Glory of the LORD

The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Isaiah 40:5*

God is Spirit and therefore He’s invisible to His human creation. However, the presence of the Almighty was both seen and felt as the “appearance of fire” (Ezekiel 1:27). When Ezekiel was called to be a prophet, he had an encounter with living creatures that brought him to the throne of God. He saw a man on the throne with “the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (Ezekiel 1:28). Here the pre-incarnate Christ is revealed.

The Prophet Ezekiel uses this title more than any other book written in the Bible (nine times). His vision of the man on the throne of God in chapters 1 and 8 parallels the vision of the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 1 of the glorified Savior. In both cases, His thighs and feet looked like glowing metal and His face shone brightly. The one called the Glory of the LORD and the Son of God are one and the same.

The Glory of the LORD did not always have the appearance of a man, but just having a visible presence qualifies Him as the second person of the Trinity. The Glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16), filled both the Tabernacle and the Temple (Exodus 40:35; 1 Kings 8:11) and seen by the shepherds the day Christ was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:9).

For most of His life, Jesus’ glory was hidden from view of everyone but the Father. However, it did burst out at the Transfiguration: “and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). Peter described that scene by saying “We […] were eyewitnesses of His majesty (2 Peter 1:16). The Apostle Paul wasn’t with the other to see the glorified Christ on the mountain, but he saw Him with the eyes of faith; “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

*see all Isaiah 35:2; 60:1 and also 34 other verses