The Character of God:  Glory

Old Testament, Hebrew cabod

God gives the Law to Moses:
Ex. 24:15-17, Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. And the chabod glory of the LORD lay upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the chabod glory of the LORD looked to the children of Israel like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain.

Moses puts the finishing touches on the Tabernacle:
Ex. 40:34-35,  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the chabod glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud lay upon it, and the chabod glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

King Solomon prays at the dedication of the Temple, which replaced the Tabernacle:
2 Chron. 7:1,  Now when Solomon had finished praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the chabod glory of the LORD filled the house.

Psalm 29 A Psalm of David.
1 Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, give unto the LORD chabod glory and strength.
2 Give unto the LORD the chabod glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of chabod glory thunders: the LORD is upon many waters.

9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve, and strips the forests bare: and in his temple every one speaks of his chabod glory.

*For the benefit of readers who notice stuff like this:  Yes, indeed - every couplet is parallel except vs. 9.  The vowels in the Hebrew word make “deer.”  But remember, originally the Hebrew text had no vowels.  If you leave out the vowels, you would be inclined to read this “makes the oaks shudder,” and in fact a number of newer translations have something like that.  This is based on a brilliant conjecture by a scholar whose name I can’t find right now.   “Conjecture” means, “I know that’s not what it says now, but I bet that’s what it used to say!”  And I bet he’s right!

Isa. 6:2-3  Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his chabod glory.”

10:16-18a Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones; and under his chabod glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame: and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; and will consume the chabod glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body.

Isa. 40:3-5  The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be made low: and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the chabod glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”

60:1-3  Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the chabod glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For, look! darkness will cover the earth, and great darkness the people: but the LORD will arise upon you, and his chabod glory will be seen upon you. And the Gentiles will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Ezek. 10:3-4  Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the chabod glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's chabod glory.

10:18-19  Then the chabod glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house; and the chabod glory of the God of Israel was over them.

New Testament, Greek doxa

With this scripture I had an "I never noticed" moment... "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" in my Bible  OR  your version... "among those with whom He is pleased."   Never caught the restrictive phrase limiting who on earth was to receive "peace."  Always thought it was a "blanket" peace on ALL the earth.  I think there are a lot of Christmas greetings (cards, etc.) that just say "Peace on Earth".  Even at the rejoicing of Christ's birth there was judgment.

Luke 2:8-14, 9:28-36 (My translation)
Now, there were in that same vicinity shepherds camping out and keeping watch over their flock at night.  And an angel of the Lord stood over them, and the doxa of the Lord shone all around them, and they panicked.

The angel said to them, “Don’t panic!  For, look, I am bringing you good news of great joy, which is for all the people, because to you is born today in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this is the sign to you:  you will find a babe swaddled and lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying,

“Doxa to God in the highest
And on earth peace
Among those with whom he is pleased!”

[Years pass.]
About eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up to a mountain to pray.  While he was praying, his face changed, and his clothes became radiantly white.  And look!  Two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in doxa glory and talked about his death, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. 

Peter and those with him were burdened down with sleep, but having waked up, they saw his doxa glory and the two men standing with him.  And when they left him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s good that we are here.  Let’s make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah” – he didn’t know what he was saying.  After he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; they were afraid when they entered the cloud. 

A voice said from the cloud, “This is my chosen son:  listen to him.”  And when the voice sounded, Jesus was found alone.  And they kept quiet and reported nothing to anyone at that time about what they had seen.

John (My translation)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and nothing that was made was made apart from him.  In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not katalambano grasp it.

The true Light, who enlightens all humanity, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.  He came to his very own, and his own did not paralambano associate with him.  But to whoever lambano received him, he gave power to become the children of God – to those who believed in his name, born not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of a man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and built a house among us, and we observed his doxa glory, doxa glory as the unique one from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew (My translation; Jesus is speaking, paraphrasing first Joel 2:10 and Isaiah 13:10, and then Daniel 7:13*)
Immediately after the tribulation of those days,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light,
And the stars will fall from heaven,
And the powers of heaven will be shaken.


And then will be manifested the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then will all the tribes of the earth beat their breasts in sorrow, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds from heaven with power and great doxa glory.  And he will send his angels with great trumpeting, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

*Note for Inquiring Minds:  Remember I said yesterday that usually the NT quotes from the LXX?  This is much less true of Matthew.  Either he did his own translations from the Hebrew, or Jesus did the translating and Matthew wrote down what he said.  My own experience in Greek and with my Greek teacher suggests that either of these options is perfectly feasible; there’s no way to choose between them with the information we’ve got.

Reader Question: What’s your evidence that John was hot tempered? I've often thought of Peter that way, but not John... I picture him humble and gentle. (2/12/11)

Response: Our fellow-reader is wise to question my opinion, because I could easily be wrong, but here’s why I think so.

Now, since we know that Peter = Rock, and that Jesus gave him this name as a symbol of something about Simon, I think it’s fair to conclude that he gave James and John a name that symbolizes something about them.
• Mark 3:16-17. [Jesus] appointed these twelve. He gave Simon the surname “Peter,” and he gave James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James the surname “Boanerges,” which means “Sons of Thunder.”

Here’s an example that John Barclay calls “arrogant,” but it looks to me more hot-tempered:
• Mark 9:38. John said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw some guys casting out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he wasn’t one of us.”

Here’s one that’s self-explanatory. Some Samaritans wouldn’t let Jesus into their village, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem.
• Luke 9:53-54. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

In Barclay’s commentary The Gospel of John, there’s story from Eusebius, who got the story from Irenaeus (died ca. 202 A.D). Iraeneus had listened to Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. Cerinthis was a leader of the Gnostic heresy. Eusebius wrote, “The apostle John once entered a bath to bathe; but, when he learned that Cerinthus was within, he sprang from his place and rushed out of the door, for he could not bear to remain under the same roof with him. He advised those who were with him to do the same. ‘Let us flee,’ he said, ‘lest the bath fall, for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.’ ” “Boanerges was not quite dead,” Barclay concluded.

Acts 22:1-11, Paul is speaking to a mob in Jerusalem. (My translation)
“Gentlemen!  Brethren and fathers!  Listen now to my defense before you.”  Hearing that he was addressing them in Hebrew, they became silent. 

He said, “I am a man, a Jew, born in Tarsus, Cilicia, but raised in this city.  At the feet of Gamaliel I was instructed with exactness in the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as all of you are today.  I persecuted this Way to the death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison, as both the chief priest and all the elders will testify.  Indeed, I received letters from them to the brethren and went to Damascus to bind the ones who were there and bring them to Jerusalem for punishment.

“As I was traveling along and getting close to Damascus, around noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone all around me.  I fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’  He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ The ones with me did see the light, but they did not hear* the voice of the one speaking to me.  And I said, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ and the Lord said to me, ‘Get up.  Go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been assigned for you to do.’ 

“And since I couldn’t see from the doxa glory of that light, those with me led me by the hand into Damascus.”

2 Corinthians 4:4, 6 (Bible in Basic English)
4  Seeing that it is God who said, Let light be shining out of the dark, who has put in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the doxa glory of Christ, who is the image of God...
6  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the doxa glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

*Inquiring minds:  Possibly “understand.”  The three passages that talk about this event are not 100% consistent, which is only to be expected from a vision.  Actually, they are more consistent than one report of a vision often is; see our passages from Ezekiel last week and from Revelation later this week.

Hebrews 1:1-4 (Bible in Basic English)
3  Who, being the outshining of his doxa glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven;

Revelation 15:1-8 (Bible in Basic English)
4  What man is there who will not have fear before you, O Lord, and doxazo give glory to your name? because you only are holy; for all the nations will come and give worship before you; for your righteousness has been made clear.

7-8  And one of the four beasts gave to the seven angels seven gold vessels full of the wrath of God, who is living for ever and ever. And the house of God was full of smoke from the doxa glory of God, and from his power, and no one was able to go into the house of God, till the seven punishments of the seven angels were ended.

Revelation 21:9-27 (My translation)
Then one of the seven angels – those who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues – came and spoke to me, saying, “Come!  I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

He brought me in the spirit to a mountain, great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the doxa glory of God.


Her light was like most-precious stone,
Like a jasper stone clear as crystal. 
She had a wall, great and high,
With twelve gates,
And twelve angels upon the gates;
And names were engraved upon them,
Which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

On the east:  three gates;
And on the north:  three gates;
And on the south:  three gates;
And on the west:  three gates.
And the wall of the City had twelve foundations,
And upon them the twelve names
Of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The one who spoke to me had a golden yardstick, so that he could measure the City and her gates and her wall.  And the City stretched out foursquare:  her length and width the same.  He measured the City with the yardstick – 12,000 stadia* – her length and width and height are equal.  He measured her wall:  144 cubits* of measure of a human being, that is, of an angel.  The structure of her wall was of jasper, and the City was pure gold, like pure glass.  The foundations of the City wall were adorned with all manner of precious stones:


the first foundation, jasper;	the second, sapphire;
the third, chalcedony;	the fourth, emerald;
the fifth, sardonyx;	the sixth, sardius;
the seventh, chrysolite;	the eighth, beryl;
the ninth, topaz;	the tenth, chrysoprase;
the eleventh, jacinth;	the twelfth, amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls:  each gate was made of a single pearl!  And the plaza of the City was pure gold, like transparent glass.

I saw no temple in her, for her temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.  The City needs neither the sun nor the moon to shine on her, for the doxa of God illuminates her – and her light is the Lamb.  The nations will walk through her light, and the kings of the earth bring their doxa into her.  Her gates will never be shut in the day – and there will be no night there.  They will bring the doxa and honor of the nations into her.  Not one who is unclean or idolatrous or false will ever enter, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

*12,000 stadia is about 1500 miles.  144 cubits is about 216 feet.

Note for inquiring minds:  the translators translate “measure of a human being, that is, of an angel” several ways, but most of them more or less as “measure of a human being, which is what the angel was using.”  What I have above is what the Greek has; for what the Greek means, you can decide for yourself or go with the translators.  I couldn’t find that “of an angel” is an idiom for “which is what the angel was using.”