February 12 - The King of Glory
The Lord of hosts is the King of Glory. He is a warrior-God, defeating all His enemies and demands entry into every heart, every home, every city, every nation and every door or gate. A host of heavenly army goes with him and God has gained victories again and again on the battlefields, proving His tremendous power and might. It is vain to fight against the King of Glory, the only sensible thing to do is to surrender your life to Him. No one may close their door to this King and live!
Moses beheld this King of Glory. God came in clouds of glory, stood by Moses and declared His name, Jehovah. He further declared His character as compassionate and merciful, slow to anger but abound in love, forgiving iniquities, transgressions and sins. He is holy and will remove sin and punish the offenders even up to the third and fourth generations. The King was actually declaring the laws of the Kingdom for laws are needed to govern the people. The laws were unique to Israel and were different from those of the neighboring nations. God set them apart for the peoples around them as a testimony that God is a jealous God.
The Kingdom of God is also an expanding Kingdom. If the people of God were obedient to Him, He would expand their territories by chasing the inhabitants away. They were to dispossess the land and the people with their idols and practices. This is what it means by bringing in the rule and dominion of God into a place or into people’s hearts. The Great Commission is in the same spirit, bringing the presence and rule of God into all the nations and peoples. We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel of the Kingdom, teaching them to follow Christ and His teaching, then the power and authority of the Kingdom would be with us, even to the end of this age.
Jesus was put on the cross because of the jealousy of the religious leaders of that day. People mocked Him as King by putting a purple robe on His body, a crown of thorns on His head and a scepter of reed in His hand. Such suffering is prophetic for one day, Jesus will come back as King. The sign on the cross could not fully describe Him, He is not only King of the Jews, He is King of all creation.
Jealousy is the issue here. God is a jealous God and He would not want to share His rule with another. You either take Him as Lord or nothing. His absolute rule is unquestionable and cannot be challenged. Out of jealousy, we do not want Jesus to have complete rule and control over us. We want to save some for ourselves and that is rebelling against the rule of the King. May the King speak to you about the parts of your life that are still not under His complete control.
Ps 24:7-10 Exo 34:1-35:9 Matt 27:15-31 Prov 9:1-6