"The Glory Of The LORD, Its Appearance" – Exodus 24:17 "And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel." The study follows the glory of God through the whole of Scripture: the cloud and the fire of Sinai (Exodus 24:17-18), the glory filling the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and Solomon's temple, where the priests could not stand to minister (1 Kings 8:11); the heavens that declare it without words (Psalm 19:1); the brightness that shines round the shepherds to announce the Messiah (Luke 2:9); Stephen, who beholds it in his darkest hour (Acts 7); and 2 Corinthians 3:18, where it ceases to be something merely looked upon and becomes something that transforms, from glory to glory.
I. What we ought to be gaining
A. At times even the Bible is used to start arguments and to manipulate what one wants. The essence of the Scriptures is to bring us to know God more each day.
B. The Scriptures defend themselves; it is we, the sad mortals, who get into great trouble.
C. To be mortal is that one will die: there is no greatness, there is no glory. It will all be known when we come before the throne of God.
D. Each one seeks his own and whatever he can boast of; and people boast of what they lack.
E. We are born, we come to old age, and time is over. God wants to save us and make us a dwelling in heaven; but we wear ourselves out over the dwelling down here.
F. The wise counts his days. Have you counted the years? Mention death and the face turns to panic; but the subject is for our growth.
G. If there is anything we ought to gain, it is to see the glory of the LORD.
II. What the glory of the LORD was
A. It was a visible manifestation of the presence, the majesty and the holiness of the God of Israel.
B. In the tabernacle only the high priest went in to make the sacrifice; the other priests had other labors.
C. In the Old Testament it was by the law, through lambs; we are saved by the blood of Christ, without any of those rituals.
D. Israel did not see God in His full essence —it could not— but a manifestation of His glory: when the sea opened, when the miracles came on the way to the promised land.
E. They walked beneath the glory of God. Our lives ought to be beneath the glory of God.
F. If the glory of God comes over us, life will be different: our movement, our thinking, everything will be different.
G. It covered them as a cloud: it did not descend upon them, it went walking with them; and when they drew near to the service and the sacrifices, it came over them and they trembled.
H. "It is not religion. It is not a service. It is the glory of God." There is singing by voices and instruments; the question is whether the glory of God is truly wanted.
I. The glory of God covers the whole of our life: we stop speaking foolishly, we stop living in strife, we stop living in boasting.
III. "Like devouring fire"
A. It is when one's whole being trembles, when one shakes, when one weeps, when one raises a hand and will not lower it.
B. It is something that weighs and that invades, and that changes the speech, the thinking, the strife, the hatred and the vanity.
C. The fire stands here for the holiness, the power and the purity of God, for we serve a wholly pure God.
D. At the bush Moses was told: "put off thy shoes, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." When one comes to know God, it is as if you had Him before you, and so many ambitions of the heart are changed.
E. His presence was no common thing: it produced reverence and holy fear.
F. When the glory of the LORD rises up, it is a devastating danger to man — as in the days of Noah, when the judgment left no one else alive.
G. "We are in the time of grace" — amen; but what the message aims at is that you be delivered from evil.
H. God has glory; you have no glory: you have life, which He gave you, and you will have death.
I. We do not play at church: we come to church to fight for our own life, for no one can fight for another's salvation. In the Gospel nothing is rose-colored.
IV. The mount, Moses and the people (Exodus 24:17)
A. "On the top of the mount": Sinai, where Moses would draw near to God to receive His instructions and the tables of the law.
B. The living example, and the one exposed to danger, was Moses: if God's anger burned against the people, he was first.
C. "How is God not like that?" — there is the flood; and when Korah's company and those priests rebelled, the earth opened and swallowed them.
D. Down here we are all brave. But remember that at the end of a lifetime there is a place: heaven or hell. There is no more.
E. "In the eyes of the children of Israel": the people watched from a distance, their eyes fixed on the mount, and their hearts beat hard, for they were afraid.
F. It is out of a haughty spirit that we say whatever we please. One ought to be afraid: let fear at least fill you, so that you may be saved.
G. Joshua stayed below, for the glory was not manifest to him — he would have died. It was only for Moses, because Moses was the one leading the people.
H. And on arriving, God tells Moses he will not enter: because he grew angry and threw down the commandments —the people stirred him until they drove him mad—, he made the tables again, but he doubted God.
I. How many times do you doubt God? We live always doubting. Exercise faith and you will see more miracles.
J. They spent forty years going in circles in the same place, disciplined by God; of those who came out, none entered the promised land: only Joshua and Caleb.
K. That is ignorance: it is what happens when we have not known the glory of God, and doubt and restlessness come.
L. Except the LORD build, we labor in vain: if you do not see God working miracles in your life and your family, you ought to fear and say "God, forgive me, help me."
M. When God shuts the heavens, whole nations sink: countries with nothing to eat, without water, with dry rivers and cracked ground. While one is where God wants, one has good.
V. Exodus 24:18 — Moses entered the cloud
A. "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights."
B. To the people what was seen looked like devouring fire; but Moses was called to enter that presence.
C. The people saw fire; Moses entered wholly into the glory of the LORD.
D. To enter the glory of the LORD is what we must learn and love. No one says "I want to have the glory of the LORD"; but today it must be learned.
E. Even Joshua, a man of God, fearing, loving and wholly faithful, could not: it was not for him.
F. Where is God? Where the days do not turn complicated; where humility, holiness and purity grow; where miracles and good grow; where the nights have peace.
G. "It is not for everyone, I am sorry. For without holiness no one shall see the Lord." And when one seeks holiness, the speech, the thinking, the acts and the movement are transformed — and the miracles begin.
H. It must have crossed Moses' mind: "this will be my death." For no one has seen God: Moses ought to have died.
I. It is the Shekinah, the glory of God: around His throne are cherubim, seraphim, archangels and elders of high position.
J. The teaching: the holiness of God inspires reverence, but God also calls His servant to draw near.
VI. Exodus 40:34 — the cloud filled the tabernacle
A. "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle."
B. The cloud was the visible sign of His presence: God was showing the people He was there, in their midst.
C. "The glory of the LORD" is the extraordinary manifestation of the majesty, holiness and presence of God.
D. "Filled the tabernacle": like something thick, it filled it; there was no space. And when the LORD fills, one must be living a life of seeking.
E. Not a double life, for that one must be quite mediocre: either one is of the devil, or one is of God.
F. The angels go up and down and write; and what is written in your book is what will come to you.
G. In the church an attitude is needed: to receive, to learn, to put the world in second place. The church is not a game: it is where the glory of God is.
H. After Moses finished the work of the tabernacle according to all that was commanded, God manifested His glory and filled that place with His divine presence. That is what we ought to be gaining.
VII. 1 Kings 8:11 — the priests could not minister
A. "So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD."
B. They were ready for their service, but something greater than any human activity occurred: God manifested His presence in power.
C. The cloud was the visible sign of the glory, as before in the tabernacle with Moses.
D. The temple Solomon built was filled with that manifestation: as if God were saying "I have accepted this place dedicated to my name; my presence is here."
E. The trouble was that, however well the temple was built, the people profaned the temples; and afterward the enemies came, invaded and destroyed them.
F. "Has this not happened on the island and in the whole world after the pandemic? How many temples are closed on the island? There are many."
G. It is good that the fear of God grow in our lives.
VIII. Psalm 19:1 — the heavens declare the glory of God
A. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
B. Though the heavens do not speak with words, their greatness, their beauty and their order bear witness to the greatness of the Creator.
C. The clouds are white and fill with water — for whom? For us, the mortals. The Creator still sends us water from heaven today.
D. God could shut the heavens, and we would all die, the just for the sinners. What we see instead is His mercy toward the righteous.
E. Every dawn, every star, the sun, the moon and the immensity of the universe are a continual message: God is powerful, God is marvelous.
F. The stars cannot be counted, and there are more galaxies than even scientists can number. That is the glory of God in His creation — and down here we think ourselves stars.
G. "His handywork": what have we to boast of? All the work is in the hands of God.
H. Creation does not exist of itself: it is God's work, and beholding its greatness we recognize His wisdom and His power.
I. The sky preaches without a voice: every dawn announces that God is still God and that His glory fills the creation.
IX. Luke 2:9 — the glory that announces the Messiah
A. "And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid."
B. The shepherds were keeping their sheep by night when, unexpectedly, God sent heavenly messengers.
C. It was not only the appearance of the angel: it was the glory of God that lit the place; in the midst of the darkness the divine presence shone all around.
D. "And they were sore afraid": the manifestation produced terror, for the glory of the LORD had come to announce that the Messiah was to be born.
E. When He makes Himself present, the Lord sees everything in our life. It is Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the Godhead is one, and the Godhead knows what is wrong.
F. Therefore, every day, in prayer one must humble oneself and ask forgiveness. "I do no harm to anyone" — just so: neither do you do anything for anyone.
G. At once the angel says "fear not," for he came to bring them good tidings of great joy.
H. The glory that once filled the tabernacle and the temple now announces the coming of Jesus Christ: in that dark night it shone, announcing a new dawn for humanity.
X. Stephen: he saw the glory of God (Acts 7:55-56)
A. Stephen was facing the hardest moment of his life and was not ruled by fear, because he was full of the Holy Spirit.
B. While his enemies were against him on earth and the stones tore his face, his legs and his arms, he turned his gaze upward.
C. He was destroyed little by little, in mockery and contempt. There was no man like Stephen: meek, humble, tender.
D. The teaching: when circumstances surround us, our gaze must remain on God. Stop looking at the earth: look up.
E. What happened to Stephen? He saw the glory of God: the same glory manifested in the Old Testament, now beheld from the earth.
F. "And Jesus standing on the right hand of God": he received the vision of Jesus glorified beside the Father.
G. Shortly after, as they stoned him, he could say: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59). In his darkest hour, God let him behold the glory of heaven.
XI. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — from glory to glory
A. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
B. It is no longer only beholding the glory outwardly, as with Moses: in Christ we have access to behold it spiritually.
C. His glory when it comes over us and we do not want to leave that moment, because it has taken hold of our life.
D. "Are changed": anger is taken away, envy is taken away, theft is taken away, wickedness is taken away, foul speech is taken away, strife is taken away.
E. "This is not little by little": when Christ comes, He cleanses from head to foot. "The day I was converted, that day I changed."
F. And what happens is that revelry and gossip are easier, and people say nothing comes of it. Where is the dignity of holiness, of purity, of His glory?
G. The Gospel knows no middle terms.
H. When we remain near Christ, He changes the character, the way of thinking and the way of living. The glory of God is not only beheld: it transforms us.
I. This is not improved conduct: it is being transformed by the glory of God, from glory to glory, a continual process from one level of maturity to the next.
J. And it does not happen by our strength: it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
K. God does not only want to show His glory: He wants His glory to produce a transformation in our lives. For to whom much is given, much shall be required.
L. The church exists so that you may know His glory; were it so, there would be men and women —young, grown and old— more filled with it.
M. Before beginning a prayer one must humble oneself: "Father, forgive; I could have done more and did not."
N. For half of what we say to one another is pride and boasting: boasting, and seeing how the other can be brought down. "How sad it looks among the saints."
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
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