BibleProject - Image of God Part 4: Glory of God

Episode Date: May 4, 2016

In this episode, Tim and Jon talk about the glory of God and what it means for humans to glorify him. Does glorifying God simply mean singing songs or acting a certain way? Why is God so interested in his glory? This all connects back to the image of God. The glory of God is one of those terms that is thrown around a lot in Christian culture, but what does it really mean? In the first part of the episode (01:10-08:46), the guys talk about how the image of God is connected to the glory of God. Does glorifying God mean that we need to get out of the way or remove ourselves? We as humans bear the image of God, and we’re going to represent God in the world simply because of who we are. But can choose to represent God well, and this too can be glorying. In the next part of the episode (09:13-17:00), Tim and Jon talk about what it looks like to glorify God in our everyday activities. It doesn’t always have to be about singing praise songs. Paul talks about how everything we do, we can do to the glory of God. In the next part of the episode (17:20-29:21), the guys talk about the Hebrew word, “kavod,” one of the words used for “glory” in the Bible. Kavod literally means “heavy,” but metaphorically it means one’s reputation or significance. Humans have our own kavod, but the image of God that we bear is also kavod. In the next part of the episode (29:51-40:07), the guys continue to unpack this idea of kavod. The verb version of this word is, “kaved.” Kaved means to speak or act in a way that brings kavod to someone. This is an interesting nuance, and it’s best understood as respect or honor. In the final part of the episode (40:38-52:37), the guys talk about why we glorify God––why does God need us to do this? This is a question that we get tripped up in as Jesus followers, but we’re losing sight of what kavod really means. We’re not just trying to help God look important. We are invited to increase God’s kavod, his reputation and honor. Whatever we do, we can do it to God’s honor and glory. Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video called, "Image of God." You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbipxLDtY8c&t=2s Scripture References: Psalm 71 Show Music: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music Blue Skies by Unwritten Stories Flooded Meadows by Unwritten Stories

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

What does it mean to glorify God? Is it simply singing songs? Because it somehow have to do with our behavior? And why is God so interested in His glory? Somehow this all connects us back to the theme that we've been talking about, the image of God. Everybody images God to some humans do it really poorly and some humans do it better. So what does it mean to do it better? And in the Bible, this is where the image of God overlaps with the theme and vocabulary

of glory, what it means to glorify someone. Because that's what the image does. We're going to talk about the glory of God in this episode of the podcast. So thanks for joining us. Let's go. We haven't recorded anything in a while, but the last thing that was out was an image of God. And we kind of jumped into this conversation about the image of God versus glorifying God. But we didn't set out to do that. It just kind of came out when I started asking about the Westminster catechism. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it came out of the image of God video was exploring the idea that in Genesis 1 and 2,

the image of God is God's commissioning part of human's purpose to reflect an image God in our work and family and life and how we make the world something. Right, and then I was wrestling with the fact that typically I've been told that the purpose of humanity is to glorify God. That's the language used. And so I really kind of pitted this idea of glorifying God versus this idea of imaging God, which we described as, you know, your work and your creativity and your role on Earth.

And so you could leave that conversation thinking, okay, these guys are poo-pooing this idea of Ghorafine God. Yeah, and then we got a great comment, some good thoughts from a friend of ours, shout out to Dan Babor, who's Ghorafine God on the other side of the planet as a missionary. And he's awesome. He really good to be back. Yeah, and he had some great comments about, well, you know, glorifying isn't just what

we talked about in part three of that podcast in the image of God, just singing praises. Right. I think that's, we identified glorifying God with singing worship songs. Yeah. And so he just reminded us like, man, look at the biblical vocabulary about giving glory to God is also about like behavior and how you live. Like Paul says in first Corinthians, whatever you do, eating, drinking, whatever do it for God's glory. Yeah. That was a good reminder from Dan. It's a bigger picture.

So what I want to explore with you then is, let's talk about glorifying God some more, kind of really understand what that word means biblically. But then let's talk about in relationship with this idea of being the image of God. Yeah. Because I want to make sure that those ideas are set on the table at the same time,

and we're not pitting them against each other. I think there could be really interesting things to learn doing that. That's right. Maybe even another theme video. Yeah, that's what you said to me. Come again, you're like, maybe Glorifying God's another theme video. Yeah, that's glory. That'd be awesome.

Well, as I thought about Dan's comments and then our conversation from the podcast, one way to think this more about the image of God as statues and so on. So what we did in the video, which is right, because I think it's what the word is doing in Genesis 1. It's the word for statue, idol statue, image is celilum in Hebrew. So think about it for an ancient king or like a god

who portrayed himself as a king or claimed he was a king. If you come across Pharaoh's statue at a city in Israel and you look at the statue and that's supposed to both represent an image Pharaoh who's far away, but his image is here in your city. But also it is a way of increasing Pharaoh's reputation or glorifying Pharaoh. It's a way of bringing honor to Pharaoh. And there's something in Genesis 1 using the vocabulary of image about humans is that humans by the ways that they do what they're doing in the world, making stuff, that their existence is as a pointer to bear witness to the creator and so on. So just the image of God isn't separate from glorifying God, which we'll talk about with that word means,

but the point of an image is to point to a reality of what it represents. And so even the vocabulary image of God builds into the storyline that humans are meant to reflect something greater than themselves. And humans are really great. I think maybe the point is that than themselves. And humans are really great. I think maybe the point is that in some Christian traditions we've demoted humans from the high position they're given in the biblical story. I think that's maybe that's the problem I run into is that when I hear someone say you need to glorify God, I think of I need to get out of the way and I need to acknowledge who God is and sing His praises, tell other people about how great He is. But it's really about removing me from the equation

because I'm screwed up and if you focus on me and what I'm doing, that's not glorifying God. That's glorifying myself. Yes. Yeah, how would you react to that? Well, I think it would be that in the biblical story humans image God in how what they do. But there is a more or less faithful way to reflect God's image as you go about your work and days and how you treat people and whatever your day-to-day tasks. So everybody images God to some humans do it really poorly and some humans do it better.

So what does it mean to do it better? And in the Bible, this is where the image of God overlaps with the theme and vocabulary of glory, what it means to glorify someone. Because that's what the image does. It brings honor and a point to the reality. Yeah, if I walked into a city and there's this massive, beautiful statue of a king, and it's overwhelming, it's just huge, larger than life. I'm going to feel like, wow, this is important.

This king's important. And this king must be mighty because this took a lot of might to build. And this king must be released smart and powerful and all these things. So that statue, by giving me that impression, is glorifying the case. Yeah, and that's what images do. Yeah, on a more mundane level, think of here in Portland,

John on 39th and Gleason, the big roundabout. There's a statue of the Joan of Ark. In the middle of Portland, there's a roundabout that has a golden, a shiny golden statue of Joan of Arc writing a horse. It's really remarkable. Come visit Portland and you'll see it. So what's the point of that? The point is, is here's this human who's incredible from centuries ago. But it's about bringing Joan of Arc some degree of honor or remembrance by creating an image to represent her and every time you go by 39 thinklison you'll think of her you think of her yeah so that's images point to a a living person in that case so in a sense what image the image of God means is that humans

bring glory to God but then we have to go well well, what does that mean? Because in the Bible, glorifying God can include singing a song. That's what it means to most people who say the word in English. But the biblical vision of how humans bring glory to God is bigger than just singing a song. But in my mind it was already bigger than singing a song in that if I were to go up to you on the street and you didn't know about God and I were to tell you about God and get you on board with fearing God and loving God and these things. That's glorifying God as well. So evangelism, making disciples. You're saying, kind of, in your upbringing, in your general. In my upbringing.

Upbring in a conservative American church. Yeah, so if you say... You had the word glory in your vocabulary. In my vocabulary, what does glory mean to you? And it meant worshiping on Sundays or singing songs. Yeah, singing songs. And basically being a good disciple, like doing the things that disciples are supposed to do, namely getting other people to recognize God.

That's a very specific way you can glorify God. But then also just doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing, that's glorifying to God. So I guess that was all part of the definition. But it wasn't as broad as what I'm learning at school is going to help me glorify God. Or my vocation can glorify God. Or a conversation with a friend that isn't about God, is glorifying to God. Only to the extent of maybe that we didn't cuss.

You know? But like to the extent that we talked about something that had nothing to do with the Bible, or Jesus, then how could that be glorifying to God? But then as we talk about the image of God and the role of ruling the earth and subdoing that now incorporates how we run our families and how we do our jobs and the things that we're interested in and all our creativity and all of our imagination and all of this gets lumped in there, then the question becomes, well, what conversation isn't in that category of what activity is in that category?

And I think that's the right way to think about it. And it's probably the way most people think about it But something that got really siloed for me. Yeah And so when we had that past conversation I started to pit them against each other like oh So the point of existence isn't to glorify God the point of existence is to Image God to rule on his behalf and that was so much more captivating to me because I had this very narrow very narrow idea of what I took for that. And I still think the point we were trying to make is still one worth making that the Westminster Catechism, which

brilliant wonderful disciples of Jesus made that Catechism, and it's it's worth a lot of time and reflection and learning what it has to say It's worth a lot of time and reflection and learning what it has to say. However, when it summarizes the purpose of humans with that phrase to glorify God, to me what was interesting was that vocabulary isn't found on the first pages of the Bible. What is found on the first pages of the Bible about the purpose of humans is that they are the image of God and that they are to rule. So that was our basic point was if, you know, if it's a contest of who's more biblical.

Let's use the language of I will use it. Yeah, at least we were just trying to say the Bible starts by using this set of concepts and ideas. And glorifying God comes out of that, but I at least wanna say if I'm representing what the Bible says about the purpose of humans, we should talk first about the image of God. So that was our, that was our time. That makes sense. So first talk about the image of God,

but then embedded in that, embedded in an image, is glorifying the thing that it's imaging. Yeah, that's right. And so we need to have a conversation about glory. That's right. And actually, what's important too, the Apostle it's imaging. Yeah, that's right. And so, and when you need to have a conversation about glory. That's right. And actually, what's important too, the Apostle Paul's really significant here, because he uses the vocabulary of glory and glorifying at key moments in his letters

to talk about the human condition and what's wrong and what's right with humans. And so I think that's probably, I think that's actually condition and what's wrong and what's right with humans. And so I think that's probably, I think that's actually probably where the language came from. In the Westminster Confession, it is rooted in Paul's constant use of glory, vocabulary, which is really interesting. And we could talk about some of it here. Well, what was the verse that you kind of, you threw out there at the beginning, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all the glory of God.

Yep, that's some Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 10. And there, you know, it's in the context of you have a church where Christians are fighting over whether certain kind of meats that were sacrificed in pagan temples, whether eating them dishonors God or brings glory to God, they were having this debate. And Paul thinks it's a gray area, in some ways.

And so his whole point is whether you're eating, whether you're drinking, listen, any activity you take should be done to glorify God. So the context of the verse is like, if you're not gonna eat it, do that to glorify God. That's right. And if you're gonna eat it, do that to glorify God. So in the context of the verse he's like, if you're not going to eat it, mm-hmm. Do that to glorify God. That's right. Yeah. And if you're going to eat it, yeah, do that to glorify God. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. But it raises the point that our friend Dan raised, which is a good one, is that when Paul says that, he's not talking about worship,

singing worship songs. Right. He's talking about eating. For Paul, yeah, for Paul, you can have a meal. Yeah. Andlory if I got. But this meal specifically is about a rule that God gave. Oh, no, no, no, I guess not. This is specifically about whether or not it was me, it's actually not. Yeah, and what he says essentially for Christians is that we don't believe that these idol statues

representing Zeus or Apollos are real, real live idols. And so he says, listen, you know who created the world in that cow, enjoy a good steak as a gift from God. And that is glorifying God. The counter argument to that that Paul would be then addressing would be the person saying, look, this image of Zeus who this was sacrificed to, that's dangerous. Yeah, it's false god.

It's false god. And it's leading many people astray. Correct. And don't participate in that at all. Don't eat that meat. And Paul says, if there are people who think that Zeus is still real and powerful and dangerous, and they're new Christians, and they're around, then don't need it. The loving thing to do is don't need it.

You won't be glorifying God if you eat it. But then he says, if you're by yourself, and or it's just, there's none of those people around. And you know that God made the cow and the tops are lined. Then enjoy it. And thanking God with every bite and swallow is a way of giving honor to or glorifying. So I can think of this whole conversation

though, this whole this entire interaction as still through my old paradigm of glorifying God is just doing the right thing. Ah, ah, right. So the right thing is whether or not this is a dangerous, this meat, eating the meat is dangerous in some way, dishonoring to God, if God is bummed out. And so Paul kind of takes it back and goes,

no, God doesn't get bummed out, whether or not you eat the meat. God cares more about what is the implications of whether you're eating the meat. Well, yeah, almost what I couldn't have cued this up more perfectly. What I almost want to do is push pause on this moment in the conversation. Go backordeds and just do a quick build up the definition of the biblical word glory and then come back to this matter in first Corinthians. And it's a different.

I think we'll see it in a new paradigm. The Hebrew word for glory as a noun is the Hebrew word, co-vode, k-a-v-o-d, is the simplest way to translate it. And when I was first learning Hebrew, this was a pretty easy one to remember, because its most basic, simple meaning is heavy. Literally heavy. So it means heavy. Heavy. So that rock is glorious, means that rock is heavy.

Yeah, or in judges, the book of judges chapter three, there's one of the heroes or anti-heroes. Depends on your point of view. The heroes, a guy named Ehud, the left-handed assassin stabs this king in the belly. It's belly fat. A guy named Eglon, and we're told that Eglon was Kaveid, Kaveid, a derivation of the word meaning heavy, heavy. He was a heavy, heavy. He's fat. He was a heavy weight, dude.

Huge man. And that explains why the belly was exploded open when he stabbed it and so on. Anyway. So he was glorious, glorious. Yeah, yeah, so that is most, so that's the word. Cove it. Vodca Vod. Heavy. So, and in English, we have this too. In English, we use the word heavy in non-literal ways all the time. I think maybe more of it happened in the previous generation to say this heavy man. That's heavy, so heavy man, I don't know. I don't know if you say that. But we might say,

some would didn't grasp the gravity of this situation. So we're again, we're using heavy, that's a metaphor. Metaphores to talk about, well, what if I say, that's heavy, or don't you grasp the gravity, or this is such a weighty matter. What do we mean?

Yeah. What do we, what do we mean? Yeah, we don't mean it literally has this physical weight that we're trying to uphold. Right. It's not literally it means that the substance of this idea is has so much bearing on other things. Yes. Yeah, it's important. It's important. It's significant. It's weighty. It's important. It's significant. It's weighty. It's heavy. It takes up space. Yeah, you know, that's the idea. So we can use it as a metaphor then of we use that as a metaphor all the time of something. In a vent that was heavy. When so and so fell down and broke their leg and now they can't work anymore

That was so happy. So it's kind of like if you had this big boulder in the middle of your field Mm-hmm. Yeah, yes, yes, like yeah, that's and you want to like You want to use that field for another purpose and you got to get rid of it the implications of getting rid of this thing Mm-hmm. It's going to be really large because of its heftiness. Yes. And you can't ignore it because it's so big and heavy. Right. And you can just see it and it's just bearing

on all these other factors. That's right. So, okay, so this is what's interesting about the Hebrew word, co-vote. So somebody can be co-vote like Eglon, he's heavy. He's a heavy, heavy. But then David can say something like this in Psalm 7. He can say, all my enemies are chasing me.

People wanna shame me and badmouth me and depose me as king. And so he says in Psalm 7, my code is in the dirt right now. Pfft. Is that like ding in the dog house? But it's not him that's in the dog house. It's his co-vote. So you can speak of somebody as being heavy, but then you can also speak of a person having a certain degree of heaviness about them. Or in, we might say reputation or honor. It's a person's significance. It's the aura that surrounds somebody,

not in a new age-y way, but like when the president walks into a room, everyone's quiet and the secret service, lead and follow, and you go there, someone with a cover. Yeah. So this sense of cover is actually the majority of the uses in the Old Testament, is that someone has a, someone has cover.

David's cover, in Genesis 49, Jacob, talks about his two sons who went and murdered all of the people in that city. And he says, don't let my co-vote be counted along with theirs. Or God can say, the poet, excuse me, in Psalm 8 that we talked about in the image of God podcast series, Psalm 8 says that human beings are crowned with cavaud. So God has given human beings cavaud, and that's where the image of God overlaps with the score.

I see the crown being their authority to rule. Yes. Is there cavaud? So human beings, when they image God well, that's their cavaud. It's their cavaud. And then it points to something greater, but we'll get to that. Okay, so there's that. Then of course humans have code, and then in the Bible, most often, though, it's God has code. And so here we're talking about, well, it's interesting, because it's not just God's reputation, but God's

co-vote is used to describe the physical manifestation of God's significance when he shows up somewhere. The most often, the first time it occurs is on Mount Sinai, when God descends personally down on the, and there's fire and cloud and smoke. And then in Exodus 24, that cloud and smoke and fire is called God's Covode. So it starts out with just heavy, then it's a metaphor for something for your infillance or your reputation.

Humanity as a whole has it, as a gift from God, as part of who they are as the immigrant. And then God has a code. So connected here is another really important story about God's code in the book of Isaiah, where Isaiah 6, where Isaiah has the temple vision, and he's in there, and there's these crazy winged creatures and they're screaming that God is holy, holy, holy.

And then how they unpack what it means for God to be unique and one of a kind, they say, the whole earth is full of God's code. The whole earth is full of his code. This is what the shabin worships. This is what the angelic creatures are screaming out in the temple. So not just the clouds that descended on Mount Sinai. Yeah. Was his co-vote, but everything in the earth, all creation is God's co-vote. So you look at the clouds,

the trees, the stars, the fish. What would that mean if I said to you, I came up to you and I said, Tim, I just want you to know that all of creation is my cavode. Right. Yeah. Like, what am I trying to say there? Well, okay, that's all right.

So think Mount Sinai. Yeah. God's cavode is this cloud. Okay, even there, that's hard for me to wrap my mind around. So, okay. So, like, let's just start there. Okay.

It's a, it's a thundery day in Portland. And I walk up to you and I say, you see these clouds? These are my cavaud. Like in some mystical way, am I saying, like, the power of electricity and the forces of nature, like those somehow speak to the the weightiness and gravity importance of me. Yes. That would be a very yeah. The Tetris thing to say. Toilet. Yeah. I just mean it. And you would just push me over. You would trip me. You would trip me. I'd be like, where's your code now? Yeah, who took over your body? Yeah, exactly.

Yes, the idea is that someone is so important that what surrounds them in their environment is the manifestation of who they are. So for David, his cover, if you ended David's throne room, you'd see these banners on the walls of his military victories, and you would see his servants and his musicians and the buildings. That's his cover. So in the same way, if you went to my bedroom when I was in high school, and I've got art on the wall, it's no boarding posters, and the couch I picked out and everything. Yeah, you're like, is that my cavaud? I suppose in a way like come into my throne room and there's my guitar and there's my like, yeah, this is

There's my star wars figurines and like it's supposed to say something about who I am Yes, and yeah, so like it's my We're in the ballpark. We're in the ballpark? We're it totally. Okay. Yeah, we're in the ballpark. And if someone came in and they trashed my room, I'd be like, my code like is dust. You know what? I would like, you're treating my code

in the, you're trampling over my code. Yeah, so that's a concrete way. Of course, for David, you know, it's a song. But also, sorry. But it also really more is like what people actually think of me Not what I'm portraying myself as right. Yeah, but my real code. It's when you go to school. That's my projected Covode. That's correct. That's the physical manifestation of your Covode. That's what I want my Covode to be is like the clothes I'm wearing and how I decorate my room and the car driving

But my real Covode is how people are perceiving it. How people perceive your significance and your importance. And when someone, their projected code is very different than their actual perceived code, you think those people are kind of weird. Someone who presents himself as more important than they really are.

Yeah, that would be a false code. They're false coding. There you go. Are you tracking now? You're tracking now. You're on it. Okay. So when God comes and it's Sinai and... Well for someone to show up and their code is a lightning storm. Whether that's how it's perceived or that's how it's actually happening. Correct correct that's a very significant code. Yeah, yeah, so right and it means that whoever that being is Like just like a really cool shirt is my

Covode Right like God's Covode is a storm and an earthquake. It's intense. So it's the creator. Yeah. It's the creators' code. And that's exactly what the creatures in Isaiah's vision are getting at when they say, God is the thunderstorm. God is holy, holy, holy. He's the, which means one of a kind, unique set apart, the only being like God. And how do they explain or unpack what it means? What that means, that the whole of the earth is full of God's Covode. So all of creation is like this testimony, this physical symbol, or this image that points to the the brilliance and the wisdom and the power of the being who made it.

It's God's co-vote. It's the physical manifestation of how wise and beautiful and powerful God is. So this is very similar to Psalm 19 where he says, he begins, the poet begins by saying, the heavens declare the glory of God. So creation itself is constantly bearing witness to the So this is a very rich, rich biblical concept of God's Kabode. So then what's interesting, that's just the noun, glory. Then there's also a verb used in Hebrew that's similar to the noun, the noun's Kabode, and then the verb is cabade. And essentially it means to speak or act in a way that brings cavode to somebody. So I can show you cavode or show you no cavode by how I talk to you.

I mean, that's pretty intuitive. You know, we do it all the time. We can... Respect. It's respect. Yeah. In a way, or honor, I think is a more precise English word for it. We can dishonor somebody, or we can honor someone by how we speak to them, or how we treat them.

And this could be your body language. This could be the tone of voice you're using, the type of vocabulary you're using, and certainly in other languages, the way you're using language. So that's the act of communication. But then there's, in our relationship, I could detract from your code or add to your code by how.

So like you and I, yeah, you and I worked together on the Bible project. And so we, you know, we, so I could make decisions, you know, and not. That undermined me. Yeah, I could not show up on time for this conversation and show up two hours late and be like, what, get over it, John. Yeah. And then that would be detracting from your cover, because I'm not giving you a cover by... So in the biblical vocabulary, that's what that word means.

So in the book of Psalms, it's most often used with praise singing language, you know, so I just pulled literally one example at random. There's dozens we could draw on Psalm 71. My mouth is filled with your praise and I speak of your cover. So praise is about increasing God's cover through song. But then there's also the majority, all these other times, where you give

Kovod or don't give Kovod to God by how you live. And this is where Paul the Apostles vocabulary of glory comes into its own. Glory. Let's go through over time. Originally just met waitingness, heaviness comes a metaphor for how important something is for how much matter something has. That's interesting, the word matter has the same thing. Does it matter?

Does it have matter? Whoa, yeah, that's a metaphor. It's a metaphor. Yeah, does it matter? Does it have matter? Whoa, yeah, that's a metaphor. It's a metaphor. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Does it have substance? It's a half-substance. Yep. Same kind of idea. Is it heavy?

Yep. Yep. So, so glory, metaphorically, right off the bat, is does this thing matter. And if you, if you do matter, then you have to vote if you don't matter. You don't have cavode. And when David says my cavode is in the dirt, he means like no one thinks I matter. My reputation shot. That's right. And then when God shows up and his cavode is this powerful storm,

that's important. That matters. You want to pay attention to a storm. Yes, and that storm is a physical manifestation of his co-vote. Of his co-vote. It points to how his co-vote, which is even more powerful and amazing than a storm. Right, but that's how it's manifesting.

And you pay attention to a storm. Storm matters. It has substance. Storm isn't heavy in the sense that electricity is heavy. Clouds. But the sense of metaphorically that matters. And then when the sharebim say, all of God's creation is a testimony to his cover. Literally, the earth is the fullness of his cover. So if you wanna understand the importance of God, you need to understand the importance of everything. You need like how significant is the oceans?

That's a part of God's significance. How significant is the weather and a mountain and how significant is that rock and how significant is anything rock and how significant is anything in creation. Yes. Yeah, creation is so, but it's about its beauty and grandeur. It's a testimony to God's co-vote because he's the one who made it.

Whenever you find a light in a sunset or whenever you trip out about the vastness of outer space or whenever you, all of these things, of outer space or whenever you all these things, that's a testimony to what God's importance is, his code. Yeah, just like you would walk around Jerusalem and David's day and be like, oh, these buildings and those flags and, you know, these amazingly well-behaved soldiers. And David would say, yes, this is my code. Yeah. And then, cool, and from there you could go, well is my co-vote. Yeah, and then, cool, and some from there you could go,

well then if you're interacting with David, you could show him co-vote or you or not. Yes. By the way, you act. Yep. Or speak. Or speak. Yep.

And so if you encountered David and you didn't give him my contact, I don't know what the culturally that's meant, well, so you spit on him or something. Yeah, or you didn't like, didn't bow in his presence and be like, may the king live forever? Something like that. Right. That would be more a typical thing. Yeah. Okay. So you don't bow. Then then you're not showing David. Correct. Yeah. And so in the same way, if the creative universe, you were able to have some sort of relationship with the creative universe, which is Christians we believe you can.

Impossible. Then you can, by the way you act or talk, you can show, or not show, or not show. Yeah, so this is the whole biblical concept of worship and praise is you create the most beautiful language, poetry, and the most beautiful sounds, music, and you combine those and the sole purpose is just to bring honor to the creator. Like if we could create a sunset that would also give honor to God, but we don't. We can't, but we can create music. Yes, yeah. That's beautiful. And poetry. And art. And so the whole theology of what worship is, is to ascribe and to declare out loud God's

honor. That's really helpful. And reputation. And so think of, there's some, and here we're back to the image of God that there's something although human beings are glorious in the biblical sense of that word, we aren't the creator. Our existence along with all of creation is meant to point to the wisdom and the power and the beauty of a being that's even more remarkable than we are. And biblical worship is setting aside moments to say out loud to ourselves and to that being about how remarkable that being is, namely the creator. It's really, at the

moment where you build into a rhythm of your life, this recognizing your place in the universe. And it's not because humans are lame. It's because humans are the image of something even more glorious than humans. Sorry, you just said, like, that's helpful for me. And then I interrupted you and started the notes. These are the whole thing. You were just making me kind of realize that anything we do can speak to God's glory.

Yeah, it can be as a code. Yeah, or here is where it's where it overlaps with the concept of the image of God. Human beings image God when they rule the world on God's behalf in a way that brings honor and honors the intention and purpose of the creator. And in so doing, they glorify God. So yeah, it's a complete overlap, which is why Paul can come all the way back around and say, whether you're eating or drinking, or whatever you do is a human being, you can do it to God's honor, to God's co-vote, to increase God's co-vote. So whether, in this case, whether you're honoring some other people in your church community by how you behave, but of course, he says, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Do everything to increase God's command.

Yes. So I can, and somehow it's more intuitive to us. We immediately think in how I treat people, relationally, or we might immediately think in how I'm a moral person, you know obeying moral rules or something, but when you link it to the image of God, which is what the Bible does, it's about all of the human calling and existence and vocation. And I think so that's the point we were trying to make in the video. And so in that sense, if that's what the framers of the Westminster Catechism mean. Right.

Then yes, the chief end of man is the goal I forgot. Totally. But once again, what's interesting to me is that that biblical vocabulary isn't used on pages one and two of the Bible. It comes later in the Bible as a way of unpacking further what human beings do and are and who God is and so on. And so it's useful, but the word glorify unless you go through that whole thing that we just did doesn't immediately communicate that to people. 1 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd So we circled back then to the first Corinthians 10 situation where do you eat the meat or do

not eat the meat? So it's scenario one. Yeah. You're not eating the meat because someone who thinks that's scandalous because they think Zeus is a problem. Whether they think Zeus is real or they just think by even participating in that pagan ritual, you are giving it merit, which is dangerous. Whatever the reasoning is, it's scandalous to them. And they're your brother in Christ or someone who could possibly be a brother in Christ or a day.

Or they, as Paul says, might have caused to stumble. In other words, they might think, oh, I can be a follower of Jesus and sacrifice. And follow Jesus. The Zeus at the same time. Right. Cool. So you can choose that.

I thought I had to give all my allegiance to Jesus, but you're saying I can actually worship both and So Paul would say you are not giving Covode to God by Covode if you're not loving someone you're not correct because that person is someone who bears and Reflects the image of God and There of ultimate value and worth and their well-being is my concern if they're

a fellow human. And so if I behave in a way that takes away from their well-being, I'm not giving a vote. It's the same thing as not bowing to King David or not bowing to the King is not loving your neighbor. That's right. Yes, that's right. It communicates the same thing, which is I don't. That's right. Yes, that's right.

It communicates the same thing, which is I don't care. Because what I'm saying is, oh, I want to do whatever the heck I want, and I don't care how it affects that image-bearing human being, that God loves and cares about. And so, you could say you're not respecting

that person's code, which is true. But more so, you're also not giving honor to God's cover. That's right. And the link is God's role as the creator and the originator of all that is including that image-bearing human. But then Paul says, but let's say that person's not around. There's nobody around. Yeah. That is gonna be led to worship. You just like you you were at the market, got some meat. You're like, oh great, try tip cuts today. And they're like, by the way, this was Zeus, and you're like, ah, it doesn't bother me.

It doesn't matter, and you go because like, Zeus is just a piece of metal up in that building. I know who made this animal. I know where the universe comes from. It comes from the creator of all that is. So that's what he says. He says, if I can eat this meat with thankfulness, then whatever you eat, whatever you drink,

do it for the glory, do it for the glory. So in that situation, I'm just eating meat. And that is giving God, God, well, if I eat it, he says with thankfulness. Okay, so by being thankful, then that increases God's capacity. Yeah, it's the tradition of why I'd use in Christians. Pray before meals.

Pray before meals. It's the same reason, it's the same activity as singing songs on Sundays. You pause in your life and you recognize that all of my life and existence is a gift from someone more beautiful, wise, and amazing than me. And my existence is meant to reflect that being. And so my enjoyment of this sustaining food and it tastes great, it's what a gift. Thank you, God. And in that sense, you can eat a steak to the glory of God.

And in that sense, you increase God's comfort. You could surf to the glory of God. Yeah. Like if you were riding a wave and you are being thankful at the same time. Yeah, yeah, right. Or am I taking it too far? No, I think, no. I think when human beings enjoy God's good world in a way that... It's a thankful heart. It sustains love of God and love of neighbor, you know, honors the teachings of Jesus.

If you're skipping out on family responsibilities to serve, that's not increasing God's government. Yeah, totally. Or, yeah, yeah, that's right. There's, I mean, this gets down to a whole other topic, but when human beings are fulfilling their divine purpose and then just simply enjoying the gift of existence, that is a testimony to God's code.

In the same way that I, in the same way that an architect could design a beautiful building that's meant to just inspire people when they walk into the atrium or something. Then them enjoying and hanging out in the atrium for hours and just staring at the sea lines is a way of bringing code to that architect. So it's very, very similar idea.

Isn't it remarkable how much the etymology of words helps understand, like concepts? Yeah. And some always, yeah, yeah. I'm always just really astounded by how significant that is. All of our language is metaphorical to some degree, and that the base of our language is generally some very concrete metaphor. And once you understand what that is, then it kind of helps you understand what that word.

Sometimes it has laughed that meaning. Yeah, that's right. Butterfly is not a fly made out of a stick of butter. Right. So their etymology doesn't help you. But doing word studies and studying a whole range of words meaning and seeing that, oh, here's like an older meaning or here's the way the word originated in its usage, but then how it became a metaphor over time

or develop metaphorical. Like here, something's heavy. And then that can be used as a metaphor. So I agree with you. I think that that's just, this is the basics of learning how to do word studies of biblical vocabulary. So how do they teach it in higher education? I don't know how I teach how to do word studies. How were you taught? Well first it was about how to use the biblical concordance. I mean this was back

before you know any online tools and so actually using a big book. But now you can use tools like Bible Gateway. You can just type in a word, glory. Just go type in glory and Bible Gateway and it'll give you all the passages that use that word. But you could still not. You still not get there. So the key then is a step forward to get to study words in Greek and Hebrew

and know where all the times that occurs and do that. But you can do it with a modest amount of homework and effort. Anybody can learn how to do decent word studies. I constantly using edam online. It's E-T-Y-M-O-N-L-I-N-E. Ah. Ah. It's like it's edam online. Oh that's just for English words. It's for any word. Any word. I mean you could probably put a let me put cavaud in and see them online. Oh, no, it doesn't find cavaud. So yeah, it's English words Yeah, but let's see if I do glory. So here's what's interesting. So glory is from the French Glorier Pride oneself on boast about

Directly from the Latin Oh Oh, Latin before that. Gloria R.E., which is classical meant to boast or brag. Pride oneself. So that's really interesting because right off the bat, you have these two different histories of this word. Yeah, the word doesn't begin with way. It doesn't begin with way. It begins with words speaking, namely bragging.

Bragging. So yeah, it's completely different. If you come in and you say, man, that person has so much weightiness to them. When they come in the rooms, they become the center of gravity. And that's the metaphor you're using versus you go, man, that person comes in the room and they're just gabbie about themselves.

They just won't stop talking about themselves. Yeah, don't. Like, that's... Yeah. And then we use the word glory to translate the word to VOD and they have completely different etymologies. Yep, so this is just the challenge of translation of the fact that the Bible is written in Greek

and Hebrew and Aramaic. And all our translations are, they're just, they're wonderful up-to-date efforts to render it into our language. But we always have to recognize that there are some limitations. That might actually help me understand my problem with the word glory. I think at the bottom of this conversation

is a little bit of my irritation with. to the driveway. Yeah, and the growing carrots. Somehow, yeah, somehow I get irritated when someone just says, well, you know, it's just about glorifying God. And part of that might be because in my understanding of the word glory is this kind of classical flatten where it's like really like that's what God cares about is that we we just talk good about him, talk well of who he is and it's very centered on what we say and and making sure that someone looks good, you know, like someone's being very boastful it's because they're just trying to look,

they're trying to be perceived as someone important. And so if I'm supposed to help someone be perceived as important in the same way, that just feels really, that's like worship songs, right? Like, like God can't be down here saying how important he is. So we're doing it for him. That's right. We're gonna tell God how important he is. Whereas, yeah, in the biblical vision, it's the reverse. It's the sunset so beautiful and the apple tastes so good. And the song is so beautiful. The song is so transcendent and beautiful. Yeah. This is all I receive as a gift from someone who's so generous and made the world and gave me a place within it. I want to speak well and live well for the Thanks for listening to this episode. If you liked it, you could go on iTunes and you can leave a review that helps a lot in

our exposure. You could also watch the video we made on the image of God which spawned on this conversation. And you can watch the other videos we made. They're all on YouTube, YouTube.com slash the Bible project. You can follow us on Twitter at join Bible Proj and say hi to us on Facebook, Facebook.com slash the Bible project. Up next is going to be a conversation on the book of Proverbs that will kick off

a three-part series on the Wisdom literature. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. I'm really excited about them. It's going to be great. Thanks again for Dan Babor, our good friend who sent us that question about the glory of God. Send us your questions. Thanks for being a part of this. From now on, no regret lifts my head Try my best in a touch, little one A touch, little ones in my head I'm a courage.