The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed. He has girded Himself with strength. (Psalm 93:1)
In the book that bears his name, the prophet Isaiah described a vision in which he saw the Lord “sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). This verse is interesting for many reasons but, for today, I want to emphasize that he saw portions of the Lord’s robe. Why so interesting? Because Messiah Himself said that, “God is Spirit” (John 4:24) — in other words, He is not physical as we understand that term, and therefore, not limited by a body as we are. Nevertheless, the One who is Spirit — the One who can not be limited to a similitude of our making — is clothed in robes of majesty.
Taking this notion a step further we could conjecture that God, who is Spirit, has cloaked Himself in a material robe in order that those who live in a material world can behold Him. By that I mean, the Invisible God has manifest Himself in the physical world in such a way that His Presence is made known to us. As Paul said: “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). In other words, He manifests Himself in a material way in order to provoke us to seek Him more diligently and behold Him as He truly is — Eternal, Almighty, clothed in majesty and girded with strength.
This concept, though deep, is ultimately and more clearly revealed in Messiah. As it is written, Messiah, “being in the form of God … made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6-7). Let’s put it this way: the One who is Spirit slipped on a material robe — a body — and walked among us so that His glory could be made manifest to us in a way that we could better understand. As He said to His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). And just to underscore the point that the material robe is merely cloaking who and what He truly is, He led three of His disciples to a high mountain and was transfigured before them: “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:1-2).
The point of all this is to realize that the Invisible, Invincible, Infinite God desires to have an intimate relationship with us all — so much so that He clothes Himself in such a way that we might behold Him. As John wrote: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Let us behold Him, and as we do, hopefully we will be moved to embrace Him. Amen.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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