Glory Came Down

I lead worship at my youth group every Thursday, and part of my job as worship leader is picking songs. It'd be kind of foolish to just show up, take requests, and just hope everything happens in the right key. But that doesn't stop me from doing it every once in a while.

Anyway, one of the songs I picked was Show Me Your Glory by Third Day. If you've ever listened to Christian radio, you've probably heard the song seventeen thousand, six hundred forty-two times, but just in case you haven't, you can check out this YouTube video.

I had stuck Show Me Your Glory at the end of the set, so it was the last song that everyone sang before I do my customary story time. If you've been to youth group (as I suspect most of you have), then you know what that is. If you haven't, I basically do the same thing I do here on my blog, except I verbally tell the story instead of writing it down.

I had initially planned on telling a story about Christmas trees, but after Show Me Your Glory, I felt the urge to tell a story about something else altogether. I figured that God was trying to get a hold of me, so I told the story that came to mind instead of the one I'd planned, and it worked out quite nicely. God's cool, isn't He?

Anyway, the story I ended up telling was the story that Show Me Your Glory is based on. The story is actually in the Bible, so instead of retelling it, I'll let God do the talking:

Moses said, "Please show me your glory." And he [the LORD] said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live."

And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."

Exodus 33:18-23 (ESV)

I hope that you can see how the lyrics to the song and the Bible passage match up. Moses wanted to see the glory of God ("Show me Your glory/Send down Your presence/I wanna see Your face"), but God told Moses that His glory was so awesome and holy that no man could see the fullness of it and live. So Moses only got to see the tail end of God's glory ("Caught a glimpse of Your splendor in the corner of my eye/The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen").

The passage I quoted doesn't mention it, but if you read earlier in Exodus, you'll find that when Moses asked to see God's glory, he was on a mountain getting the ten commandments the second time ("When I climb down the mountain and get on with my life/I won't settle for ordinary things"). 

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I can't imagine what it must've been like to be Moses on that mountain. The glory of God---even just the tail end of it---would've been a sight to see. Moses wrote the book of Exodus, but he never wrote anything down about what God's glory looked like. I don't know this for sure, but I'll bet it was because it was so awesome, he knew there was no way he could possibly even begin to describe it using words.

Moses wasn't the only person to see the glory of God. Prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah saw God in visions, and the apostle John had a vision of heaven as well. There were a few other people that actually saw the face of God, but for some reason, we don't ever seem to remember them when we talk about people that have seen God's glory. Check it out:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

Luke 2:8-11, 15-17 (ESV)

Perhaps the reason that we don't really think about these shepherds when we think about people who witnessed the glory of God is that the baby they saw wasn't all that glorious. The baby was the Christ child, to be sure, but there wasn't anything special about Him.

There wasn't a halo around His head. His face didn't glow. He probably didn't have much hair, and He was probably kind of dirty; a stable isn't really a great environment for delivering a baby into the world. He looked, cried, and acted just like any other baby.

And yet the shepherds knew that this ordinary baby was Christ the Lord. It would've been cool to see God's glory with Moses, but I think it would've been even cooler to witness the day that Almighty God came to earth as a tiny, helpless baby.

Can you imagine what it must've been like for Jesus to come to earth the way He did? He gave up His glory, His throne, and the absolute perfection of heaven to come to the earth that He had created (John 1:3). He didn't come as an adult, and He didn't choose to be born into a rich family. He was born to peasants in a dark, musty stable (which was probably more like a cave than it was a barn), and the only people that witnessed his birth were some lowly shepherds.

No kings. No dignitaries. No princes, or priests, or prophets. The King of the Universe had come to earth, and the only people that were there to see it were some people who spent their entire lives with sheep. Jesus really humbled Himself when He came to earth, and I think we lose sight of that sometimes.

Another thing I think we lose sight of is why Jesus came to earth. During the Christmas season, I've noticed that a lot of Christians (myself included) get so wrapped up in the Christmas story that they forget about the reason Jesus had to come in the first place. We're so preoccupied with cute little babies and nativity sets that we don't give much thought to the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

Jesus didn't come down to our wicked, sinful, and imperfect world to do miracles and tell parables. He didn't give up the glories of heaven just so He could show people the right way to live. Jesus did do those things, but that's not why He was born.

Jesus was born for something more important. He was born for this:

The reason Jesus came to earth was so that He could save us from our sins. Without His sacrifice, I wouldn't be writing this blog. I wouldn't be saved. You wouldn't be saved either. Our sin and wickedness is what made Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection necessary, and it's because of Him that we can be free.

Jesus came to earth so He could spread His arms wide to show us what love is. This Christmas season, be sure to thank Him for that.