Glory, Awe, and Wonder
Some moments in life take your breath away and leave you gasping in awe: the rising or setting of the sun, a high definition rainbow after a storm, a brand new baby, to name a few. The sense of awe and wonder often catches us by surprise. Our visceral reaction is a response to the eye and heart stimulation these moments demand.
Unfortunately, in our present technology overdrive world, moments meant to be experienced are often short lived or replaced by the impulse to capture them. Awe and wonder are lived in rewind, at the cost of fully living in the moment itself.
Awe: an emotion combining reverence, fear, and wonder, inspired by authority or by the sacred.
Scripture reveals God in many ways: His character, His Names, His ways, and His glory. God’s glory is the external manifestation of His being and His person, often displayed in dazzling magnificence. It is His inestimable weight - His worth revealed.
The Bible records moments when God’s glory appeared, was revealed, and was witnessed. When God reveals His glory, people are strengthened, commissioned, undone, and built up. But most of all, they are left in awe and wonder at His greatness and majesty. As one writer puts it, “The glory of God refers first and foremost to the sheer weight of the reality of His presence.”
Wonder: exciting admiration; surprise mingled with amazement.
In the Old Testament, when God’s presence manifested, people were often overwhelmed and could barely stand. One of the most remarkable accounts of God’s manifested presence occurs with the Israelites at Mount Sinai during their journey from Egypt. Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God, and the Lord sends him back with this message to the people: “For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people” (Exodus 19:11b ESV).
When God appears, He does so with thunder, a thick cloud of smoke, and a very loud trumpet blast. “Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire…and the whole mountain trembled greatly.” (Exodus 19:18 ESV). The sounds were so overwhelming that the people trembled and stood at a distance, saying to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19 ESV).
God’s glory did not remain confined to Sinai. Later, when Moses built the Ark of the Covenant according to God’s instructions, it became a holy dwelling place when it was set in the Holy of Holies. The Ark was carried only by those appointed and led the Israelites as they journeyed toward the Promised Land. God repeatedly revealed His glory, appearing as a devouring fire on the mountain, through signs and plagues in Egypt (Numbers 14:22), at the tabernacle, where His glory appeared in response to worship (Numbers 16:19, 42; 20:6), and in many other accounts.
Glory: weight, heaviness, brightness, splendor, radiance; the state of being magnificent.
John describes the incarnation of Christ as: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 ESV). The Message paraphrases this verse as: “We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like Father, like Son.”
In other words, Jesus was the manifest glory of the Father in the flesh.
Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus is another great example. As he traveled to Damascus on his way to persecute Christians, “suddenly a light from heaven shone around him,” and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:3–4 ESV). Paul encountered the Lord Himself and was left speechless and sightless for three days.
In Gethsemane, just before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus travailed in prayer, agonizing over the weight of the cross, and becoming the substitution for our sin. When the mob came to arrest Him, Scripture records in John 18:4-6 that Jesus stepped forward and asked whom they were seeking. They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” He replied, “I am He.” At that moment, “they drew back and fell to the ground”, as Jesus revealed Himself as I AM (one of the Names of God).
My heart and spirit are burning with hope, anticipation, and awe, and I feel compelled to challenge us to remember God in His glorious majesty. I believe God is on the move and poised to reveal His glory once again in our midst.
The fear of the Lord has been replaced with casualness, and for some, irreverence. His power and glory have been relegated to antiquity and dismissed as irrelevant in current culture. Yet I am fully convinced that we are entering a season of awe and wonder, in which the greatness and majesty of God revealed through His presence and glory will once again be on display.
“But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20 ESV
A wise person will seek the Lord while He may be found. Selah