THE WRITING ON THE WALL – Part 1 of 2

KEY VERSES: The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isa 40:5)… They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. (Isa 35:2b)

  Conversion from the old creature to the new results in us ceasing to be ornamental and Jesus being the Ornament. As such, we are to diminish ourselves and glorify God as we are humbled and Jesus is magnified!
  I have often wondered, Just what is the Glory of the Lord? My seminary-trained pastor years ago, when I asked him, merely said, “God’s glory,” and smiled. He didn’t know either! In the first of the key verses, Isaiah saw Jesus, and said, “The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” If you remember, Moses did not get to see the Face of God. Moses asked of God, “I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exod 33:18). Moses had seen a burning bush speaking, but he had not seen the face of God.
  Then God gave instructions: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exod 33:20) “while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen (Exod 33:22-23).
  Moses asked to see God’s “Glory” but was unable to. God covered Moses face with His hand, and God’s Face was concealed from him. What then is God’s “Glory?” The Face of God. Isaiah explained God’s “Face” succinctly - the “excellency” of it! Excellence is from the Hebrew “hadar,” meaning ornament, splendor, and honor (Strong’s Dictionary), and not to be forgotten, its synonym “glorious.”
  Is it not a marvelous thing that Jesus on the Cross is ornamental? Indeed, the Glory of God was hung on the Cross. We think of Christmas (Christ’s Day) trees as representing the event when God showed His face to mankind, as prophesied by Isaiah in the first key verse. The Holy Cross is Christ’s tree (Acts 5:30). Jesus was the “Ornament” on the Tree, not that he was there to beautify it, but to demonstrate his excellence as God. Just how was Jesus most excellent? “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9).
  We think only of Jesus’s dying on the Cross, but God experienced death in all three of His substances. Jesus was the “Ornament,” but the Father was there in Mind, and as Jesus’s Ghost left him when it was finished (Mark 15:37). The entire Godhead experienced death on the Holy Cross. God experienced death in the Flesh, as the Father, and His Spirit, all of which were immortal. God in three substances experienced death, but as was demonstrated at the resurrection of Jesus, God’s Flesh slept for three days.
  We fear death as if it was forever, but our spirit escapes at death, then just a few spiritual “days” later the body – a new improved creature – reunites with mind and spirit. As Christians take on their new countenance, they too are glorified – made excellent! Resurrection, therefore, is regeneration and glorification. When a person is born again, a transformation of a new spirit with new attitudes is made. Regeneration is not yet complete at rebirth. When Christians are “glorified,” they return to the image of God, namely excellent. They are regenerated back to the way they were at the generation of Adam. How was that? “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:31). Mankind was excellent since he was made in the image of God, and in their image as is written, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Gen 1:26-27).
  It is imperative to note that God had three “images” (not persons). Only one was a visible image, and that “image” is Jesus the Ornament symbolized as the visible trunk of Tree of Life. The person of the Holy Trinity is Jesus whether flesh or pre-incarnate. God always had a “Face” but it was not time to show it! Finally, after God showed His attitude with 400 years of silence as the Word (Jesus) stayed quiet, the heavens rejoiced with Light when God finally showed His Face when Jesus was born.
  The Israelites always had the hope of seeing God’s Face and knew the Messiah would someday come. Many times, though, God showed the Hebrews temporary images, but oftentimes His Hand. Anytime that God showed Himself whether audibly or visually, (The Word or as an Image), it was Jesus all the time. When God showed His Hand, it was God’s physical Hand; it was the hand of Jesus.

God showed His hand several times.
  Tomorrow we will discuss one of those times with the “writing on the wall.”



(To be continued.)

Handwriting On the Wall (Madison Park Christian Church)