Glory is not Display

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. (Numbers 14:21)

What comes to your mind when you hear the words ‘the glory of God’?

Do you feel nice or get scared?

Well, I am here to tell you that there is more to be scared of than excited about.

And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: (Hebrews 12:21)

If that glory scared Moses that he literally shook, what makes you think it is all fun and games when the same appears amongst us.

That is the reason I have chosen the verse above.

What was its context?

Spies have gone for a 40 day survey they had requested. Incidentally you realize they were leaders.

But they came with a rotten report saying that Egypt was a better destination despite the land being everything God had promised.

Caleb speaks God’s language and is almost stoned. In fact God had to intervene.

That is when God spoke those words.

His glory meant that close to a million people would die for spiting the promise. It meant that a simple crossing would take forty years and also meant that the ten spies that brought that report would die immediately.

God’s glory is not therefore something to gloat around. It is the visible presence of the consuming fire God, a holy God who is separate from sin. It is the presence of God who does not overlook sin.

That glory was the reason Aaron’s sons died. The reason Uzzah died. The reason Miriam became leprous. And the reason Moses could not cross over despite his forty year faithful service.

Before some accuse me of overly dwelling on the Old Testament, let me also give some New Testament examples.

That glory was the reason Ananias and his wife perished. The reason Elymas became blind. The reason Judas committed suicide.

Have you ever wondered at some verses in the Bible? Like this

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: (Luke 5: 8, 9)

Or this

And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. (Mark 5: 15 – 17)

It is the same thing that happened to the prophet in Isaiah 6.

God’s glory is the closest we can get to Him. You can compare it with the glow that the sun gives behind clouds that gives us a glimpse of the kind of light the sun has.

That is the reason anyone who came close enough to that glory first saw how desperate his situation was, especially concerning his sin. And they knew it was impossible for them to stay with that glory in close proximity without getting burned.

Just as the sun exposes and disperses darkness, God’s glory exposes sin with great clarity. It also paints its condition most accurately.

God’s glory is also the clearest evidence of the presence of God’s power and judgment. That is why everybody who came across it fell prostrate.

It is therefore interesting that we talk about God’s glory when we have not cleaned our spiritual houses. This can only mean that it is a counterfeit glory, or the glory of a fake god.

Look anywhere in the Bible that God’s glory appears and you will notice the consumption of sin or sinners. That in fact is the reason Adam and Eve hid when God came around.

Is that your experience with God’s glory?