It is sometimes strange what can motivate you to delve into the riches of Biblical study.

Public display

This study in ‘kavod’ or glory was prompted by a sermon I heard which posited the idea that ‘kavod’ is a word that is rooted in the idea of public display. This interpretation didn’t entirely gel with me, and so I set about exploring the riches of the term ‘kavod’.

What I discovered in the progress is that in modern Hebrew there is an element of public honour to ‘kavod’. So much so that the Israeli military describe a medal as ‘kavod’.

However, in its 199 entries in the Original (Old) Testament, whilst there are examples where the word is used to mean ‘respect’ (e.g., in Joshua 7:19 and Isaiah 17:4) to give a sense of the visible, or discernible, glory of Israel; or in Psalm 19:1-2 where the word is used in reference to respect for God, there is no discernible sense of public display.

Outworking of God’s glory

The overwhelming sense one takes from scripture is that kavod in some way describes an intrinsic essence of God – something far beyond a public display. So, what does it really mean?

Over the years Jewish Bible interpreters have attempted to express the meaning of this distinctive word, but have invariably defaulted to honour, respect or glory.

A basic understanding of these elements demonstrates that this word ‘kavod’ is unique.

We read in Exodus 33 that Moses expresses his desire to know more of God and asks; “please show me your kavodcha" (v.18) God answers this request by stating that all His goodness would pass before Moses and He would proclaim ‘the name of the Lord’ before him.

Similarly, Isaiah, as part of his great vision in chapter 6, hears the Seraphim declaring “holy, holy, holy is The Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory”; and in chapter 43:7 he goes on to explain that the world exists for God’s kavod. This of course was the root of Jonathan Edwards’ treatise on the purpose of creation, which was simply an outworking of God’s glory, and that the purpose of creation was to give praise to His glory. A basic understanding of these elements demonstrates that this word ‘kavod’ is quite unique.

Kavod as a spiritual quality

There is a sense in the text that what Moses is actually asking is to learn of God’s ways and to understand how He orders His creation. In other words, he was focusing on a natural element of God’s glory. In contrast, Isaiah’s inspiration clearly seems to be something outside of the natural order. This indicates an aspect of the spiritual nature of God’s glory.

Jewish tradition has long wrestled with this question of natural and spiritual ‘kavod’. In response it has posited that there are two aspects of the term. On the one hand you have a ‘law of nature’ aspect, relating to the ‘ten words of creation’ and the post-Flood world. On the other hand, there is the 'law of the spirit', an aspect which relates to divine intervention and which is invariably mitigated by God’s grace.

We can start to see that kavod relates to God’s leadership of creation, at both a natural and a divine intervention level.

Holding these two aspects, nature and spiritual, we can start to see that kavod relates to God’s leadership of creation, at both a natural and a divine intervention level.

When we consider scripture through this perspective, we can see that Isaiah 6 effectively says that the whole earth experienced this ‘Peretz’ or bursting forth of God’s glory - in the broader sense that the universe was filled with, and is full of, God’s kavod.

Weightiness of glory

We see that this has both natural and spiritual aspects. As an example, we would say that gravity is a natural occurrence through the universe, giving every object, small or large, weight or heaviness – this is referred to in modern Hebrew as ‘kevidah’.

Biblical Hebrew has ‘kaved’ for heavy, and this is the word that is used to describe the hail that afflicted Egypt in the 7th plague. It is also the word that Rehoboam used when he responded to the peoples’ requests at the start of his reign. A related word is used in the Fifth Commandment ‘Honour your father and mother’ with the word ‘kabed’ for honour.

 We see this combination of the natural and the spiritual in God’s glory.

Natural & the spiritual

The above scriptures clearly demonstrate the connections that God’s ‘kavod’ has, with both a natural aspect of heaviness and a spiritual aspect of ‘honour’.

It feels entirely natural to me that we see this combination of the natural and the spiritual in God’s glory. We see this repeatedly in God’s word where immense natural wisdom alongside sits alongside deep spiritual truths.

We see the same pattern within Jesus’ ministry, in that He came to this earth fully God and fully man, but that His teaching combined instruction on how God would have His people walk in their everyday life as well as the impartation of spiritual truths into their lives.