I’m sure people in my church think I’m a bit kooky going on about judgement and sin and God being angry and all that. They can’t see why God could be angry with them – or anyone, for that matter. So perhaps I should explain it the way that God first spoke it to me.
Before God ever spoke to me about judgement coming he spoke to me about his glory coming. And every time I preached that’s what was in my heart – that God wanted to manifest his glory in his people. That’s why all through the prophets God speaks about judgement and cleansing and refining but he also speaks about restoration and his dwelling place being with his people. The judgement and refining are so that he can dwell with his people
…he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a Spirit of judgement and a Spirit of fire.
Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy.
Isaiah 4:5
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
Ps.85.9,13
Can a holy God dwell with an unholy people?
Can light dwell with darkness?
Can God fill his temple with glory if his temple isn’t first cleansed?
Malachi says that the Lord will suddenly come to his temple and do what?
He will sit as a refiner and purifier. (Mal.3.1-3).
The problem at this point in time is that instead of God being glory in our midst, we have substituted his glory for far lesser ones:
My people have exchanged their glory
for worthless idols.[1]
Jer 2:11.
The Hebrew word for glory, kābôd, comes from a root which means “weighty”. If I were to paraphrase what Christians have done I could say that we have made light of God’s glory. We have made light of his heaviness. And if there is one thing God is concerned for more than any other thing, it is his glory. No other thing is to receive the glory that is due only to God. We are to show deference to his glory, and not approach it unworthily.
“Here this, you foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear:
Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
“Should you not tremble in my presence?”
Jer.5.22
“Consider then and realize
How evil and bitter it is for you
When you…have no awe of me.”
Jer.2.19
We sing about it. We pray for it. We call it down from heaven. But we refuse to remove the obstacles in our lives that stand in the way of it coming. We expect it to come without us having to move a finger,[2] without the need for any change on our part.
But God cannot fill his house with glory until his house is cleansed. The explicit and implicit references to this in scripture are too many to count. And yet we go on clinging to our sin, thinking we can have our cake and eat it too. We want the glory of God, but we want the pleasure of our sin. We want God’s presence, but we fill his temple (ourselves) with so much junk that there is no room for his presence. And we allow things in our lives that should not be there (read Neh.13.4-9 and 2 Kings 22-23). How can God dwell in glory next to what we watch, or listen to, or say? We have become worshippers of what is worthless and, as I warned before, God is coming to deal with it (Jer.8-9).
As I said at the beginning, before God spoke to me about judgement he told me he wanted to fill his house with glory. But a house full of in-fighting, immorality and adultery, politics, and personal agendas isn’t a particularly glorious one. Still, if you’re happy with the same old same old, then just go on doing what you’re doing. I guarantee you you’ll get a large dose.
But God is infinite. Don’t you think there are infinite surprises in his glory? If he wants to come and be present in his People – individually and corporately – in a far greater way than now, why would you not want that? Why would you be unwilling to pay the cost? It is, of course, absolutely free. The things of God cannot be bought. But it comes at great cost. And that cost is to relinquish everything.
“…first sit down and estimate the cost…. Those of you who do not give up everything…cannot be my disciples.”
(Lk. 14.28-35)
Consider this in relation to your own life:
“For lack of losing all, how much is lost!”
– Danson Smith
[1] Have a look at Romans 1:23-32 and see what happens when we exchange God’s glory for anything less. It’s not a pretty picture. God’s judgement is that he gives us over to our sin.
[2] In case someone wants to jump in here with some argument about how that implies some kind of “works” theology, let me say that God does not come in his glory because we do anything, but he almost certainly will not if we don’t. It’s about preparing a place that is fit for his presence and if we can’t see that then we have no concept of holiness. God doesn’t come because we do anything; he comes because he wants to. He has always wanted to dwell with his people. Our belief that grace means we don’t have to repent of our sin and complacency is what prevents that glory from being manifest. And so he will have to cleanse us with “a Spirit of judgement and a Spirit of fire.”
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