“They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.” (Isaiah 35:1-10)
If
advent is about anything, it is about the promise of the glory of Lord becoming
evident and real in each and every one of our lives. Isaiah’s words make this perfectly clear when
he declares at the beginning of the 35th chapter that “They shall
see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.”
If
you know like I know, the glory of the Lord is not like any other type of glory
that can be found in the world. In our
popularity driven culture, we tend to glorify too many things and too many people
that really mean too little to us. We
glorify sports and entertainment figures; we glorify politicians and people
with power in our lives; some people we even glorify preachers. And if the truth is really told, some of us
are seeking glory for ourselves. But
this is not the same type of glory that Isaiah promises that the people will
see.
With
picturesque and vivid imagery, Isaiah told the people of Judah of a time when
the glory of the Lord would be revealed to them.
And
so it was to be that some 700 years later, the people of God would experience
this glory when angels proclaimed in the Book of Luke, the birth of Jesus, and declared
this same glory when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on
earth toward all people.”
And,
what is the glory of the Lord like? What
does it really look like for you and me?
The glory of the Lord is the manifestation of God’s character in all of
its fullness and majesty. God
desires to show up and show out in our lives in God’s fullness. And Jesus was and is the manifestation for us
of what God is like and who God is.
As
Corrie ten Boom once said, “When we look at the world, we are distressed, when
we look at ourselves we are depressed, but when we look at God we are at rest.
We
are at rest when we see Jesus in all of his glory, because we know that Jesus
is our all and all.
Ultimately,
the
promise of the glory of the Lord being revealed to us is the promise that God’s
divine purpose will be made clear to you and me. God’s ultimate purpose in sending Jesus into
the world was and is to save the world from sinfulness and brokenness, and to save
our lives from the same brokenness and sin through his saving grace and
life-changing power.
Indeed,
our greatest infirmity is sin, and Jesus came as the savior of the world to die
for our sins. Isaiah wrote of this
salvation here in the 35th chapter of his prophesy. Hear Isaiah in verses 4 and 5:
He will come to
save you.
The eyes of the
(spiritually) blind shall be opened,
And The ears of
the (spiritually) deaf shall be unstopped,
Then the
(spiritually) lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongues
of the (spiritually) speechless sing for joy.
It’s
good to know that God sent Jesus in his glory to save you and me, and the whole
world.
I’m
reminded of the story of the little boy who would pass a school every
day on his way home from his school, and the school had a statue of Jesus out in
front of it. As Christmas approached one
year, the little boy would stop and pray to the statue, “Jesus I really want a
wagon for Christmas, and if you give me a wagon for Christmas, I promise, I’ll
give you a ride…”
Well as Christmas morning arrived, lo and behold,
there was a wagon for the little boy under the Christmas tree. And so the boy took his wagon outside, and as
he was pulling it around the neighborhood, he was stopped by a police office. The police officer said to the little boy, “there’s
been a report that a statue of Jesus has been removed from the school yard down
the street, and what you have in your wagon fits the description.” The little boy replied to the officer, “I’m
just keeping my promise and giving Jesus a ride.” (Some of us owe the Lord a ride…)
And
it is in this same glory of the Lord that the joy of the Lord is made real for you and
me. God’s desire is that we live
in the fullness of his joy – that we find strength and peace in his joy.
If
there is one thing that we stand in the need of in this present day, with all
of the mess that swirls around us, it is joy.
Isaiah proclaimed that:
The ransomed
Lord shall return
And come to Zion
with singing
Everlasting joy
shall be on their head;
They shall
obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and
sadness shall flee away.
There’s
good news in knowing that when the glory of the Lord really manifests and shows
up in our lives, we’ll have joy.
Indeed,
there was great joy surrounding that first Advent and Christmas. As Jesus was born, many people were afraid
about what was happening in their world.
But is tis recorded in Luke’s gospel that an angel appeared, and said to
the people:
“Do not be
afraid
For I am
bringing good news of great joy
For all people…
Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth
peace and good
will
Toward all
people."
That’s
why today, over 2000 years after God sent glory into the world, we still sing
as people of faith have sang over many centuries, something like:
“Joy
to the world the Lord is come…”
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