Exodus 13:21

SHEKINAH GLORY

(March 21, 2023) Dr Robert McQuillan shares…

‘Shekinah Glory’ has been often thought of as the remarkable change in Moses that the Israelites beheld when he came down from Mount Sinai, after having been up there so long in the presence of God. Exodus 34:29ESV reads, ‘… Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.’

NIV says, ‘… he was not aware that his face was radiant…’ Verse 30 tells that all the Israelites ‘were afraid to come near him.’

Remember Charlton Heston playing Moses in the 1956 The Ten Commandments? He looked so different after being in God’s presence when he started down ‘God’s mountain’ to find ungrateful, sinning Israelites.

Moviegoers, including myself, an impressionable teenager, were immediately struck by the change in his face, his hair and beard.

But ‘Shekinah Glory’ is more than that! The presence of God highlighted above is the key!

May we know God’s presence
Now the Bible doesn’t mention the term ‘Shekinah Glory’ at all in either the Old or New Testament… it was introduced by rabbis in their writings in the period between the two testaments. Their reasoning? To explain the very presence of God in certain contexts and associated with a visible manifestation more evidently apparent at certain times.

‘Shekinah’ is from the Hebrew word shākan, which means ‘to reside or permanently stay.’ And so literature by rabbis used the term shekinah to descriptively explain the following scriptures to the Jewish people:

  • God’s presence among His people (Exodus 19:16-18; Exodus 40:34-38; I Kings 6:13).
  • God’s glory dwelling in the temple (2 Chronicles 7:1).
  • God’s dwelling in the mountain (Psalm 68.16-18; Joel 3:17).
  • God’s divine appearance on earth!

This last ‘description’ was depicted in the following seven ways as a…

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GLORY!

(March 20, 2023) Dr Jim McClure explains about God’s glory… 

Christians often use the word ‘glory’ but usually do not have much idea of what it means! The Hebrew word for glory, kabod, is found 200 times in the Old Testament and its development is interesting.

Development
The root of kabod actually means ‘heavy’ and is associated with the liver (Exodus 29:13) which is the heaviest of the internal organs. The use of the word as ‘heavy’ is seen in a number of Old Testament passages such as Psalm 38:4, ‘For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me’(KJV).

Glory developed into the concept of splendour.It referred to material wealth, that is, being ‘heavy with riches.’  Note Isaiah 10:3, ‘To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?’  Here ‘wealth’ is ‘kabod.’ 

The word continued to develop to mean honour. In Malachi 1:6 God asks, ‘A son honours (kabod) his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour (kabod) due to me?’ 

Glory also came to be recognised as a characteristic of God’s splendour — ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1).

Regarding the word ‘Shekinah’, although some people use this when referring to God’s glory, it does not refer to a special dimension of divine glory.  In fact this Hebrew word is not found in the Bible. It literally means ‘presence’ but doesn’t add anything to the concept that God’s glory reveals His presence.

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