Your Glory: A Biblical Study

By Philip Powers

Like the blind men who touched different parts of the elephant and thought they knew the whole, we touch just a piece of God’s glory and think we know what it is. But we can’t agree with each other, so we must not know. Or we try to wrap it up in one big idea: God is great, full of splendour! But does that help?

Moses asked God, “Show me your glory!” And God shouts to be known. Yet, just like the boy in The Emperor’s New Clothes, a voice inside me cries out, “I don’t see it! There must be more!” Do you see and understand God’s glory? If we did, we would be terrified, undone, never the same. And I long for you to know it that way, too.

This study examines every use of the key words used for glory in the Old Testament and the New. We will see the lie about glory that changed everything. Yet the truth about glory is both dangerous and good. It binds us to God in an indivisible eternal bond. It is our identity and purpose for being. It gives to us a magnificent burden that is just the beginning of seeing and knowing glory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781486620647

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YOUR GLORY

Copyright © 2020 by Philip Powers

All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Print ISBN: 978-1-4866-2063-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4866-2064-7

Word Alive Press

119 De Baets Street, Winnipeg, MB R2J 3R9

www.wordalivepress.ca

Cataloguing in Publication may be obtained through Library and Archives Canada

To Pastor Jeremiah (Jerry) G. Riffe

One of the first of many

who gave me glimpses of God’s glory

and fuelled in me a deep love for God

and joy in his Word.

—Psalm 73:23–26

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

1. The Worth of Glory

2. The Power of Glory

3. The Character of Glory

4. The Gift of Glory

5. The Response of Glory

6. Your Greatest Treasure

Study Guide: Think About These Things

Scripture Index

Acknowledgements

My wife, Neva, has shaped my life and this book more than she realizes. Her constant prayers and words of encouragement have kept me close to the Lord, listening to his voice rather than to my doubts. She spent many hours proofreading the multiple drafts of this manuscript, and her honest question—What does this mean? I don’t get it—often brought clarity to the jumble of ideas in my head.

My partnership with Word Alive Press is a pleasure, and I am so thankful to have found this publisher. Marina Reis, my project manager, guided me through the process with professionalism and kindness. Evan Braun, my editor, used his skill with great patience to fix my many blunders and polish my manuscript into a book that clearly communicates what I wish to say.

I will forever be indebted to the investment of Dallas Theological Seminary, for my skills in the Scriptures and for a deepening love for Christ. My professors laid a foundation that continues to bear fruit in my walk with the Lord and ministry to others. They knew of these glimpses of glory and heard the echoes of our final home because they had heard the voice of God.

And I am thankful for the many friends and people I’ve met who have asked, When is that book going to be finished? Well, here it is. Thank you for the motivation and encouragement.

Preface

…what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

—Psalm 8:4–5

Crowned him with glory—this thought has nagged at me for several decades. I must blame (or credit) Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost for this disturbance. As one of my favourite seminary professors, he had a huge influence on my life, and in several classes he captured my wonder and planted these seeds of disquiet.

I see the word glory in print, hear it used in conversations, sermons, and songs—both in and outside the church—and as I compare those observations with the depth of meaning found in Scripture, it seems we are ignorant of what it means. I include myself in this ignorance. That is why my discontent has only increased. Over the years, my mind has continued to come back to this question: What is glory, God’s glory? Not in some casual religious sense or theologically technical definition, but deep down at its core.

As I put to paper thoughts and study that have occupied me for nearly forty years, the world is struggling through the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future generations may look back on these days as pivotal but also slight compared to events that will have followed in the years since. But whether today or in those coming years, we need to understand and embrace more completely than perhaps we ever have what that eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17) truly means.

I would be deceiving myself if I thought I could ever get close to fully grasping the truth of glory. After all, it is God’s glory, and I am not divine. Our minds only have the capacity of teacups compared to the oceans of truth contained in his glory.

Yet Scripture tells us a lot about his glory, as if God really does want us to understand what it is. And he does expect us to understand. So, for the benefit of us all, I will attempt to put the proverbial cookies on the bottom shelf, even though the truth is higher than the heavens (Psalm 113:4).

This book is not intended to be an academic treatise, though I have attempted to base it solidly on scholarly exegesis. Rather it is meant to unfold the magnificent truth of God’s glory as revealed in Scripture to anyone who would ask of God, Show me your glory.

But here is my problem: the more I grasp just how broad, deep, and high this truth is—how magnificent and infinite—another question begins to trouble me, and this is the question that has become the burden driving me to write this book: why did God crown mankind with this glory? Why did he give such an incomprehensible gift to beings whom he knew would rebel and reject him? What does this gift tell me about myself? But more importantly, what does it tell me about him?

Your glory. Since this is God’s glory, it must be more—even more than what God has shown in his Word and creation. It will fill the earth as oceans cover the seas (Habakkuk 2:14), and who can see or understand every height, every dark subterranean crack, or inside every molecule or atom extending to the reaches of unseen galaxies? Scripture is so filled with references and descriptions of his glory that it glistens from every peak and fills to overflowing every recess. And if you or I could grasp all of this, there would still be so much more of his glory to encounter because he is infinite.

How then could I even begin to consider writing about God’s glory? I have no false expectation that I will even come close to conveying it. I only hope to do more than what we casually, automatically, and often superficially do when we talk about God’s glory or giving him glory.

As J.I. Packer wrote in his preface to Knowing God, this is

not a critique of new paths, except indirectly, but rather a straightforward recall to old ones, on the ground that ‘the good way’ is still what it used to be. I do not ask my readers to suppose that I know very well what I am talking about.¹

My desire is to call us to look deeply into what God has chosen to show us of his glory. To believe it deeply. To accept and respond to his unveiling of glory so that we can be changed now in a true and deep way that renders our lives a glimpse of the surpassing glory that is coming—his glory.

I pray that I will not go in a direction other than what God has revealed, not add anything foreign to his glory or take away anything that belongs. I want to stay true to what his Word says, and I challenge all of us to look deeply, carefully, humbly, and expectantly—because his glory is much more than we have thought.

—March 2020

Pambrun, Saskatchewan

Introduction

What, another book about the glory of God?! No, not another like the others. There are many other fine books and articles that touch on glory and what it means to glorify God. They might have an entire chapter dedicated to a study of glory in the exposition of the Bible, or perhaps a study of theology. There are many good books on the practical application of giving glory to God. You should expect that, because the word glory is found in nearly every book of the Bible.

Yet as you read the Bible and come across the words glory or glorify, and try to apply what you learned in the last book you read, you may well come away scratching your head in confusion. You might wonder, how does that meaning fit here?

I’m not sure I understand, you may say to yourself. There seems to be something more—a deeper meaning that I’m missing. And how does glory in this passage fit with the glory my pastor spoke about last Sunday?

I’ve had the same sense that there must be something more. My mind works in pictures, and if I can’t picture it—to turn it around, look at it from different angles, and have a sense of stepping into this idea and knowing—then I must admit I don’t understand. I may have a vague impression of what it means, but I don’t own it with my mind, belief, and action.

Let me explain two problems we often have when it comes to grasping the meaning of glory. I will illustrate them with an elephant.

First, the problem of different meanings. Have you heard the ancient parable from India about the blind men and the elephant? Six blind beggars had often heard about elephants, but of course they had never seen one. One day an elephant was driven down the road in front of them and stopped so they might learn about the beast through touch.

The first blind man put his hand on the elephant’s side and exclaimed, Now I know all about this beast. He is exactly like a wall. The second felt only the elephant’s tusk and concluded, You are mistaken. He is round and smooth and sharp like a spear. The third grabbed the elephant’s trunk and proclaimed, You are both wrong! Anyone can easily see this beast is like a snake. The fourth reached out and felt the elephant’s legs. How blind you are! It is plain to me that he is round and tall like a tree. The fifth was a tall man and he touched the elephant’s ear. Even the blindest must know he is nothing like you have said. He is exactly like a huge fan. Finally, the sixth blind man stumbled into the elephant and seized its tail. You have all lost your senses! Anyone can clearly see this beast is like a rope.

For the rest of the day they argued. Each believed their encounter with the elephant explained the nature of the beast, and any other explanation was wrong.

In the same way, we can’t seem to agree on the nature of glory. It seems to have many different meanings among those who study the Bible and with those who have had a spiritual experience that impressed them with God’s glory.

There is, in fact, justification for those differences. The apostle John says the glory of Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14), yet glory will also light the new creation, making sun and moon unnecessary (Revelation 21:23), and the humble believer is to glory in his high position (James 1:9), and glory devoured the top of Mount Sinai with fire and darkness (Deuteronomy 4:11). How can these all be the same beast?

One author gave up on finding a clear sense of the whole and concluded there is no single meaning to this word group; rather the idea is so diversified… and leads off in so many different directions that its core can elude our grasp.²

This is our first problem: each of us has a different opinion on what glory is because we have each touched a different part and have not yet seen the whole. Like the blind men, we have not seen God face to face.

The second problem is just the opposite: creating a single meaning that captures the whole. This is what we do to counter the discomfort caused by confusion with the many ways the word glory is used. We strive for a simple, single idea that can capture all its nuances. In doing so, we often end up with a definition that is so broad that it becomes meaningless.

Going back to the illustration of the elephant, suppose you decide the best way to describe the beast to those who have never seen one is to say, That animal is something else! Well, of course it is. But that doesn’t provide a picture anyone can grasp. It doesn’t help me to understand it and differentiate it from anything else.

In the same way, many descriptions of God’s glory could be restated as God is great! thus to glorify him means to recognize his greatness. You may read that God’s glory is his splendour—even the word sounds magnificent. Perhaps we should use magnificence! But these definitions don’t draw us any closer to knowing the God of glory. Instead they leave us with a sense of distance from a God who cannot be understood.

However, throughout Scripture and ringing through creation God shouts to be known. So he must have said enough about his glory in Scripture for us to look at and touch it with our own senses (1 John 1:1–4) so that we might see the picture and grasp the meaning of glory.

What we must do is bring together the pieces of glory God has asked us to touch and know into an understanding of the whole, without making that whole a meaningless abstraction. Each part of glory must still show itself in full brilliance and power.

That is why I believe this book is necessary. The quest to see, to know as fully as our mortality will allow, the very thing that Moses asked of God—Please show me your glory (Exodus 33:18)—is the thing that has driven me for years. And though I am just beginning to see what’s behind those glimpses of glory, I have been thoroughly changed.

For six decades, since I was a child, I have heard glory easily sung, spoken, and written, all the time assuming we know what this is and nobody needs to explain it. Yet inside me, like the boy from The Emperor’s New Clothes, a voice keeps crying out, But I don’t see it! I don’t really know it!³

Do you? We are in danger of trivializing the God of glory. World War II was not just unfortunate; the discovery of penicillin was not just nice; the universe is not just pretty big. And glory is not just magnificent splendour. The truth about God is beyond our comprehension, yet it binds us to him in an indivisible eternal bond. It is our identity and our purpose for being.

We talk about glory as confidently and casually as we talk about knowing that the sun will come up tomorrow. If we did know glory, in the way God has revealed it in his Word, we would be terrified, undone, never the same. And I long for you to know it in that way, too.

For this study, I have looked at every use of the key words used for glory in the Old Testament and the New. I encourage you to look up the Scripture references in their context. That is why I have included many of them throughout the chapters and listed them at the end of this book.

I have built on the assumption that there is a single meaning for glory throughout the Bible. This is a valid assumption because he is the one unchanging God, and glory is a revelation of who he is. His very being is the source of all true glory and the one who exposes the lie of every attempt to exchange that glory for something else.

Chapter One will begin with the lie, because that is where we live and that is what we know. Through contrast, it will help us to understand the categories that define the true glory of God. Chapters Two and Three will take us to the glory of God that is, at the same time, both dangerous and good. Then we will be ready, in Chapters Four and Five, to be astonished with what the God of glory has done and humiliated by what we have done to it. Yet from creation’s beginning to its end, God has bound us to his glory, creating with it our identity and purpose.

Our study will conclude in Chapter Six by recognizing that God has given to us a magnificent burden of glory. Despite the dazzling immensity of the truth we will discover, this is just the beginning of seeing and knowing glory.

1. The Worth of Glory

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

—Matthew 6:21, NLT

A Need to Know

Some words change their meaning with time, and the original idea is lost forever. The word nice once meant silly, foolish, simple, but today it’s a compliment. In its early use, the word silly described things that were worthy or blessed; now it just means foolish. The word fizzle once described the act of producing quiet flatulence; in American slang, it’s now the failure of a bad idea. A clue was once a ball of yarn, but now it’s a trail of evidence. Flirting used to refer to a quick flicking motion, and now it’s something done to make a spouse jealous. And how could the people of King James’s day worship an awful God? Because back then, the word awful meant worthy of awe.⁴

Maybe glory is one of those words, too. Whether written or spoken, it seems we are not quite sure what it means. Have we lost its original meaning? Glory! can be an exclamation of shock, or an appreciative word of wonder. It might describe a classic 1934 Chevy restored to its former glory, or a soldier who fought and died for the glory of his country. One Canadian company uses Glory in its name to be certain you know they are a one-of-a-kind company in the national landscape.

English translations of the Bible usually translate the forms of the Hebrew kābôd and the Greek doxa as glory, glorious, or glorify. But occasionally these translations try to capture a more specific idea and use honour, praise, or more rarely worship, magnify, or exalt. John Sachs concluded that

it is probably best to treat the word as something of a cipher, a heuristic term used to point to the godliness of God as it has appeared rather than as a notion with a meaning already defined which is then applied to God.⁵

On the other hand, could it be that there is a single unifying concept inherent in the original intent of God’s revelation that has been lost over time? That perhaps our own varied and sometimes casual use of the word has obscured the meaning God intended?

We know glory is important. Either the noun, verb, or adjective are found in fifty-three of the sixty-six books of Scripture. Though I studied them all, I had to choose not to include them all in this book. The Westminster Shorter Catechism confidently declares, Man’s primary purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.⁶

But when it comes to a certain and precise understanding of the concept, we’re all over the map. Is it a thing, a force, a place, a feeling, an attitude, or a characteristic? We talk and sing about glory—Oh, that will be glory for me; I’ve a home prepared where the saints abide over in the glory land; Unstoppable God, let your glory go on and on—as if we know exactly what we are saying.

When pressed to define it, however, our answers are somewhat vague and ambiguous. We have no clear idea what it is or what to do with it, so it just sits there looking beautiful, admired by many. And we seem to be okay with that because, after all, it is God’s glory! A mystery, unfathomable, unexplainable, a many-faceted diamond, something too large to be defined and too high to be grasped.

What does it mean to glorify God? We often act as if it means to give God the credit for something. Oh, it’s all him, not me! The raised hand or index finger after a touchdown or performance is meant to humbly say, Give God the applause; he deserves the spotlight! In this way, we believe we are obeying the instruction