Bible Wonders - Beauty/Glory

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises, but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? Today on Bible Wonders, I want to wonder about beauty and the way that the Hebrews interpret that can often mean glory. It's kind of cool all the different ways that you find that word in the Scriptures. In Hebrew, it has two tavs, one at the beginning and one at the end, which are kind of like when you say the alpha and the omega. Well, the omega would be the end of the Greek alphabet. Well, the tav is the end of the Hebrew alphabet. And so when you see two tavs in a word, you can't help but see God's signature on it, especially since the ancient way that you would write that letter is a cross.

And so clearly this word is a very significant word. And usually it's interpreted beauty, but often it's interpreted glory. And so one of the things that the Hebrews teach on the concept is that when God has something that's his glory, he often has to turn down the light in order for us to observe it.

You know, kind of like he put his hand over Moses as he passed by him, you know, even though he was in the cleft of the rock so that his glory wouldn't, you know, destroy Moses. And so I wonder if you would just think a moment about something you saw that just kind of took your breath that was unbelievably beautiful. Well, in my case, you know, the time that really struck me, especially with this concept of light, was my wife and I won a trip when I was a Chrysler dealer to Russia to actually St. Petersburg. And there was a museum there. I can't remember the name of it, but it was a very famous museum. It had a lot of works of arts. Actually, the Russians had stolen from the Germans who had stolen from the French. So they were in French museums when the Germans invaded.

And then when the Russians took over Germany, they brought all this art back to this museum in St. Petersburg. So there were a lot of wonderfully beautiful paintings by all sorts of artists. But the one that grabbed me was the one by Rembrandt. And it was a painting of Jesus on the cross.

And that what struck me, you know, I'd never seen a Rembrandt in person. But when you stood there and looked at the painting, you know, you walked up on it. And there was no light on the painting from the museum. But there was light in the painting. And the more I looked at it, the more I couldn't believe that somehow or another, this light was actually coming from the painting. It was on the cross. And I just stood there for a long time and gazed at it as I was like, that is absolutely miraculous. I mean, I could clearly see why Rembrandt was a master because he had managed to show this light that was somehow inside of this painting. It was just a phenomenal thing.

I'll never ever forget it. But I wonder if there aren't times that God is going to show us something amazingly beautiful. And when he does, you know, he just lets you see enough light in order for you to be able to focus on it doesn't blind you with all the light that's possible, like the sun, if you got too close, but he gives you just what you need. Just like, you know, when David again, I love the 23rd Psalm, when he says, you know, he leads me besides still waters.

Well, you know, there's a beautiful book. It's the 23rd Psalm from a shepherd's perspective. And he says that sheep won't drink from fast moving water, because they're afraid they're going to drown. Sheep and water don't do well, they get their fleece all wet and they, you know, they go to the bottom. So they're very, very scared of water. So it's running fast, they won't drink.

Right. So when, when David says, you lead me beside the still waters, that's that the water's slow enough that you can drink from it. And this is this idea that when you see that particular sunset, or that mountain scene or the Grand Canyon, or a beautiful woman or a beautiful man, however, that looks that somehow or another, God has allowed just the right amount of light for you to see his glory. Because all those things are reflecting what? Those two toves, the one who was the author and the inventor of glory. Something to wonder about today on Bible Wonders.