Displaying His Splendor

The Display of His Splendor

".... For the LORD has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for His own glory." Isaiah 61:3b

The Lord has planted you like strong and graceful oak for His own glory. This is the New Living translation of this verse.

I think it is beautiful.

The Lord has planted you - you are chosen. He chose to plant you, He didn't have to. He knows your heart, the good, the bad, and the evil in it - and He chose to plant you. Not just as an oak, not just to bring comfort to others in storms, like a tree shelters you from the rain. Not just to be a beautiful part of scenery, though you are. He didn't plant you as an oak just to provide for those in need, like a tree provides food and a home for squirrels and birds.

He chose you - He planted you, like a strong and graceful oak.

Strong in Him, relying on His strength is the only true strength we have.

Graceful, full of His grace, mercy, and love, that exceeds all we could ever know or understand. Showing grace to others and living a beautiful life of peace. We are strong and graceful oaks for His own glory.

He has placed this call on our lives: to be an oak of righteousness, a display of His splendor. For HIS glory. Not our own glory, not to bring attention to ourselves, our families, or our church – but to live out the righteousness that HE has placed in us. It’s not ours, it’s His.

The call He has placed on your life is a call to live a life for His glory, and to display it to others.

To me, this verse is made understandable when you reference Luke 19:40 - when Jesus says, if my disciples keep quiet in their worship - the rocks themselves will cry out. 

Everything God created was created to bring Him glory. The rocks, hills, and trees do not have a free will. All they are able to do is bring God glory in simply being what He created them to be. They are beautiful, because He made them to be beautiful. Every animal was created by God - they don't know of sin, they just are as He created them to be. So naturally they depend on Him, He clothes the lilies and He cares for the life of a sparrow. I love this verse in Job 38:41 that says, "Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God...?"

He provides for their every need, just as He provides for our every need.

So the raven depends on God, and God is glorified through the care of that raven because there is a dependence on Him, and the need is met.

So the animals and every part of nature glorifies God just in being what He created them to be. So, when the people are not glorifying God - every single other thing that He created is. He is being glorified - but we are the ones that He chose to display His glory, and we are the only ones who have a choice in that display.

God is glorified in every breath - because He created us and sustains us, but when we choose to glorify Him with the words of our mouth, and the meditations of our heart. We are made RIGHTEOUS. We get to willingly participate in glorifying the God of everything.

God's glory is too great for any of us to look upon. Moses was forever transformed by a glimpse of His glory.

I cannot tell you what His glory entails. It is more than we could ever know and more beautiful than we can understand.

Think of the most beautiful things God has created for us... There are more than we could ever even name: The detail in the tiniest lily, the beauty of a simple icicle, the splendor of a gorgeous spring meadow. NONE of this compares to even a glimpse of God's beauty.

And He is calling us to be a display of what is above and beyond the beauty of this world.

There is something about being a girl, a very strong desire to be thought of as beautiful. Though our character is much more important than our appearance - the compliment of beauty somehow touches us more than the compliment of integrity.

We are all familiar with Snow White and the wicked witch - this scene in the movie where she looks into the mirror and says, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all?"

I don’t know what it is in us that longs to be called the fairest, or called fair at all. But every girl, from the wicked witch down to an innocent four year old girl, loves to be called beautiful.

What beauty is there that is anything in comparison to the Creator of beauty? He knows levels of beauty we cannot know on this earth. And He is asking us to display it, in the tiniest bit, while we live this life. Display it for Him, to show others the beauty of who He is.

Oaks of righteousness.

There is an in-depth study in my Bible of the word "righteousness".

I won’t quote it all, but to me this is the most powerful part:

"Jesus is the only One who can stand before the glorious God; He is the only One who is truly righteous. Remarkably, He has offered us a way out of our slavery to sin. By placing our faith and trust in Him, we can be declared righteous. We can have a righteousness that has nothing to do with our own works but instead relies on Jesus' sinless life and His sacrificial death for our sins. The Lord forgives us and declares us righteous because of our identification by faith with the righteousness of His Son. Through Jesus, we can finally be released from the guilt of our sins. Not only can we approach the Holy One in praise and thankfulness, but we can do God's will." WE CAN DISPLAY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF HIS SPLENDOR ONLY BECAUSE HE IS RIGHTEOUS, and has loved us enough to allow us to join Him in this glory.

Romans 5:13 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

We get to glorify God, and His righteousness gets to flow out of our lives, all because of His mercy and grace. There is no good thing in us, but when we receive and accept the love of God we are a dwelling place of His Holy Spirit, and it is His very nature to be glorious. So, He lives in us, and we live through Him. And in this we are able to be made oaks of righteousness and a display of His splendor. Perfect and beautiful - to Him. Which means so much more than being beautiful to anyone on this earth. We cannot even comprehend His beauty, so no one we are trying to impress can comprehend the beauty He has given us. All we know is that others are drawn to it.

When you have the Spirit of the Lord living inside of you, when you love Him with all of your heart, when you seek after Him and trust in Him with everything that you are - when He is the guardian of your heart, and you live with the breastplate of righteousness strapped to you. You are different, you are beautiful. You are able to display His splendor. And that is the most important thing we could ever do with the life He has given us.