Week Thirty-Five Reading Assignment:
Jeremiah 38 - Ezekiel 3

"In most parts of the Bible everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with 'Thus saith the Lord'. It is, if you like to put it that way, not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite, it excludes or repels, the merely aesthetic approach... It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms."

​(C.S. Lewis)

This Week's Teaching Video: The Relational Role of the Prophet

Charting Our Progress

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

When we think of "the glory of the Lord," we may think first of the Christmas story.  In Luke's memorable account of the angels' appearance to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem, he reports that "the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid" (Luke 2:9 KJV). For many of us, that may be the most familiar reference to God's glory in all of Scripture. 

But it is certainly not the only reference. In truth, the glory of the Lord is a prominent and recurring theme.  And as we begin to read the book of the prophet Ezekiel this week, we ought to acquaint ourselves with that broader theme, for a vision of God's glory is the dramatic starting place for this prophet's message. 

Old Testament scholar Dale Patrick offers this very helpful explanation of the theme of glory in Scripture:  "The term denotes admiration won by doing something significant or by possessing attributes held in high esteem. It is more than fame, because it is experienced as a quality of something or someone, the aura emanating from the person or being.  Glory overlaps in meaning with majesty, that quality of rulers intrinsic to their authority. Glory also overlaps with the aesthetic attributes splendor and grandeur, peculiar kinds of beauty asso-ciated with light, color, and magnitude."

With that in mind, then, consider this brief survey of passages referencing the glory of God:

"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1 RSV).

"And the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.  And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top" (Exodus 24:16-17 NASB).

"When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple" (1 Kings 8:10-11 NIV). 

"The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, 'Glory!'" (Psalm 29:9 NIV)

"Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory'" (Isaiah 6:2-3 NASB). 

"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 KJV).  

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:3 NIV).  

"And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14 KJV). 

"Every valley shall be exalted, and every moun-tain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isaiah 40:4-5 KJV).

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14 NIV).

"I did not see a temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of the Lord God is its light." (Revelation 21:22-23 RSV).   

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever" (Matthew 6:13 KJV). 

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
by John Donne

As virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
T'were prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.

Moving of th'earth brings harmes and feares,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheares,
Though greater farre, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love, so much refin'd,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse.

Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinnesse beate.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the'other doe.

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to mee, who must 
Like th'other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.

Good Book Review: Poems in Pain

We have, in our national hymnody, some very sober images. 

“O beautiful, for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!”

“And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

“He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.” 

“As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.” 
On the other hand, the larger context of those words and pictures is one of strength and victory. They songs are sober, but not defeated.  Because of our own national context, therefore, it may be difficult for us to appreciate the Book of Lamentations. 

Lamentations is comprised of songs written in the wake of the devastation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C. They are not sober images framed in victory; rather, they come out of unmitigated grief.  The people had suffered unprecedented disaster and defeat.  And then, in the wake of that, they wrote these songs. 

That historical context makes it all the more remarkable, then, that there is  such reflection, understanding, and even hope within these songs.  The people’s faith in God is not just for the sake of victory in
battle, you see. It is deeper: grasping for restoration and healing even in the very wake of defeat.    
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