The Glory: Kavod

Last week I had the privilege of watching the movie: Jesus Revolution, which I wholeheartedly recommend, if you haven’t yet had the chance to view it. I was deeply touched and reminded of the power of my own testimony of searching for truth and being found by Yeshua!

Lisa and I had for years pursued truth in all the wrong, empty places. We had climbed mountains to find truth, walked on fire coals to find truth, meditated, rebirthed in water, eaten vegetarian, chanted and followed gurus to find truth. It reminds me of drilling for oil in the sand where there is no oil.  As I watched the movie and saw these hippies take their drugs or hang out together it reminded me of the hunger in every heart to find the truth that remains.

Moses was also a seeker and even with His God-encounters, he hungered to see God’s glory, His Kavod. What exactly is this glory, and why has the Glory of God drawn us like a moth to a flame?

Moses knew there was a reality beyond this one that was truth itself. Yeshua walked in that reality and from that place came the miracles of healing, the cleansing of lepers, the raising of the dead and the miraculous demonstrations of provision and mastery over nature. In our fallen state, we all remember in the depths of our being that there is another deeper reality that is the realm of the supernatural, what is called the glory. 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Joh 1:14)

Yeshua is the glory of God. So, what is glory, “kavod”?

What does the original Hebrew Word Picture reveal about כָּבַד Kavad the root? Three letters, kaf, bet, and dalet.

Kaf = Palm, Open Hand, to Cover, to Open, to Allow, Wing, Bend, Tame…

Bet = Tent, House, Dwelling, In, Inside, Within, Family, Heart, Temple, Kingdom…

Dalet = Door, Entrance, Pathway, Gate, Hang, an Opening to the Heart, to Move…

The palm is what we use to hold, to contain, to open. The dwelling, home is described by the bet.  The dalet is the doorway. כָּבַד Kavad shows us a figurative picture of the Ultimate Open Hand, allowing us Entrance to the Ultimate Tent – Door; the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the realm of glory, the true kingdom of God.

God is called the King of Glory.

Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah. (Psalms 24:7-10)

There is a doorway, an ancient path that reveals His Glory. We see a picture of this realm in the Passover seder. The ancient doors are a reference to the deliverance of Israel at the Passover. Remembering the story in Exodus 12, the doors were covered in blood. The blood of the lamb was the welcome sign of the covenant for the King of Glory to come in!

“‘The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exo 12:13)

God passes into the homes of the Israelites and is their defense by covenant.

Today our hearts are the ancient doors.

Look at John 10. 

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. (Joh 10:1-9)

By identifying Himself as both the shepherd and the door of the sheepfold, Yeshua is completing the Passover picture. As the door, He is place of the blood of the Lamb and as the shepherd He is the Lord of Glory who brings the Kingdom of Glory to the sheep.

This brings the kavod of God into the heart through the doorway marked with His blood. Our hearts take the place of the Passover homes. Also, later the sacrifices of blood would mark the tabernacle and the temple. All of these ancient doors into the Glory, the hand that opens the doorway intro the house of God, would progressively reveal more and more of His Glory.

Many have thought of the glory as the “stuff” of God. Whether we think of God’s glory as brilliant light, or blazing fire, or thunderous clouds, or any other manifestation of the Lord into our realm, all of which are think are glimpses of the truth, I still think that there is more of a connection of eternity into our realm that is perhaps a deeper revelation of His kavod.

In some profound way, “glory”, kavod reveals the essential nature of someone of something.Glory, Kavod shows us the stuff we are truly made of. Glory also means heavy. It is the same word root for the liver which is our heaviest organ. It is what is most important about someone, or something spoken. We say… “those are heavy words…

Paul said: ““There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.” (1Co 15:40-41)

Then the question might be, what is God’s glory? Or another way to say that is what is the essential nature of God revealing most clearly who He is?

Let’s look at how God responded when Moses asked that question. God tells Moses:

“Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."” (Exo 33:19) and

“And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."” (Exo 34:6-7)

In these declarations, God is revealing Himself, His Glory as love. He is merciful, He is gracious, He is longsuffering (patient), He abounds with goodness and truth. He is forgiving of iniquity, transgressions and sin. In all of this, it will take the sacrifice of Yeshua for this glory to come into a fullness of reality.

Moses could only glimpse the true fullness of God’s glory, which the Lord said was to see His backside. 

“So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."” (Exo 33:22-23)

Why is this? Because the way in had not yet come. Death guards the glory.

“But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live."” (Exo 33:20)

This is the reason Yeshua had to die to restore the access to the glory in the heart of man. Paul explains this in 2 Corinthians 3:

“But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Co 3:14-18)

The veil lays over the heart that needs to be torn through repentance to receive the king of Glory. There is a doorway into the realm of God who is love that we can walk in. You see He is the king of Glory, which is His essential nature, love. This is why faith is said to work by love. When we realize the fullness of His love, then we can truly trust in Him. Really all the Bible is a love story. His kavod is His love.

Activation: Faith works by love. What miracle are believing for. Allow His Glory His love to enter the situation. Trust Him with your need and watch the King of Glory come into your house!