God had hidden a lot of secrets from Israel, even what was most glorious:
· The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
· It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Proverbs 25:2)
We might think that the glory of kings is to build great cities or to conquer great nations. However, their highest glory is to discover the hidden things of God. If this is the glory of kings, we must not underestimate how glorious this knowledge should be for us.
What had God concealed? Before all else, He had concealed
His Messiah:
· He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified”…He says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:2-6; 51;16)
This secret was so guarded that when the discouraged Moses had asked to see God’s glory, God told Moses that he’d would only be permitted to see a tiny aspect of His glory:
· “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20)
The face reveals much about the person, even about their plans. In this way, God, who has no physical face, had told Moses that He would reveal to him His glory, but only a small piece of it – His backside.
However, through Jesus, the Father’s glory had been revealed:
· For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
However, God is spirit and doesn’t have a body. Therefore, He doesn’t have a literal face. Besides, how can we see “the glory of God in the face of Jesus?” Eyes, nose, and mouth cannot convey the glory of God.
Therefore, we must not take this literally. The face or the
image (likeness) of God was matter of the character and intents of God:
· and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness [or “image”] of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:23-24)
Therefore, when God did show Moses His glory, it consisted of a revelation of His Personhood, who He is, and nothing could be more glorious than that:
· The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. (Exodus 34:6-8)
Notice that God had left a lot out of His self-revelation.
Nevertheless, Moses was pleased with what God had revealed to him. Therefore,
he worshiped God. What had He left out? His Messiah and His glorious Gospel:
Later, Jesus revealed to His disciples:
· “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)
Again, we cannot take this literally, because no one has even physically seen the Father who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16; John 1:18). Instead, we have learned of the nature and plan of God through Jesus’ incarnation:
· He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint [likeness] of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…(Hebrews 1:3; John 17:26)
This brings us to the great mystery, “What exactly is the
“Glory of God.” His power? His creation? His coming kingdom? The answer had
been hidden in the Holy of Holies, the place that only the High Priest could
enter once a year. It was covered by the outstretched wings of the Cherubim,
lest, if the High Priest looked upon this object, he would be struck dead. This
object symbolized what had to remain hidden until the fullness of time – the greatest
mystery of God.
The High Priest also had to enter this room with his censor spewing forth
billows of smoke so that the chances of him seeing this object might be further
reduced (Leviticus 16). When I ask my students to identify this secret object,
they inevitably guess the Ark of the Covenant of Moses containing the Ten
Commandment. However, this object was far simpler. It was merely the cover of the Ark, called the “Atonement cover”
or “mercy seat,” also mysteriously called the “propitiation” (Romans 3:25), symbolizing
what would ultimately satisfy God and would pay the price for our
reconciliation to Him. It was also the object to which the high Priest would go
to seek the mercy of God for Israel.
What then is the Glory of God? The most unlikely and unappealing thing in the world:
· And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23-24)
The Cross is the highest expression of the Glory of God. It
is the most pivotal moment of the past and the future. It is the moment upon
which all else rests – the fulfillment of all the promises and plans of God (2
Corinthians 1:20). It is the moment that God had proved His love to us:
· but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)
Jesus showed His glory to them in the humility of love:
· “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Because He is gentle, He can minister lovingly to us. Because He is humble, He can make His plea to the lowest of us. Even the way He came to us proved His humility. He was born in lowest of circumstances, into a smelly animal cave. He had no clothes and so had to be wrapped in swaddling clothes of the deceased. These cloths were purposely kept in caves away from sight and mind, so that the Israelites wouldn’t be reminded of death. The angels announced this unlikely sign to the most lowly of men - shepherds. They were amazed by what they saw in the manger:
· The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:20)
Why did they glorify God for what they had seen? This Messiah was lowly enough to love even them.
Why did God so carefully hide this from His people? When I supervised a unit of probation officers at the NYC Department of Probation, I decided that I would open my heart to them so they could trust me. I shared with them my overriding commitment to truth and to do what is just, hoping that this would win their trust. However, they mistook my kindness for weakness, and tried to get-over on me. Consequently, I had to bring charges against them. As a result, they hated me, and I hated them. From this, I learned that it would be better for all parties that I’d remain somewhat hidden.
Our Lord finally revealed Himself to us during the time of
the oppression of His people under Rome. Even then, they hated and rejected
Him. Had He come as a conquering hero, things would have been different, but
this hadn’t been God’s plan. Instead, His plan was to die the most painful and
humiliating death to prove His love and righteousness (Romans 3:24-26).
It was this revelation of His glory which finally proved to me that God is love!
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