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2008: A Year for GLORY
The word the Lord gave me for 2008 represents the visible manifestation of the presence of the Lord among His people. It’s time for us to experience His glory.
Ray Bentley

“Arise, shine; for your light has come!” the prophet proclaimed, “and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1).  I yearn to have those prophetic words be true in my life and yours this year.  To wake up each day and not only feel His presence, but to see the glory of God brilliantly evident in life around me.  

Have you ever personally experienced God's glory? Do you know what it is? Would any of us recognize it when we see it or is it so unmistakable that we are left with awe and wonder?  

Glory is a rather intangible noun described in the dictionary with words like: honor, praise, thanksgiving, worship, majesty, magnificence, splendor, awesome beauty, and wonder. Glory inspires joy and beauty.  God’s glory elevates the word to a level that is beyond earthly beauty and splendor.  To experience the glory of God is to catch a glimpse of heaven and to be bathed in His light.

Glory Incarnate
In that moment of creation when God said, “Let there be light,” all the universe came into being, filling the heavens with sun and moon, planets and life—and glory. Adam and Eve saw the Lord through eyes untarnished by sin as He walked with them in the garden, and they basked in His presence.  Genesis 3:8 says, “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”  They could hear God walking!  There was a tangible presence visiting them.  In theological terms, this is called a theophany, a manifestation of God in the Bible that is tangible to the human senses. Sometimes such appearances are considered preincarnate appearances of Jesus.  Did Jesus walk in the garden with Adam and Eve?

Adam and Eve lived with the glory of God, physically and spiritually, surrounding them every day!  Until they sinned and were expelled from Paradise for their disobedience.  Then, God withdrew His glory and they were banished to a harsh world.

Noah witnessed the horror of a flood covering the whole earth, surpassed only by the wickedness and depravity God chose to eliminate.  When judgment was over, a flash of God's glory burst forth in a multi-colored ray of light. The rainbow…a prism of the glory, a fractured glimpse of heaven, and a promise of greater things to come.

Shekinah
Moses actually saw the backside of God’s glory! The Shekinah, the ancient rabbis called it. He stood before a burning bush that wouldn't burn; seeing light that wasn't light; hiding in the cleft of a rock, protected just enough to guard his life against the power that no mortal can look upon and live. Moses' face lit up as he ran down the mountain, glowing, trying to hold onto the glory by covering his face with a veil.

But even Moses could not contain the Shekinah.  So they built the ark of the covenant, a beautiful boxed sanctuary to carry the sacred tablets and to provide a place for God to dwell among the children of Israel.

Wealthy and wise King Solomon breathed in the presence of God as he dedicated the magnificent temple he built to house the ark. Fire came down from heaven as he prayed, and glory filled the temple.

Poor Ichabod
Then God's people turned away from Him, and Israel entered a desolate stage in its history.  Every fall, I think of that tragic time. During the crisp days of autumn, when costumed children come to your door looking for candy, someone inevitably pulls out the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the story of poor Ichabod Crane.

As a boy I didn’t know the significance of Ichabod’s name, but as a young Bible student I discovered its meaning in the book of Samuel: Ichabod means “the glory of the Lord has departed,” and what remains is godless, desolate—a vacuum for evil and disaster.  Definitely a good scary story name.

Ichabod figuratively became a prominent character in the landscape of Israel’s history.  God withdrew His glory reluctantly, in response to Israel’s faithlessness.  The temple, Solomon’s masterpiece, was eventually destroyed.  Though Habbakuk the prophet proclaimed that the glory would return when the temple was rebuilt, the Shekinah never manifested itself again on a national level.  

When the glory days of Solomon’s reign ended, Israel soon forgot what it was like to experience the glory of God…until one winter night centuries later.  While shepherds watched their flocks, the night sky suddenly lit up with a burst of light, accompanied by heavenly voices heralding the birth of a King!  A tiny baby, lying quietly in an obscure manger, brought the glory of God back to dwell on the earth.

Burning Bushes
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14).  (When was the last time you “beheld” His glory?)  But it didn’t stop there.  Moses once long ago witnessed the burning bush, ablaze with fire that didn’t consume, but Jesus called His disciples the branches of the new tree of life (“I am the vine, you are the branches…").  He came to baptize us with fire, setting our hearts ablaze with the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are the burning bushes of the church age!

That’s what Pentecost was all about, the day that fire came down from heaven once again, only this time to rest upon the heads of the early church.  Not like in Solomon’s time when the fire consumed.  No, this time they sacrificed the Lamb of God, Jesus, on the Cross.  This fire was the glory of God reaching its ultimate destination:  the human heart.  This fire rode on the wings of the Holy Spirit, returning to empower His people with love and strength from on high.

Jesus displayed God's glory in the way He loved, taught, and healed people, until the controversy He generated led to what His followers must have seen as the ultimate perversion of God's glory—the crucifixion.  But remember, the sorrow of Good Friday is always followed by Resurrection day!  When Jesus rose from the dead, He changed the universe forever, and glory was manifested once again throughout creation.

No amount of sin, doubt, disbelief, rebellion, pain, or turmoil—nothing in this battered world can stand against the glory of what Jesus did for us through His death and resurrection.  C.S. Lewis said, “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”

God’s glory lives on in the lives of believers who reflect His presence in their lives, and who serve others with His love, empowered by His Spirit to live abundantly, sacrificially—and gloriously.

May God richly bless you as we anticipate a year of His glory!
 
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