The Glory of God (Day 2 of 4)

Recap Day 1...

FIRST LENS: CREATION

Job 28:20-28

Wisdom; the divine nature of God in creation

I want to take the words of Job and ask God to turn those words into a picture of God’s glory. This element of the glory of God is wisdom. Glory pictures:

• God understands the way of wisdom and He knows its place
• He saw wisdom and declared it
• God looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heavens
• Wisdom is hidden from the eyes of the living.
• He establishes a weight for the wind
• He apportions the waters by measure
• He made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt
• He said to man: “Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”

There is a grandeur in these statements and the BE Commentary I have in my Bible study software creates an interesting picture of these ‘glory’ statements:

“Go as high as the birds can fly, and you won’t find wisdom there. Go as deep as Abaddon and death, and wisdom is not there. Only God knows where to find wisdom, for God sees everything. God has the wisdom to adjust the pressure of the wind and measure the amount of water in the atmosphere. If these proportions were changed, what disturbances in nature might result! God knows how to control the rain and guide the storm as it moves across the earth. Flashes of lightning and peals of thunder may seem arbitrary to us, but God controls even the lightning and thunder.”  God’s wisdom is His internal nature and is expressed externally in creation. His glory creates, sees, declares, sustains, and directs creation. Amazing! Does mankind believe he/she has wisdom without God?

SECOND LENS: SCRIPTURE

Scripture is not man-centered, it is about God. God is inherently glorious and He glorifies Himself in all His works. That is the heart of scripture. It provokes a reaction in us that is more than knowledge, it arouses the affections of our hearts to love God. God’s great plan in scripture is to display His glory (who He is) and we get swept up in the plan. He calls us and enables lost sinners to enjoy Him forever. Scripture is a grand story that moves from God’s creation of the world to it’s fall, followed by a long history of redemption whose culmination begins with the incarnation, crucifixion and exaltation of the Messiah at the second coming. Finally, there is revelation of the Millennial and Eternal kingdoms. It is the revelation of God’s glory (Reference 2). Scripture reveals the glory of God’s promises, brought to completion in a Savior whose glory is veiled for a time in abject humility but unveiled forever in a Bridegroom, King and Judge (Reference 2).

THIRD LENS: GOD’S PROVISION

We have a granddaughter and we have enjoyed observing her parents love her. They provide for her, are patient beyond belief, play with her and teach her about the world and relationships. The hidden love in their hearts is visible to all through their provision for Lily. She is totally dependent on her parents. It is a glorious movie. We can learn a lot about God’s glory through His provision for us. I’m told that there are 8000 promises in the Bible. In the New Testament 250 promises mentioned 750 times. Our God is a God of promises. We can do nothing without Him (John 15:5) and His promises are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). We are so anchored in this world that we cannot see that God sustains our lives (Zechariah 11:14). These promises are the endless expression of God’s heart for us and some of the promises are unimaginable (2 Peter 1:4). These promises cover all our needs: there are salvation promises, promises for the necessities of life, supernatural promises, second-coming promises, promises to the church and promises of judgment. Amazing love!

Next post coming tomorrow!

Written by John and Shirley Ray, edited and posted by Joel Ratcliffe

Photo by Konevi from Pexels