Glory in a cloud

2 Chronicles
Whenever I read about the glory of God physically appearing before man, I'm impressed.  It sounds so wonderful and amazing!  In 2 Chronicles 5:13-14, it says that when Solomon finished building the temple, the priests couldn't even perform their service because the glory of God filled the temple as a cloud.  I've never seen the glory of God appear as such a cloud, but it sounds like quite the sight.

A psalm of David

Psalm 72:18-19

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.  Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory.  Amen and Amen.

The transfiguration

Matthew
Peter is so real.  By that I mean, he doesn't wait to act.  In today's reading, he saw Jesus transfigured on a mountain, and immediately he thought to build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  How great it would have been to stay on that mountain, surrounded by the glory of God and the greatest God-followers of all time.  But we can't always stay in that attitude of revelation.  At some point, Jesus had to move on and accomplish the rest of his mission.  In the same way, when we hear from God, we can't stay in that zone.  We've got to take what we've heard or learned, and let it shape us into even more committed, more mature followers of Christ.

In the cleft in the rock

Exodus 33:21-23 - Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

I really like this passage.  It really demonstrates the awesome glory and holiness of God.  If you start feeling like God isn't all that important, read this passage, and you'll feel like you've been put in your place.  There are a number of passages like this throughout the bible, like when God speaks to Job about measuring out the foundations of the earth, or some of the Psalms as well.  The majesty and wonder of God knows no bounds.  I am so utterly grateful that he has shown me love!

Be ready for anything

Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus has shown us a great example of how we always have to be ready to witness to others and work for God's glory.  John the Baptist was just murdered by Herod, and Jesus was trying to find a place to mourn the loss of a friend.  When he finds a solitary place, he is converged upon by a crowd of people, and instead of leaving, he ministers to them, healing their sick.  He stays with them so long that they all get hungry, and Jesus has another opportunity to show the glory of God, and he feeds all five thousand of these people with only two fish and five loaves of bread.  Imagine if he had simply moved on to another location to find peace and rest.  His disciples and those people would have missed out on something amazing.  Even when we're tired and need some time alone, be ready to listen to the will of God so you don't miss an opportunity to be part of his spectacular plan.

The glory of God

Exodus 24:9-11 - "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank."
These men sat with God, eating and drinking.  What an amazing experience.  And Aaron was there.  I cannot believe that a few chapters later (I'm getting ahead of the reading) he goes down and makes a golden calf for the people, when a few days earlier he had actually seen God!

More glory of God

In Revelation chapter 4, we see a parallel of an image first read about in Ezekiel - check the previous post "The glory of God" from November 7, 2010.  John saw four living creatures surrounding God's throne: ox, lion, eagle, and human.  I thought that was interesting to note, and adds to the validity of each author's message, since they both saw the same thing.

The glory of God

I read a footnote in my bible that discussed the four faces found on the heavenly beings that Ezekiel saw.  The lion, ox, eagle, and human all represent something in particular: the lion is the king of the wild animals; the ox is the strongest of all domestic animals; the eagle is the king of the air; and the human is set on top of all creation.  I also read in this website (click here for the whole article) that these animals represent something of Jesus Christ.  This idea may be reading a little too much into the text, but it said that Christ came as king, as servant (like an ox), as an intellectual (perceptive like an eagle), and as ruler over all things.
What I was really curious about was the wheel within the wheel, and what that means.  As far as I can tell, they simply represent another aspect of the glory of God, and how he is forever watching (the eyes on the wheels) and he never stops looking out for us.  Some people would like to think that these wheels represent some sort of UFO, but I thought that was a poor reading of the text in the eyes of the author.
Basically Ezekiel was blown away by these visions in which he saw the glory of God, and could barely find words to describe his experience.