House of God
Today’s Topic: The Glory of God
Scripture: Exodus 33:17-22; Matthew 19:17; Exodus 34:6,7
Greetings Kingdom Citizens:
Now when we talk about the glory of God, what are we talking about and what does it mean for the House of God. I want to show you in this set of scriptures the glory of God and how it links to the House of God.
Exodus 33:17-19:”And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he (Moses) said, I beseech thee, SHEW ME THY GLORY. And He (The Lord) said, I will make ALL MY GOODNESS PASS BEFORE THEE, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
In this scripture, Moses wanted to know or experience God as He was so he ask God to show him His glory. Now God’s response is unique because when tend not to think of God’s glory in these terms. God tells Moses that all of His goodness will pass before thee. Could it be that God is speaking of His glory in terms of His goodness? Let’s look at another scripture to confirm it.
Exodus 33:22: ”And it shall come to pass, while my GLORY PASSETH BY, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock and will cover thee with my hand”
Look at that! The Lord said when His glory passes by. Back in Exodus 33:19 the Lord tells us what passes by, His Goodness. God’s nature is to be good. Jesus said Himself in Matthew 19:17: Why callest thou me good? There is none good by one, that is God..:” God is compassionate, merciful, patient, forgiving, keeps no record of wrongs and so on. Now in Exodus 33:19 the Lord said that the His name will be proclaimed before Moses, now watch this.
Exodus 34:6,7: And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in GOODNESS AND TRUTH, keeping MERCY FOR THOUSANDS, FORGIVING INIQUITY AND TRANSGRESSION AND SIN, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity (sins) of the fathers UPON THE CHILDREN AND UPON THE CHILDREN’S CHILDREN, UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION (GENERATIONAL CURSE).”
So the Goodness of God is directly correlated to being the Glory of God. This is why God is good. Now this is the culture of Heaven, full of God’s goodness. When we even remotely think about the beauty of Heaven and the way it will be all of that corresponds to the goodness of God. So the culture of the Kingdom begins with the nature of the King. Now God sends His children in image and after His likeness or nature. This is how the Kingdom of God comes to the Earth is through the sons of God. In turn, when the Will of God comes to the earth, earth can see the goodness of God. This is why Jesus taught in the model prayer that the first request is for the Kingdom to come and the Will of God to be done in the Earth. This is the entire point of restoration. When Adam was put in the Earth, His purpose was to bring the Kingdom of God to the Earth. By the rulership and dominion of the Lord given to the sons of God to manage the Earth, the Earth is to experience and see the goodness of God. So in being after the likeness of his Father, Adam was good like God is good. Now Adam did not become good by Himself, He was good only in the sense of the goodness of God flowing through him to the Earth.
Now to show you even more the Goodness of God is when he chose His children as the heirs of the Kingdom of God and not the angels. Satan and one-third of the angels in Heaven rebelled against God. These angels challenged God in His decision to make humans His heirs and you do not challenge God. Now God could have simply eliminated and utterly destroyed them but what would that have proven. We already know that God has the superior and dominant strength to crush the competition so that would not speak anything to the Goodness of God. So what God does is put His sons in the Earth to rule the Earth and bring the culture of Heaven to the Earth. God knows that His children would sin and rebel against Him. However the Goodness (Glory) of God will come to redeem the fall man and despite their short falls and sins he would love them all enough to redeem them and forgive their sin if they make the choice to come back home to the House of God. It would also be through them that the goodness of God would flow to the Earth.
Hence, the son of God who is also a viceroy to the King is put in the Earth to be the exact representation of his Father’s good nature. If the result of God’s nature and rule shows His goodness, kindness and mercy then the result of His son’s rule in the Earth should bring about the same result and culture as in Heaven.
In the next message we will begin to look at what it means to exemplify representative rulership as the sons of God and His representatives in the Earth.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
