the Glory of God!

The well of the Word of God is so deep that we could study 24 hours a day every day of our lives and never draw out the last drop. My desire is to daily drink deeply from the fountain of His Word and allow the sweet Holy Spirit to teach me and reveal to me treasures abounding! 

What is the glory of God? That may be one of the hardest things to define, yet it is also one of the most important things for us, as Christians, to grab hold of. God’s glory is the manifest presence of Himself. It is God showing us who He is in a tangible way.  It is the beauty of who He is. It is all of His attributes, all of His character and all of His divine nature.

The word glory in Hebrew is kabowd. It means ‘the weight of something in a figurative sense’. It denotes splendor, abundance and honor.

In Exodus 33:18, we see Moses make a request of God. He desired for God to show him His glory. Basically, what Moses said was, “Show me the weight of who You are. Show me Your splendor and honor and abundance.”

Why don’t we ask the same of God today? Is it because we don’t desire to see His glory or is it because we don’t think that He will show us? God wants to show us who He is! He desires to show us His glory! In all the scriptures, only one man had the blessing of seeing His glory but that is because he is the only man that ever asked that of God. We don’t receive because we don’t ask!

I love that Moses had seen God’s glory along with the Jews in the pillar of a cloud and the fire, but Moses desired a deeper revelation. He wanted a personal glimpse of God’s glory. He wanted the intimacy of relationship with God.  He wanted a new vision. That’s what we need to be seeking today. A new vision of God and His glory. A new revelation of who He is and who He desires us to be. We need to be desperate for intimacy with our God and with our Savior. So desperate that we will ask God to show us His glory!

As we look at verse 19, we see God’s gorgeous response. God says, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before thee.”

The word goodness in the Hebrew is tuwb. It means ‘good in the widest sense; pleasant; beautiful; delightful; lovely; righteous; precious; the best things. Basically it is meaning ‘nothing withheld’. 

So, God is telling Moses, “You want to see My glory? I’ll show you My glory. I’ll show you everything good about Me. I will withhold nothing from you.”

The next part of that verse is so beautiful. God says, “I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee”. Now, that doesn't sound so amazing until you stop and dwell on it. An earthly king has his name announced by proclamation before he enters into the throne room in all his splendor. It is announced so that there is no mistake who the king is. It is the greatness of the earthly king revealed to those around him. 

And now we see our God doing this very thing to Moses. He is telling Moses that He will hide him in the cleft of the rock and cover him with His holy hand. Then before He passes by in all His glory and all His goodness, withholding nothing from him, God will proclaim His Name before him. Let there be no mistake who the King is. Let there be no mistake of His splendor and His majesty and His honor.

The glory of God in our lives today is everything that makes God, God. It encompasses all His Authority. All of His Power. All of His Wisdom. It is the immeasurable weight of God wrapped up in the splendor of His manifest presence. He withholds nothing from us when we truly desire to see His face. To behold His glory. To worship Him in spirit and in truth. 

Our prayer today should be nothing less than, “Oh, God, show me your glory!”  Let us fall on our faces in sheer desperation of just a glimpse of this in our lives. May He cover us with His loving hand and reveal His goodness to us, withholding nothing. And may we receive it and give Him praise and honor forever.