Been trying to picture my God on His throne. What must that look like? Isaiah 6 has a visual:
I saw the Lord sitting on a very high throne. His long robe filled the temple. Heavenly creatures of fire stood above Him....Each creature was calling to the others: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. His glory fills the whole earth!' Their calling caused the frame of the door to shake as the temple filled with smoke.
I said: "Oh, no! I will be destroyed. I am not pure, and I live among people who are not pure, but I have seen the King!"
Moses lived among the Israelites in their years of wandering in the desert on the way to the Promised Land. God said He spoke with Moses as a man speaks with his friend, and those conversations most often took place in the Tent of Meeting that Moses set up on the edge of the camp. Everyone was welcome into the tent, but when Moses went in, things were different. As he edged his way through the thousands of dwellings in the camps of the tribes of Israel, the people would peer from their opened tent flaps to watch him as he entered the meeting tent. When the flap closed, the cloud that led the group by day, fell across the opening of the tent and Moses was alone with God. Just the cloud caused the people to stop and worship.
On one of these occasions, recorded in Exodus 33, Moses wants to make certain that God will go with them on the journey to the land promised to them. The Lord assures Moses that He will go with them because Moses had found favor in His sight and God knows him by name. Then Moses goes a step further:
"I pray that You will show me Your glory!"
I think God's answer is astonishing: "I, Myself, will make all my goodness pass before you....but you cannot see my face, for no man can see my face and live."
Moses asked to see God's glory. God promises to show His goodness. He put Moses in the cleft of a rock the next day, and as He passed by in front of him, He said:
"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and truth; Who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations!"
That's it! God's glory is His goodness - His great compassion. The King of Everything sits on a throne lit by holy fire in the midst of incense and angelic snake-like, winged beings who constantly praise Him whose glory fills the whole earth! All loving and all just! This is what He wants us to know about Him.
Can you go into that throne room with me? Take a deep breath and feel the altar incense fill your nostrils. Marvel at the crimson of His robe flowing like a mighty river from His shoulders to fill the entire temple with its majesty. Close your eyes as the Seraphim shout to each other over and over proclaiming the surpassing glory of the King. Are you still standing? I am not. I doubt you are either. For the power in the room is so great that the floor shakes as the altar incense sweetens the air. That heavenly incense is the prayers of His children, and it touches His heart because He chooses to feel what we feel.
He is holy. Separate. Set apart. No one is like our God. And when He rose from His throne to meet Moses in the wilderness, what He wanted us to know is that He is good.
I saw the Lord sitting on a very high throne. His long robe filled the temple. Heavenly creatures of fire stood above Him....Each creature was calling to the others: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. His glory fills the whole earth!' Their calling caused the frame of the door to shake as the temple filled with smoke.
I said: "Oh, no! I will be destroyed. I am not pure, and I live among people who are not pure, but I have seen the King!"
Moses lived among the Israelites in their years of wandering in the desert on the way to the Promised Land. God said He spoke with Moses as a man speaks with his friend, and those conversations most often took place in the Tent of Meeting that Moses set up on the edge of the camp. Everyone was welcome into the tent, but when Moses went in, things were different. As he edged his way through the thousands of dwellings in the camps of the tribes of Israel, the people would peer from their opened tent flaps to watch him as he entered the meeting tent. When the flap closed, the cloud that led the group by day, fell across the opening of the tent and Moses was alone with God. Just the cloud caused the people to stop and worship.
On one of these occasions, recorded in Exodus 33, Moses wants to make certain that God will go with them on the journey to the land promised to them. The Lord assures Moses that He will go with them because Moses had found favor in His sight and God knows him by name. Then Moses goes a step further:
"I pray that You will show me Your glory!"
I think God's answer is astonishing: "I, Myself, will make all my goodness pass before you....but you cannot see my face, for no man can see my face and live."
Moses asked to see God's glory. God promises to show His goodness. He put Moses in the cleft of a rock the next day, and as He passed by in front of him, He said:
"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and truth; Who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations!"
That's it! God's glory is His goodness - His great compassion. The King of Everything sits on a throne lit by holy fire in the midst of incense and angelic snake-like, winged beings who constantly praise Him whose glory fills the whole earth! All loving and all just! This is what He wants us to know about Him.
Can you go into that throne room with me? Take a deep breath and feel the altar incense fill your nostrils. Marvel at the crimson of His robe flowing like a mighty river from His shoulders to fill the entire temple with its majesty. Close your eyes as the Seraphim shout to each other over and over proclaiming the surpassing glory of the King. Are you still standing? I am not. I doubt you are either. For the power in the room is so great that the floor shakes as the altar incense sweetens the air. That heavenly incense is the prayers of His children, and it touches His heart because He chooses to feel what we feel.
He is holy. Separate. Set apart. No one is like our God. And when He rose from His throne to meet Moses in the wilderness, what He wanted us to know is that He is good.
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