THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 18 )
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3316
THE GLORY OF GOD ( PART 18 )
JESUS AS THE SHEKINAH GLORY OF GOD
The Shekinah is the Hebrew expression for the tangible presence of God.
To the people of Israel, God's glory sometimes manifested Himself over the Tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21).
God is the epitome of such a transcendent light that was variously described as:
1. "You are clothed with splendor and majesty...
He wraps himself in the light as with a garment." (Psalm 104:1b-2a)
2 "His splendor was like the sunrise;
rays flashed from his hand,
where his power was hidden." (Habakkuk 3:4).
3. "He ... dwells in unapproachable light." (1 Timothy 6:16)
B. B. Warfield, in his book "The Lord of Glory", says, that Jesus was the glory of God, the Shekinah. According to the Old Testament, the Shekinah was the visible manifestation of the invisible God. The Shekinah was a radiant cloud of the brilliant light within a cloud that signaled the immediate presence of God.
For Jesus to be identified with the Shekinah was to be equated with the presence of God Himself. In Jesus, we see the full manifestation of the majesty of God.
Abba Father, Your glory in the Old Testament was Your tangible presence but it was so holy and inaccessible that any human tainted by sin will perish in it.
In Jesus, Your Shekinah is no longer like a bright cloud of light or its dark shadow. It is now the very Person and radiant Presence of Jesus.
John had seen that very Shekinah glory upon Jesus during the Transfiguration, and, with Peter and James, "were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16-18).
"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light." (Matthew 17:1-2))
This qualitative leap from shadow to the substance is so mind-boggling even as John tried to describe it in mere words in John 1:14:
"And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth."
