It is one thing to own a Bible, quite another to read it. I feel sorry for professing Christians who often say they indeed hold the Bible in high esteem, but in reality seldom meditate therein. They miss out on beautiful truths such as mentioned below:
Solomon built his gorgeous Temple under the direction of God Himself. The details of this undertaking are set forth in the opening chapters of 1 Kings. After its construction and the placement of all the furniture therein, the last to be placed was the Ark of the Covenant. It was situated in the Holy of Holies.
"After the priests placed it and when they left, God Himself dwelt therein. It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord" (1 Kings 8:10).
This cloud was the Shekinah Glory that led Israel during her forty years in the wilderness. It shone at night. It was in reality the very presence of God Himself! And it was always there regardless the spiritual condition of God's people, even as today He never leaves or forsakes His own.
When God's people finally apostasized God withdrew from the Temple and the word Ichabod was written over the door. The glory of the Lord had departed.
As an aside. I believe the star of Bethlehem was this same phenomenon, the Shekinah Glory! It pinpointed the location and presence of the Messiah for the searching shepherds. Also, it may well have been the cloud on the Mt. of Transfiguration.
Dear Christians, is the glory of the Lord radiating from our lives. The Holy Spirit wants to make it a reality. 2 Corinthians 3:18 declares, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." Hence the daily responsibility of not grieving or quenching the Spirit. We must walk with holy sensitivity.
dc
