The End of the World (3)
Part 3 – The Day of God’s glory and majesty
In the last part of the series we considered the aspect of God’s wrath. Surprisingly, as it may seem from that study, there is relatively less material on this aspect of the ‘Day of the Lord’ than there are general reflections on the glory and awe of the day. Our net is cast wider across the Old Testament to include, not only the passages that specifically mention the end times, but also those passages that refer to how God will be upon his return, many of which we have already looked at in the previous article. We find much of this material in the books of prophecy, but also in Psalms; there is too much for all of it to be considered here, so below are a few passages that will be new to this series and are especially important. The emphasis here is on who God is for us personally and for the whole world; both now and in the day of his coming.
Our starting point, however, is the hints given us in Exodus 33:12-34:35, in which Moses asks God to reveal himself. God fulfils his wish as far as is possible, but places him in a place where the full splendour of God will be hidden. The passage which follows is very well known, in which Moses returns to the camp his face radiant with reflected glory to the extent that he is forced to wear a veil to protect the people. A similar situation is found in Daniel 10 (especially in verse 9) in which God reveals himself to Daniel in a vision and in the vision Daniel metaphorically dies, because he is exposed to the full glory of God. God reaches out to him to bring him to life once more (see also Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1). These passages hint at the impact of God’s glory. If you have ever been somewhere and seen a person who shines with the love of God you will understand what is going on here. That person is a poor reflection of what we are considering here; words are not enough. This analogy is also a good way of describing the problem a lot of people have. If you have ever seen a ‘good’ person and felt that you would like nothing better than for the ground to swallow you (or, preferably, them) up, you have (probably unknowingly) put your finger on humanity’s problem with God. If we don’t accept God into our lives and exchange through Jesus our sin for his glory we will react like this towards God. This is quite possibly why people did and do reject God even when they have seen him at work. They react with envy to his glory and wish to become like him by their own works and without Him; this may sound familiar, and indeed it is, and worryingly so. If you take some time to look at Isaiah 14:12-15 which, although written directly against Babylon, is usually applied to the angel Satan, who tried to elevate himself above God by his own works, you will see why.
As a starting point, let’s look at Psalm 50:2: “out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.” This is a huge concept! Every day you will look at at least one thing and decide that it is beautiful (whether you speak this thought is another matter). This ‘beauty’ is as nothing compared to God. The verse we have before us says that God is shining out from the place he created to be the epitome of all beauty. If this is to be our benchmark then nothing on earth comes close; in the landscape you see man has made his mark that has removed it from God’s perfection, inside any person you decide is beautiful is a sinner in need of grace. So our first statement about God’s glory: God stands out in a place of perfect beauty. In Isaiah 4:2 we see beauty developed in the context of Jesus: “On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious.” As I write this the excitement of Christmas is over and the carols have been put to bed for another year, which is, in a lot of cases, a shame as the truth within them lives on. When the line ‘veiled in flesh the Godhead see’ was put down on paper it captured exactly what we are discussing here. Jesus was here once; he came exactly like us and lived among us, born into abject poverty and the fear of massacre, a refugee. When he returns we will see him ‘beautiful and glorious’, we know from Daniel that if he had come like that the first time that no one could have survived. Out of love he did not come immediately to judge in his glory, we are given the chance now to respond to the baby who went on to give his life, suffering the punishment we have already looked at so that we can stand justified before when King Jesus returns.
In Isaiah 32:1-8 another theme emerges: “See a king will reign in righteousness.” Jesus was and is and will be righteous; he is our righteousness, we can never be righteous of ourselves. When he returns we will see the glory of what this really means. This is developed by 63:1: “…Who is this so splendidly robed, marching in his great might? ‘It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save.’” This message of righteousness and vindication is for all people, God will be revealed in his ‘might’ announcing his message of righteousness through the Son. What then does righteous mean for that day? It means that God will come in power exactly as he is. Describing God’s righteousness is hard as God is the ultimate righteousness himself. We must look to the “beautiful and glorious” king that will reign on that day. It means that there will be no sin, that justice will be done and that in justice mercy will prevail over judgment.
The theme of light is also very prominent; into the darkness of this world will come God shining in his glory. Ezekiel 1 is a good example of this especially verse 4 in which we see a cloud, the centre of which is something “like gleaming amber” or as some translations put it like molten metal. This whole chapter is well worth reading as it reminds us both of the plan and time scale we are talking about here. The four winged creatures are generally accepted to represent the messengers of God carried (travelling symbolised by their wheels) to proclaim the gospel to the four corners of the earth. This is going on all around us. God is for the world veiled behind a cloud, those that look for him see him within it and we are the messengers that speak the good news. Ezekiel 43:2 sees the return of God’s glory to the temple (after the departure in chapter 10); the land is made radiant by God’s presence in it. Zechariah 9:14 shows the Lord appearing like lightning over the earth. To develop this; next time you see a thunder storm do not hide under the bed, look out and try these two things: First notice how for a split second the land is lit up by incredible power, and imagine what it would be like if it never went out, now try to imagine that the bolt of lightning was unimaginably brighter than it is; now try to predict when and where the next will happen. To save you some time – you can’t. This is a good analogy for the day of the Lord. You do not know when it will come, only that it will, and that it is coming soon. The word to stress in the sentence before last is ‘unimaginable’; God extends far beyond our comprehension and we can only begin to grasp a tiny part of it. As I suggested in the introduction to this series; we can understand the words but the full meaning of them still escapes us, and will until we see them come to their fulfilment.
And so to God’s majesty. Here I just want to consider one verse: Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your King comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.” We should not forget that the victory of God came from the humility of Jesus. The majesty of God is made complete by the victory he won in humility as the sacrifice for his chosen and beloved ones. Therein lies the mystery of grace and the majesty of the victorious King. A good story I have heard many times is this (I don’t know who thought it up but it’s very good): A woman is given a message from God, “today I will visit your house.” She busies herself tidying and preparing her finest food and preparing for her royal guest. Later that day a beggar knocks at the door and she sends him away. The day ends and she asks God why he didn’t come. He answers: “I did, but you sent me away.” God will be revealed in his glory above, but don’t think that he didn’t count the highest cost in winning the victory in which he is now glorified. If he had been defeated we would not be here and I would not be writing this. In the humility of God, which we should all seek to imitate, is found his glory, as well as in the majesty of his return.
How can we summarise such huge concepts as these? It takes very few words to say what there is to say, but that does not mean that it should end for us at the end of this article or series. I would like to end now after a very short discussion of these readings by encouraging all of you to read them for yourselves and then to consider some of the following points:
In the beginning God walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam, his glory did not make Adam fall dead. Do you walk with God every day?
The glory of God revealed in his ‘branch’, Jesus, was shown in the humiliation of the cross that was his victory over sin that we might be able to walk with God. Do you recognise exactly what it was that Jesus gave up to come down to save us?
If we are now able to have an idea, as Moses did, of a part of what God’s glory is like, does that glory shine in us for all to see?
Are you personally aware of God’s righteousness within you through Jesus?
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