The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 44:4,
"Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the glory of the Lord filling the temple of the Lord, and I fell facedown."
In his vision Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord filling the temple he has been shown. His response is that he fell facedown. I find a similar response from Moses, Peter, James and John. All who have had the opportunity to witness the glory of the Lord have been impacted by it. We are told the Israelites worshipped at the opening of their tents whenever they saw the glory of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting when the Lord would meet with Moses.
Over the past few weeks I have had a recurring thought that the world is desperate for a view of the Lord's glory. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, a huge consequence has been the separation and isolation we have had from our Creator. As we read the account of Adam and Eve prior to their sin we clearly see we were originally designed for a relationship with God where we regularly experienced God's presence.
That presence is a glorious presence. A presence in our sinful and weakened state that is a blinding brilliance in the physical and a breathtaking sense of beauty and awe in a myriad of perfections of qualities in the metaphysical. As I read of the reactions of those who have encountered the Lord's glory in the pages of Scripture like Ezekiel, it must be a presence of such holiness that one is left feeling contrite and humbled; horrified at the contrast of a felt sinful condition in our present state of humanity compared to the moral excellence and pristine purity of our holy God.
My thought of this desperate need the world has of tasting, of seeing the Lord's glory, comes from the acknowledgment that we have a need to experience something much bigger than ourselves. We have a need to encounter that which is real and true, that which "yanks" our thinking straight about who we are and where we stand in God's economy of things. The befuddled thinking of our day, the perverse and warped things folks get involved in, the desperate drive to elbow others out so we can get ours - all must become instantly scorched and scoured in the burning penetration of this unspeakable brilliance we call the glory of the Lord.
Surely this is one of the worst consequences of our fall in the Garden of Eden: we have had our exposure to the wonderful and penetrating glory of the Lord withdrawn from us! What the world needs, what each of us needs is an encounter with the awe-inducing, stop-dead-in-your-tracks brilliance of the glory of the Lord! And, this is exactly what is headed our way! Just like a big freight train that has already left the station down the tracks and headed our way, the glory of the Lord is headed our way… unstoppable, and certain to arrive at exactly the right time! I'm not sure when it is best to "buckle up" for it, but today can't be too soon!
In his vision Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord filling the temple he has been shown. His response is that he fell facedown. I find a similar response from Moses, Peter, James and John. All who have had the opportunity to witness the glory of the Lord have been impacted by it. We are told the Israelites worshipped at the opening of their tents whenever they saw the glory of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting when the Lord would meet with Moses.
Over the past few weeks I have had a recurring thought that the world is desperate for a view of the Lord's glory. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, a huge consequence has been the separation and isolation we have had from our Creator. As we read the account of Adam and Eve prior to their sin we clearly see we were originally designed for a relationship with God where we regularly experienced God's presence.
That presence is a glorious presence. A presence in our sinful and weakened state that is a blinding brilliance in the physical and a breathtaking sense of beauty and awe in a myriad of perfections of qualities in the metaphysical. As I read of the reactions of those who have encountered the Lord's glory in the pages of Scripture like Ezekiel, it must be a presence of such holiness that one is left feeling contrite and humbled; horrified at the contrast of a felt sinful condition in our present state of humanity compared to the moral excellence and pristine purity of our holy God.
My thought of this desperate need the world has of tasting, of seeing the Lord's glory, comes from the acknowledgment that we have a need to experience something much bigger than ourselves. We have a need to encounter that which is real and true, that which "yanks" our thinking straight about who we are and where we stand in God's economy of things. The befuddled thinking of our day, the perverse and warped things folks get involved in, the desperate drive to elbow others out so we can get ours - all must become instantly scorched and scoured in the burning penetration of this unspeakable brilliance we call the glory of the Lord.
Surely this is one of the worst consequences of our fall in the Garden of Eden: we have had our exposure to the wonderful and penetrating glory of the Lord withdrawn from us! What the world needs, what each of us needs is an encounter with the awe-inducing, stop-dead-in-your-tracks brilliance of the glory of the Lord! And, this is exactly what is headed our way! Just like a big freight train that has already left the station down the tracks and headed our way, the glory of the Lord is headed our way… unstoppable, and certain to arrive at exactly the right time! I'm not sure when it is best to "buckle up" for it, but today can't be too soon!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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