The Cloud of Glory (2 Chronicles 5:14)

 

Saturday, June 15, 2024


Psalm 104:1-25

2 Chronicles 5:11-6:11

2 Corinthians 10:13-11:6


Observance: Evelyn Underhill, spiritual writer (d. 1941)


The Cloud of Glory (2 Chronicles 5:14)


“Glory” is one of those words that seem slippery; like you think you know what it means because you’ve heard it so much, but you couldn’t actually give a proper definition. Here’s one that I’ve come across that I find somewhat serviceable: glory is when something (or someone) is behaving exactly as it (or they) ought to. For example: when a bicycle is properly oiled and serviced, and you’re flying down a big hill, and the wind is roaring in your ears, and your face is plastered with that giddy look, then that is a bicycle in its full glory. Take that same bicycle out to the beach and try surfing with it: there is no glory in that situation.


So if God is glorious, then that is God doing exactly what God does well. And we say that God is glorious, full stop, because God cannot do anything other than what God does. When the cloud of God’s glory filled the place and the priests had to step outside, that is describing the indescribable: God was manifesting himself so perfectly and to such a magnificent degree, there was no room for anything or anyone else.


Elsewhere in the Bible we read about how God has made our bodies his temple. God is dwelling with us; Jesus describes it as he coming to eat with us, and us with him. Like a nice sit-down dinner with God within ourselves.


What happens when we put this image, of a nice sit-down dinner with Jesus, alongside today’s image of the cloud of God’s glory filling the temple? I don’t think it diminishes God’s glory in any way for him to be with us. I think rather it is encouraging: this awesome and glorious presence of the Lord Almighty, dwelling with and within us, gives us courage.


Everyone you speak to today, and everything you do, will be alongside and in cooperation with God. This full glory of God is spilling out of your fingertips; God wants to see us to wonderful things, and he is here to help us make it happen.


What are you afraid of today? What is causing you concern? What is coming up that you don’t really want to do, but you know that you have to get on and do it? Which of these things might be helped with the awesome presence of the cloud of God’s glory?


Glorious God, fill me with the cloud of your glory. Direct me in everything I do so that I may see your glory in my life.

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