Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Brillance of His Glory


 Brilliant Light,

His Glory,

is visible 

in morning light

and when shadows

grow long again

at day's end,

His glory

shines

brilliant...



Glory (from the Latin gloria, "fame, renown") is used to denote the manifestation of God's presence. God's glory is often associated with visible displays of light, e.g. thunderbolts, fire, brightness. The Greek word doxa, is sometimes also translated "brightness."

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word Hebrews 1:3

The word "glory" - δόξα doxa - means properly "a seeming, an appearance;" and then:
(1) praise, applause, honor:
(2) dignity, splendor, glory;
(3) brightness, dazzling light; and,
(4) excellence, perfection, such as belongs to God and such as there is in heaven.

It is probably used here, as the word - כבוד kaabowd - is often among the Hebrews, to denote splendor, brightness, and refers to the divine perfections as resembling a bright light, or the sun.




Barnes' Notes on the Bible Here there is a comparison of God with the sun; he is encompassed with splendor and majesty; he is a being of light and of infinite perfection. It refers to "all in God" that is bright, splendid, glorious; and the idea is, that the Son of God is the "brightness" of it all.



The word rendered "brightness" - ἀπαύγασμα apaugasma - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly "reflected splendor," or the light which emanates from a luminous body. The rays or beams of the sun are its "brightness," or that by which the sun is seen and known. The sun itself we do not see; the beams which flow from it we do see. The meaning here is, that if God be represented under the image of a luminous body, as he is in the Scriptures (see Psalm 84:11; Malachi 4:2), then Christ is the radiance of that light, the brightness of that luminary.

Acts 21:37-22:16

About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'

8 " 'Who are you, Lord?' I asked.

" 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

10 "'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked.
"'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.' 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.



May the brilliance of His light blind us...
may His light cause us to not 
see anything but Him.


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