Day 233: See The Glory

John 11:28-57; 2 Chronicles 12-13; Psalm 76

Jesus asks the people who have gathered to mourn for Lazarus, "Didn't I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?" This strikes me as a very interesting question. It suggests that in order to see God's glory, we must put our faith in him. So what is God's glory? Power? Compassion? Salvation? Miracles? Jesus? I Googled it (why not) and it said that the glory of God is the "beauty of God's spirit." Cool. So if we have faith in Jesus, then our eyes and hearts will be opened to his love, his greatness, his heart. That means that even for us, today, if we have faith, God will allow us to see the glory, the beauty, of who he is.

Because of how incredible Jesus proves himself to be, the Pharisees plot to kill him. Even Jesus, or should I say, especially Jesus, lives in such a way as to upset people because of how radical he is. The Pharisees make a very interesting comment in their discussion: "Then the Romans will come and destroy our temple and our nation." Do they not believe that God Almighty will guard and protect them? That The Lord will abandon them? Perhaps they believe that God already has since their hearts are so far from him. Either way, they demonstrate that they are not followers of The Lord in order to get to know the heart of God better, but to be over the sinners and have a higher status.

In the last post, I was proud of Rehoboam because he seemed to be wising up. In this next passage, Rehoboam shows that he still had a lot to learn. He allowed the people to stop obeying The Lord. As a result, God allowed the king of Egypt to invade and take over. When we stop obeying God, stop relying on his strength, ignore his wisdom, we open the door for unhealthy, foreign, dangerous things to enter our lives. That's what happened to Rehoboam and his kingdom. Now, they eventually said they were sorry and God made them prosperous, but had they simply continued to follow The Lord, they would not have fallen into the hands of their enemies.

Abijah sounds pretty cool. He has half the number of troops that his enemy, Jeroboam has. He steps up to the top of the mountain and declares that Jeroboam doesn't have a chance since he turned his back on God, while Abijah and his people still obey God. And indeed, despite his lack of numbers, his troops being trapped, God comes through and they are victorious in every way. When we put our faith in God, we will have victory over our enemies, whatever they may look like.

This psalm could have been written by Abijah himself. (It's not, but the message is similar.) In this passage, God is being glorified for his power and ability to bring rulers to their knees and destroy those who oppose him. This should be encouraging to followers of him, that he has power over the evil of this world and can defeat it.