The blessed glory of the Lord is visible in nature. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork; day after day pours forth speech and night after night shows forth knowledge; there is no speech nor spoken word; their voice is not heard, yet, their voice goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world…” (Ps. 19:1-4). Nature manifests the glory of the Lord quietly, yet loudly through God’s wisdom and knowledge in its beauty and radiance. Paul askes the question: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable are His judgments! And how untraceable, are His ways; who has known the mind of the Lord, who has understood His thoughts, or who has been His counselor? For from Him and through Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11: 33-34,36). The Prophet Isaiah declared, “It is God Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; it is He Who stretches out the heavens like curtains and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
The glory of God shone all over the Garden of Eden as He was creating the world. All that He created, pleased Him and He said, “It is good.” Blessed be the glory of our Lord. At His birth, the Shekinah glory shone brighter than any other star. We read that it was a star, but it was the glory of God shinning His gift to the world. Magi came from afar to give YAHSHUA homage in their beautiful horses and their belongings with their servants accompanying them. It was the most significant entourage the world experienced. It took them about three years to arrive where YAHSHUA was living with His mother and Joseph. Our knowledge of this event is very lean and void of the background history of these Magi. It had been prophesized by Isaiah saying, “A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Median and Ephah; all the men from Sheba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense and proclaim the praises of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6). “And on going into the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then opening their treasure bags, they presented to Him gifts- gold, and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matt. 2:11). These are very special gifts; gold for a king; myrrh for sacrifice; frankincense for a high priest. The meaning of these gifts was prophetic in their symbolism. Gold, speaks of His future kingdom, when every knee shall bow; every tongue confess that He alone is king forever; Myrrh, speaks of redemption; “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29); and for by a single offering, He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy; He bore our burden of sin once and for all. As our High priest, He made it possible for us to enter the holy of holies. Frankincense, speaks of our great and wonderful and noble Priest over the house of God, “let us all come forward and draw near with true hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith, having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water, so, let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable and faithful to His word” (Heb. 10:22-23).
The beauty of God’s glory shines in every person who knows Him and has a relationship with Him. They shine it through their love and behavior. They mirror the presence of the Holy Spirit, by shinning His presence into the world of darkness; shinning His peace, where there is no peace; shinning the joy of the blessed hope, where there is no hope, where only hopelessness is felt. The glory of His presence causes sin to flee through repentance and confession of sin. The closer that we walk with Him, the more that we will experience His glory, for He is always God with us, always faithful, always loving, always eternal forever and ever.
Light from the Word 