GLORY to GLORY – WHAT ABOUT THE “to”?
A friend was traveling across three states to take his
son to school. He was experiencing car trouble, financial drama, and now his
son was having a terrible allergic reaction that was causing the boy’s eyes to
swell nearly shut. Traumatic! But he still had a good attitude and continued to
pray and look for the blessings.
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 God requires us 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” 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’re looking in the mirror, wanting to see more of the Lord in our lives,
we’re going to be going from glory to glory. The increasing levels of glory are
great, but we have to get through that little “to,” and it can be tough, as my
friend was finding out.
Psalm 23: 1-4 reads: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall
not want [lack]. He maketh [is making] me to lie down in green pastures: he
leadeth [is leading] me beside the still waters. He restoreth [is restoring] my
soul. He leadeth [is leading] me in paths of his righteousness for his
namesake.” (vv. 1-4).
An important key to understanding the King James Bible is
to recognize that when there is “eth” at the end of a word, it means it’s an ongoing
action, not something of the past.
I watched a video on a section of this Psalm. The video
took place in Israel, where a group was in the Negev desert. The guide had the group
look across at a bare hillside traversed with well-worn sheep paths. The group
watched as two shepherd girls led their flock across the landscape. He
explained that this area was called “green pastures!” It looked totally brown
and barren in the video.
The guide said 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 was only 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 what
looked like a small weed-like grass. The take was so little, 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
help, and it’s in the times between the glory levels that the growing pains
take place in our souls. A great example of this is with 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 prophecy God gave him. But this was rude. The prophecy 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 and all the wonderful things we’re doing. But as we go through the “to”
from glory to glory, the Lord has the knack for humbling us so we remember that
we are not so smart without Him!
Joseph’s brothers were so jealous and hateful, they
intended to kill him. The older brother talked the others out of it, but they
decided to leave him in a pit to die. Then 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 Ishmaelites 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’s travel
through 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 Ishmaelites, 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.
Then when Joseph got to Egypt, he had some glory times
and went through more “to” experiences as well. But you never see that pride
coming up again. He grew in the “to.”
God is with us in these tough life experiences so that we
can grow. Each experience where we are challenged to get rid of some old man
characteristic like pride, bitterness, anger, laziness, or whatever it is, we
come through to a higher place of glory if we continue to seek the Lord and his
ways.
As Joseph said about his experience: “But as for you, ye
thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is
this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
So, let’s not stop where we are spiritually, but continue
to seek an even closer relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, by heeding his
words and continuing in his works. As we follow in paths of righteousness, in
green pastures, we are changed from glory to glory. We refuse to be deterred by
anything we must go through in that “to” area, for the Lord God says: “Be not
afraid, for I am with YOU.”
Love, Carolyn
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