Brilliance

Brilliance – Brilliance is a word that has mostly fallen out of use in everyday language. We use it to describe people. “He/she is brilliant!” However, one of the word’s most common uses in the past was to describe objects. In fact, the older versions of Webster’s Dictionary use this definition in the primary position – very bright, glittering, striking or distinctive are among the terms used to define brilliant.




Certainly, we have met people whose mental accomplishments could be called “striking” or “distinctive.” However, when we are speaking about our Lord, Jesus Christ, brilliance and brilliant take on all the meanings the word has to offer. Certainly Christ is beyond brilliant when it comes to mental abilities. Certainly, God knows many things you and I never will. Certainly, God understands the mysteries of the universe that our greatest scientists struggle to have any conception of at all!



Brilliant, however, is most often used to describe God’s glory. Exodus 24 tells us that the sight of the glory of the Lord was as a “consuming fire.” When Moses was finished speaking to Yahweh God on the mountain, his face shone brightly, so brightly the people asked him to cover himself.



In fact the sound of the voice of God was a conveyor of such power and might that the people trembled in fear. Exodus 20 says that the people asked Moses to tell God to speak only to him and not to them lest they die, so Moses listened to the voice of Yahweh and then told the people what He had said.



When Moses asked to see God’s glory, to come face-to-face with God. Yahweh had to tell Moses, “No.” He had to tell Moses no because the sight of the glory of God was beyond what the human existence could bear. Yahweh was protecting Moses, not denying him.



This same glory that brought fear into the hearts of the Israelites is the glory which the Scriptures tell us will one day cover and fill the whole earth! That is a fearsome thought. That which terrified the people of Israel will one day overpower all else. There will be no getting away from it. God’s glory will indeed be revealed.



Should we be as afraid as the people of Israel were? No, I don’t think we should. We have no need to fear if we belong to Jesus Christ, for Christ has imparted some of that glory to us. He has shared, indeed covered us, with His own righteousness, for it is the unrighteousness which that glory will consume and burn away until nothing is left of it. Exodus 29 even talks about how the glory of the LORD will sanctify the people of Israel. They will not be righteous in their own might and works. They will be granted righteousness because God is glorious. God takes your sin away and gives you His radiant glory that you may be sanctified and numbered among the saints of God as well!

Pastor Craig