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When we come to Phil. 2: 6 we shall have to enquire into the words "Who being".
Let it suffice for the moment to draw attention to the fact that in Phil. 2: 6 we are
dealing with the very being of the Lord, while in Heb. 1: 3 we are dealing with the
characteristics of the "Son", the Word "made flesh"--two distinct phases the confusing
of which is the cause of much understanding.
The Brightness of the Glory.
The "brightness" (or "effulgence") translates a word (apaugasma) which occurs
nowhere else in the N.T. We may get clearer light if we turn to the typical people
Israel. When the ark was taken from Israel, the wife of Phinehas named her son
Ichabod"Where is the glory?" saying:--
"The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken" (I Sam. 4: 21, 22).
The Psalmist's comment is:--
"He delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand"
(Psa. 78: 61).
A.--This shows that Israel's conception of God was very limited, and even though you
proceed to show that Christ was the Jehovah of the O.T. that will not lift Him beyond
"A God".
B.--Hezekiah may correct your mistake:--
"O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubim--,"
A.--As I said, Israel localized the Deity.
B.--You did not allow Hezekiah to finish:--
"O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubim, Thou art THE GOD,
even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, Thou hast made the heavens and the
earth" (II Kings 19: 15).
The glory of the Lord is "above the heavens" (Psa. 8: 1); yet Hezekiah's prayer
teaches that for the purposes of grace that infinite and incomprehensible glory could be
attached to the ark of the covenant, even as in the fulness of time it should be manifest in
the flesh. Ezekiel says:--
"And 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).
Thus it is that Eph. 1: 17 says that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" is "the Father
of the glory".