentateuch. His records survive in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible.

About 1500 years later, followers of Jesus began to see that every aspect of the Tabernacle in the wilderness spoke of Jesus Christ.  The layout, the dimensions, the materials, the location, the colors, everything about it is meaningful. It matters that God directed only one tabernacle, one altar and one cross. The only place where man and God have fully met on earth was in Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus can man find a place to fully meet with God’s love and power today. He was God’s dwelling place on earth.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

God’s glory filled the tabernacle. As believers in Jesus, His glory thrills us, it motivates us; seeking His glory is our purpose; it’s also our inheritance. But surprisingly, His glory is often misunderstood. For decades I pasted together random observations and thoughts with bits of Bible revelation and came up with my own my own definition of glory. I saw God’s glory like a vision board with pictures that included the pure and shining gold of the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, John’s description of Jesus in Revelation as man with dazzling white hair, eyes like blazing fire, feet like highly polished bronze, and a voice that roared like the tumult of the sea or Niagara Falls. His face was blindingly brilliant, brighter than the shining noonday sun. (Revelation 1:14-16). I included the glory of His return to earth on magnificent clouds as well as large expressions of natural “glory” like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, volcanic eruptions, thunders and lightnings and the beauties of the earth.  My pictures of glory included the wild activities of Heaven, with flashes of light, cherubim and the continual calls of “Holy, Holy, Holy” around a throne like jasper and carnelian that sat on a sea of glass and was encircled by a rainbow that gleamed and sparkled like the finest emerald. (Revelation 4: 2-3) To that, I added bits of supernatural revelation from Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel and bathed everything except the storms in supernatural light, like the light in John’s description of the New Jerusalem

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. Revelation 21: 21-24

That’s all pretty glorious, isn’t it? It’s all true, but it doesn’t say enough; it’s incomplete. The Hebrew word for glory, kabod, means weight, splendor, copiousness, glory and honor. It’s connected to reputation, to all that makes someone or something important. It’s from a root that means heavy.[1]  The Greek word for glory, doxa, is rooted in words that mean radiance and suggest dignity, glory, honor, praise or worship.[2] In current American English, glory suggests abundance[3]

If I understand it rightly, everything Jesus said or did revealed God and contributed to the weight of His glory. The first time Jesus revealed His glory to his disciples, His eyes didn’t blaze. He didn’t call for thunder and lightning or give His disciples visions of cherubim and emerald like rainbows. It was at a wedding feast and the host had run out of wine. His mother went to Jesus and suggested He do something about it. Quietly, out sight of everyone but his disciples and a few servants, Jesus honored his mother’s request and turned water into wine—lots and lots of wine—at least 120 gallons.[4]

This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him. John 2:11

Everything Jesus is, says or does is part of His glory. John first saw Jesus’ glory on earth as His young beloved disciple. Decades later, as an elderly apostle, John wrote in the Book of Revelation of being lifted up to see glimpses of Jesus’ Heavenly glory, the glory John had once heard Jesus praying about shortly before His crucifixion, when He said,

And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self— with the glory which I had with you before the world was. John 17:5  

 What does this have to do with you and me?  Jesus wants to strengthen us from His glory.

I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

Jesus wants us to see His glory and He invites us into His glory.

Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24

The pattern for worship that Moses established in that little tent in the Sinai Peninsula lays the foundation for a time when God’s people will move into His glory. The form of Tabernacle worship embraced by the Israelites during their wilderness journey disappeared centuries ago. Yet every feast, every ritual, every piece of furniture and sacrifice the Israelites used for worshipping God during their wilderness journey prophetically represented eternal patterns of worship in Spirit and in Truth.   

Because the tabernacle was based on heavenly truth, nothing was left to chance in its design, materials and construction. All was designed to prophetically reveal that Jesus, the Son of God, who was coexistent with the Father and slain from before the foundation of the world, would be and is the sacrificial Passover lamb who died for our sins.

And all who dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8

[You were redeemed] . . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. 
1 Peter 1:18-20

As God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle, was a type [5] of God’s Son. As God ‘s dwelling place on earth, the tabernacle was gloriously physically beautiful.  When all the work on it was complete, God dwelt under the glory cloud that descended to fill it.

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Exodus 40:34-35

That very presence lived inside of Jesus.  What drawing power, what charisma He must have had to the tender-hearted and humble. No wonder the priests were jealous of Him.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Jesus‘ glory lives on earth today through us. His glory comes whenever the Holy Spirit helps us worship Him in Spirit and truth. His presence always carries His glory. In His glory, He does what His love alone will do. In Jesus glory, people are healed, saved, delivered, encouraged, strengthened, guided, comforted and fulfilled.

Father, please use us, Your Son’s body on earth,  to show the world Your glory. Please answer Jesus’ prayer, the one He prayed on night before He died when He asked You,

. . . that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.  I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.…John 17: 21-23. BST

Endnotes

[1] Strong’s Old Testament Hebrew Concordance 3519

[2] Strong’s New Testament Greek Concordance 3591The Greek word for glory, doxa, means an apparent or figurative dignity, glory, honor, praise or worship.

[3] Synonyms include words like copiousness, superabundant, plentiful, ample, profuse, full, extensive, considerable, substantial, generous, lavish, fulsome, liberal, bountiful, overflowing, abounding, teeming, countless and innumerable https://www.lexico.com/synonyms/copious

[4] The jars Jesus used to turn water into wine were the jars used for the Jewish rites of purification. At the last supper, before His death and resurrection, Jesus told his disciples that wine represented His blood, shed for them to cleanse them from sin.

[5] A type is a likeness, picture or representation of one thing or person by another. For example, Isaac, Joseph, David and Solomon are all types of Jesus. They represent Him or facets of Him. In different contexts, many words are interchangeable for type, words like foreshadow, prefigure, prophetic picture, represent, and illustrate. I use them all.