THE “TO” IN “GLORY TO GLORY”
2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that when we seek the Lord we
are being changed from glory to glory. “But we
all, with open face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.” It’s not just the one time, when we get born again, but the
many times we are required by God to drop aspects of our old nature and put on
the new nature of the Christ within. The glory part on either side, is awesome,
but what about the “to” part in between?
CHANGE – OUCH! Keeping the status quo may not be exciting,
but at least it’s somewhat comfortable—it’s what we’re used to. But when we want
to see more of the Lord in our lives, we often need to step out into a learning
area – the “to” time. And since God knows our hearts, He sometimes lets us be
thrown into a “to” time and we don’t even know it’s happening, or why, or how
we got there.
In a documentary video I saw, the guide was talking to a
tour group in the Negev desert. The guide had the students look across the way
at a bare hillside traversed with well-worn sheep paths. The group watched as
two shepherd girls led their flock across the landscape. He told the group that
in this area, this was called “green pastures!” It looked totally brown and
barren in the video, but the guide went on to tell the students that they
needed to look a bit closer at the situation with the sheep. That’s what we
need to do with the “to” places – look a bit closer to see what the Lord wants
to get out of the experience.
The guide explained that the sheep paths were just far
enough apart so that a sheep on either side could reach into the area between
paths to eat. Eat what? It didn’t look like there was anything there. He
explained that there was a little moisture in the morning and it only was
enough to moisten around the bottom of the rocks. That’s where small tufts of
grass would grow. The video panned in and sure enough you could see the damp
darkened part at the bottom of the rocks and there popped up 3-inch to 5-inch
thin tufts of grass. There was so little to eat, the sheep had to keep moving
from one tuft to the next, but as they went, they were rewarded with enough
food to satisfy them.
That’s how it is when we traverse the “to” between the
glory spots. It is in these times that the Lord does some restoring of our
souls. Our spirits are perfect the minute we get born again, but our souls need
some help and it’s in the times between the glory levels that the growing pains
take place in our souls. A great Bible example of this is seen in the life of Joseph.
Joseph was the youngest son and the favorite of his father.
He was happy and blessed, but he had one recognizable downfall: his pride. He
had a dream and instead of keeping it to himself, he bragged about it to his
brothers, who already didn’t like him because their father liked him best.
“Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his
brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘Listen to
this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field
when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered
around mine and bowed down to it.’
“His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to reign over us?
Will you actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more because
of his dream and what he had said” (Gen. 37:5-8).
Joseph was young and excited about his dream. He wanted
everyone to know how blessed he was, so he told his brothers and his parents
about the prophesy God gave him. But this was a big mistake! The prophesy was
for him alone. It was prideful of him and unthoughtful to blatantly blast his
family with his private revelation. He was a child and probably meant no harm,
but sometimes we as adults also want to blast people with how great and righteous
we are as Christians and all the wonderful things we’re doing, and God doing
for us. But as we go through the “to” from glory to glory, the Lord has the
knack for humbling us, so that we remember that we are not so smart, really, without
His guidance!
Joseph’s brothers were so jealous and hateful, they at
first planned to kill him outright. But the oldest brother talked the others
out of it. However, they did decide to throw him in a pit, where he’d die on
his own.
When we are in the transitional period between the times of
glory (in that “to” place) we sometimes feel like we’ve been thrown in a pit
too! My friend who was taking his son to school certainly felt that way, but he
did the right thing. He continued to pray and look for the blessings.
Back to Joseph: After the brothers threw Joseph into the
pit to die, they sat down to eat and when they looked up they saw a company of Ishmaelites
and decided they could sell Joseph instead, and make some money. But there was
another tribe, the Midianites, who came by just then.
“Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they
drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for
twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
“And Reuben [the older brother] returned unto the pit; and,
behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes” (Gen. 37:28-29).
And this was just the beginning of Joseph experiencing the
“to,” between his glory with his father and the glory he ended up having as
Pharaoh’s right-hand man.
What do you think Joseph thought about? What emotional
trauma did he go through during this time? He found out his brothers hated him
enough to want to kill him. They not only stole his prized jacket, a gift from
his father, but they didn’t even leave him with any water. He never knew that
they were going to come back for him and sell him instead, though the idea they
would trade him for money would hardly be much of a consolation in such a
situation. Then he was probably tied up by the Midianites, then handed over to
the Ishmeelites, who also probably treated him harshly as a foreigner and a
prisoner till they could get him to Egypt, where they’d also sell him as
merchandise.
When Joseph got to Egypt, he had a few glory times, but
went through more “to” experiences as well. But we never again see him bragging
about himself like he did before. Instead, he gave God the credit. He grew up in
that “to” period and learned to humble himself and find out what God intended
to teach him in those times.
The Lord is with us in all the good times and all the tough
times too. In each experience where we are challenged to get rid of some old
characteristics like fear, arrogance, bitterness, anger, laziness, or whatever
it is, God will lead us to those tufts of sweet grass at the base of the rocks,
like He did for the sheep. And we can come through to a higher place of glory
in Him, like Joseph did in the land of Egypt.
Love, Carolyn
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