had filled the house of the Lord". When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up in the

temple, he heard the seraphims cry, The fulness of the whole earth is His glory (Isa. 6: 3,

R.V. margin); the apostle John tells us that Isaiah in the vision saw the glory of the Son,

and spoke of Him (John 12: 37-41). Ezekiel, describing the wonderful vision of the glory

of the Lord, says, "And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance

of a man upon it. . . . this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord"

(Ezek. 1: 26-28). The reader can add to this brief selection many other passages which

show the majesty and the glory of the presence of the Lord. What we desire, however, to

emphasize here is, that when we have read and learned all that there is to be known

concerning the glory, we still have to remember that it is written of the Son that He was

the brightness of that glory; thus it is that "the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God" is found only in the face of Jesus Christ.

As we meditate upon this wondrous theme, what light breaks forth from such a

passage as Eph. 1: 17, "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory",

where glory answers to the Lord Jesus Christ, as surely as Father answers to God.

Dr. Owen calls attention to the Targum, which renders Psa. 44: 24, "Wherefore

hidest thou Thy face?", by, "Why takest Thou away the majesty (shekinah) of Thy

glory". Rashi's comment upon the vision of Isa. 6: 1, is that it was the shekinah: the

word shekinah comes from shaken, meaning to dwell, particularly as in a tabernacle, "Let

them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Exod. 25: 8).  The

connection between the Hebrew shaken, and the Greek skenoõ is visible to the English

reader, especially when the vowels are eliminated, leaving n each case s...k...n. It is the

word used in John 1: 14, "the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us"; the

apostle continues, "and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the

Father, full of grace and truth".

The Companion Bible (Appendix 179) suggests that the birth of Christ took place on

September 29th, which was the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus we come back

and read the words again, "Who being the brightness of His glory", realizing perhaps

with more reality than words can express the marvellous manifestation of grace and love

given us in the person of the only begotten Son, the true shekinah glory, the very

dwelling-place of glory in the midst of His people.

It is important to remember the lesson we learned earlier concerning the fact that these

glories peculiarly concern the Son, and are not to be confused with the glory which He

had before the world was. None but the Son, the Word made flesh, could be the great

antitype of the ancient glory of Israel's ark and mercy-seat. "Wherefore, when He

cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a BODY

hast Thou prepared Me". It is to the Son, as such, that pertains the throne and the sceptre

(Heb. 1: 8); it was as the Son "in the days of His flesh" that the Lord learned obedience by

the things which He suffered (Heb. 5: 7, 8); it was the Son of God who was crucified

afresh (Heb. 6: 6), and whose blood was trodden under foot. The coming of the Son of

God, and His partaking of flesh and blood, is a deep lesson not to be lightly displaced by