El Hakkavod
Recently I've been struggling through the book of Habakkuk. At times I've spent so long trying to understand a passage that I've fallen asleep. Other times I've looked to commentaries to help me make sense of the context. God has been so kind to me in both. Kind to bring understanding or to bring fruit even in my lack of understanding. But sometimes His generosity knows no bounds, and a passage strikes me so beautifully that I can't help but share.
Today that passage was Habakkuk 2:14.
My initial summary of this verse was, "the glory of the Lord will fill the earth like waters cover the sea." But I realized I'd made a mistake. The passage doesn't say "the glory of the Lord" but "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord." And that simple mistake was what God used to encourage my soul today.
They seem almost the same, and yet they are so vastly different. The knowledge of God's glory will fill the earth in the future, but His glory is already here. Currently a cloud rests over us, keeping us from seeing it fully, but the reality of that glory never changes. It fills the earth like waters cover the sea.
But the thing about the waters is that they don't just cover the sea. They are the sea. Without waters the sea is only land. Water is intrinsic to the very nature of the sea just as God's glory is intrinsic to the nature of this universe. The world cannot be without God's glory as the sea cannot be without water. Our existence is dependent on His glory. That is the world we are living in. That is the reality we fail to see. That is the truth we have trouble trusting even when we want to believe it. That is what the veil of brokenness hides.
But one day we will see. One day our knowledge of God's glory will come into accordance with the reality of His glory. One day the veil will be torn completely, and we will see in such splendor throughout the universe the eternity that we can now see when we turn to God (2 Cor. 3:16-18).
That knowledge will fill us as God's glory already fills the earth and the waters fill the sea. We will finally understand this world for what it is. We will move through His glory like fish through the ocean, knowing it as our very source of life and seeing it all around us, covering our whole being and our whole world without separation.
What beauty awaits us.
"But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:16-18).
Comments
Post a Comment