2 Chron.5:13,14 – indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying:
“For He is good,
For His mercy endures forever,”
that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
Writing about the presence of God and its effect on people presents challenges because it seems so unusual to many individuals. To most it may seem like some sort of fantasy, something that may have happened a long time ago but means nothing in our modern world. In this passage we see the worshipping priests physically overcome by the presence of the Lord. Why is this? Would the Lord walking into a room have this effect on people today? Apparently it does because there are too many modern day accounts to ignore. God’s glory is an unveiling of His goodness, His very nature, and that is too much for natural bodies to endure. Here is how Dane Ortlund describes spiritual beauty from the writings of Jonathan Edwards.
“God’s beauty happifies us. It nestles us into joy. Seeing him—apprehending with the eyes of the heart his lovely holiness—we are changed. Edwards even argues in a sermon on James 1:17 that the reason no one can see God and live is not God’s wrath or justice, but because “God is arrayed with an infinite brightness” that “fills with excess of joy and delight,” so that “the joy and pleasure in beholding would be too strong for a frail nature.” According to Edwards, it isn’t God’s terribleness that would incinerate us. It is the joy that would erupt within us that we cannot handle.”
So this is why the Lord told Moses no one could see Him and live, His goodness would be too overwhelming. So that is why we will be transformed before we step into the fulness of the kingdom of heaven. Fallen man cannot withstand the goodness of the Lord, that’s what heaven will be all about, enjoying and discovering His infinite beauty for eternity. So today, when we are filled with the Spirit we receive a small sample of His beauty, this is a foretaste of our heavenly inheritance.
1 thought on “THE OVERWHELMING BEAUTY OF HIS GOODNESS”
This is an example of the in plain sight but still hidden treasures in God. “Enjoying and discovering His infinite beauty for eternity” Unfortunately the prevailing thought is that eternity starts after one gets old and passes away!