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"For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea" (Hab. 2: 14).
"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For,
behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord
shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come
to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. 60: 1-3).
The expression `as the waters cover the sea' demands a word of explanation. These
words cannot apply to the sea itself, for the sea is composed of water, and the waters of
the sea cover the sea-bed. The waters here refer to those living waters that are to flow
from Jerusalem in the coming day, `half of them toward the former sea, and half of them
toward the hinder sea' (Zech. 14: 8), the `former' being the eastern, and from Ezek 47:
we learn by the reference to Engedi that this `former sea' is what is known as The Dead
Sea. Wherever these healing waters were seen to travel they brought life in their train. A
paraphrase of Hab. 2: 14 might read:
"The earth shall be filled with the life giving knowledge of the glory of the Lord, even
as the living waters that flow from Jerusalem, shall, in that day of restoration and Jubilee,
blot out the typical Dead Sea."
"The gospel of the glory of Christ" and "the knowledge of the glory of God"
(IICor.iv.4,6) are complementary, the one explaining and fulfilling the other. Glory is the
ultimate, grace is the channel or means. The Gospel is received by faith; it leads on to
knowledge. The interchange of teaching concerning `glory' in chapter 3: (doxa is used
eleven times), prepares for this glory that excelleth, the face of Jesus Christ being placed
over against the face of Moses; the emancipating glory of the One set over against the
fading glory of the other.
The word `face' is often employed as a figure (the figure called Synecdoche) for the
whole person, the most personal and recognizable part being used for the whole.
Luke 1: 76 speaks of a messenger going before `the face of the Lord', Luke 2: 31 speaks
of a preparation before `the face of all people'. So II Cor. 2: 10 reads `in the person of
Christ', which is identical except for the addition of the name `Jesus' (which many
critical texts omit) with the original of II Cor. 4: 6, en prosopo Christou (II Cor. 2: 10),
en prosopo Iesou Christou (II Cor. 4: 6).
In this brief study we have traveled from the Covenant of Sinai with its ministration of
death, to the New Covenant, sealed by a better sacrifice than Moses ever offered and
leading to a liberty and a glory that Moses could never promise. If, however, we leave
the matter here, we shall in our turn be guilty of spreading a veil over the eyes of the
believer for however excellent may be the glory of the New Covenant, that Covenant has
no place in the dispensation of the Mystery. Darkness still gives place to light in this
most blessed of dispensations, and glory is still most intimately associated with the
person of Christ, but Ephesian truth does not rest upon the New Covenant, but upon one
infinitely better promise, a promise made in Christ before the overthrow of the world, and
unrelated either with Abraham or with Moses. It is therefore imperative that having gone
so far we must go further. We must consider the ground of the dispensation of the
Mystery; we must distinguish `the promise' made before age times from all other