Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for the Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover, and with me is Chris Katulka. I'd like to encourage you to take note of our website FOIRadio.org. That's FOIRadio.org. There you can listen to over nine years worth of content on the site and it features Chris Katulka's great teaching and insightful interviews with a host of guests. Again, that's FOIRadio.org.

Chris Katulka: Steve, we're continuing our series that we're doing on the glory of God, and last week we kind of fleshed out what that Hebrew word for glory means kavod. It means the substance, the presence of God with his people. And so today we're going to continue that conversation. Last week we saw Nadab and Abihu and how they were kind of irreverent toward the glory of God. Well, today we're going to look more at King David and his love and passion for the kavod, the glory of God and His presence.

Steve Conover: But first in the news, some big news. Israeli minister of Knesset, Benny Gantz, recently resigned from Netanyahu's wartime government. Gantz called for elections, explaining that the Israeli people deserve more than empty promises. The former Minister of Defense's exit was overshadowed by the four Israeli hostages rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces earlier this month.

Chris Katulka: Well, Steve, here's my take. Benny Gantz is a good man, an excellent leader, and a great politician. However, now is not the time for Israel to move into elections. The State of Israel is already being pulled in every direction because of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and even the Western world's criticism of their just war. Gantz should help Netanyahu finish the job and then call for elections. Elections now will only divide a country needing unity.

Okay, so today we're in the middle of a three-part series on the glory of God, and maybe last Sunday you sang about the glory of God in a worship song or you read a passage that talked about God's glory from the scriptures. I'm sure that this is a phrase that you've heard at some point in your life, but what in the world does it mean, the glory of God?

The word glory in the Bible is used some 300 times. In the Old Testament. The common word for glory in Hebrew is kavod. While in the New Testament, the Greek word is dóksa. There are other Hebrew and Greek words for glory, but these are the most common in the original languages of the Bible. Plus, every time the phrase glory of God or glory of the Lord is used, the word for glory is either kavod in Hebrew or dóksa in Greek.

Okay, so kavod in Hebrew, or glory, is extremely interesting. The word actually means heaviness, or as Jewish scholar Dr. Benjamin Summers defines it, the word actually means substance, like a heaviness or a substance. The glory of the Lord can be translated as really the substance of the Lord. See, that definition of glory is much different than our English understanding of the word.

Now, last week we looked at the glory or substance of the Lord in the Torah, the first five books of Moses, and what we saw is that the glory or substance of the Lord is often associated with His appearance to Moses or His appearance to the Israelites. It's God's physical manifestation, which is just a technical way of saying God appeared to be with His people. It wasn't an ethereal appearing or some dream. God physically came down. The substance of God, the physical presence of God came down in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night. Scholars actually believe the cloud was a sheath that covered God's glory, the substance of God, which was a fire, and the fire could only be seen at night when it shined through the cloud.

The book of Exodus revealed several ways God's substance or glory came to Moses and Israel. God came to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed. God's glory rested atop Mount Sinai as a fire again that seemed to not be consumed. Finally, God's glory dwelled with the Israelites in the tabernacle. God was physically present with them. The true king of Israel manifested Himself and was present with His people. Now that God's glory, His substance, His presence is with His people, that means God's unfiltered holiness is present with them as well, and that's an amazing concept to wrestle with, but it's also a quite scary one as well. That's the reason God had a tabernacle built, so that his holiness could reside, dwell with an unholy sinful people.

Now last week we took a look at what happens when you disrespect God's glory, God's substance, when you disrespect his presence. And you don't have to go far into the book of Leviticus to find that the high priest's sons, Nadab and Abihu, they dishonored God's presence by bringing unauthorized coals before the Lord's presence. If you just want to boil it down, they did it their way, not God's way, and their disrespect of God's presence led to God's punishment. His holy fire consumed them and cleansed the altar that they had defiled. Now, if you didn't get a chance to listen to last week's program, please be sure to go to FOIRadio.org as Steve had mentioned earlier, and there you can hear last week's program and more. Again that's FOIRadio.org.

Okay, so now that we're all caught up a bit here, I want to turn our attention to moments in the Old Testament when God's glory was revered and how it was anticipated prophetically to bring blessing to all the nations. First of all, do you remember the story of King David and his desire to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, the newly established capital of Israel? See, there was a reason for this. The Ark of the Covenant was the throne of God's kavod. It was the throne of God's glory, His substance, His presence, it actually says it rested atop the Ark between the cherubim. That's why it's his throne. It says in 2 Samuel 6, starting in verse 2, it says that David and all the men who were with him traveled to Baale in Judah to bring up from there the Ark, which was called by the name of the Lord of heaven's armies who sits enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

It was King David's desire to bring the true king of Israel to the capital to make Jerusalem the place of his dwelling forever. There's tension in this account that surrounds God's glory. As the men were carrying the Ark, which God's glory enthroned, the ox carrying the Ark started to stumble and Uzzah, do you remember this story, reached out to steady the Ark and he was immediately dead, the Hebrew says actually because of an irreverence. It's almost like the picture of electricity. When you see an electric line that's down, it's got to be handled a certain way or it could kill you immediately. Well, the transfer of the Ark from one place to another, it had certain laws. Why? Because God's glory, His presence, His holiness sat atop it.

Well, listen, king David learned a very valuable lesson that day. David was exuberant about God's glory coming to Jerusalem, but the text says in 2 Samuel 6:9 that David was afraid of the Lord that day after Uzzah was struck down immediately. See, here is the fine balance between God's holiness, God's desire to be with us, he wishes for his glory to dwell with us, but his holiness requires reverence, and David learned that the hard way. So the Ark in God's glory stayed near the home of Obed-Edom.

Here's what's amazing. In the three months that the Ark was in his home, Obed-Edom's home, he was overly blessed. David heard that God had blessed the family of Obed-Edom and everything that he owns because of God's presence with him. Really, if you think about it, this man's home that was being overly blessed is a microcosm of what God wanted to do for the entire nation of Israel. When God's glory, His presence is revered and honored properly, God's desire is to bless. That alone gave David the confidence after Uzzah's death to return to Obed-Edom's home to properly transfer the Ark to Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 6 says that David sacrificed bulls and ox offerings every six steps showing reverence to God's glory. It also says that David's attitude changed. Where he was once afraid of the Lord after the death of Uzzah, now he brings the Ark in God's presence to Jerusalem, the word that's used is joyfully. In fact, it says David was dancing with all his strength.

Again, think about the emotions wrapped around electricity. That's right. When the electric in our homes and the wires outside carrying the currents are treated with respect properly, there's great joy that is experienced. I know this because the air conditioning is running during the summer and the heater is running in the winter giving us conditioned homes no matter the weather outside. The refrigerator is keeping our food cold. The microwave is warming our food as fast as possible. The lights come on with a touch of a switch. It's joyful.

But the moment we see a little one trying to shove something in the outlets, our joy goes to fear immediately. Trust me, the outlets in our homes, we're full of those plastic covers to protect our kids. See, David's fear turned to joy once he saw that God's blessing on Obed-Edom's house. Once he saw that, David learned that there was a new sense of understanding and reverence for God's glory. He understood how to walk with God in these moments. It was not something to be irreverent about. You don't mess with God's glory or his holiness.

Now, when we return, David wanted to build a house for God's glory, a house for God's presence to dwell in Jerusalem. David's desire, it will come to fruition, but just not the way that he planned it, so you'll want to stick around.

I was just speaking with our executive producer, Steve Conover, and he reminded me of an Israel My Glory magazine that we did all about God's holiness, all about God's presence, his kavod, his substance that came down. I want to introduce you, if you've never heard of Israel My Glory before, to our award-winning Christian magazine. That's right, we've been around since 1942, producing biblical content about Israel and the Jewish people. Enough getting all of your information from media. It's time to understand about what God is doing in the Middle East through Israel and the Jewish people by getting our magazine, Israel My Glory.

Now listen, if you have never subscribed before, this is a great opportunity for you to get our digital edition, which will give you access to the issue that I was talking about, Our Holy God. If you get the digital edition of Israel My Glory, you'll actually get 45 years of content right at your fingertips on your iPhone, your tablet, your computer. You can read all these amazing articles from Israel My Glory. And let me say this, for those subscribers out there who listen to our program, if you don't get the digital edition, you can upgrade as well by going to our website. In a moment, Steve's going to share with you how you can get your hands on this one year free subscription of Israel My Glory, and how you can access 45 years of content right at your fingertips.

Steve Conover: It's a great resource, Chris. I know I'm there all the time with a search. If I have a topic or a scripture reference, IsraelMyGlory.org is the place to go first and we'll make it easy for you so you don't have to jump around different websites. Just go to FOIRadio.org and we'll make sure you have a link to our Israel My Glory digital website.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back, everyone. We are looking at the phrase, "The glory of God." We've been talking about King David and his approach to God's glory after he moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. After the Ark arrived, it was David's desire to build a permanent home for God's kavod, for His glory, His substance, His presence, all of it so that He might dwell among the Israelites. King David was quite conflicted internally actually. He said to the prophet Nathan, "Look, I am living in a palace made from cedar while the Ark of God sits in the middle of a tent." Nathan replied to the king, "You should go and do whatever you have in mind for the Lord is with you." That comes from the beginning of 2 Samuel 7.

Well, it was later that night that the Lord actually spoke to the prophet Nathan and He said this to Nathan, that night the Lord's message came to Nathan, and in verse 5 it says, "Go tell my servant David this is what the Lord has said. 'Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in? I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. Wherever I moved among the Israelites, I did not say to any of the leaders whom I appointed to care for my people, 'Israel, why have you not built me a house made from cedar?''"

Just when it seemed like God was putting a kibosh to David's desire to build him a home, he promised David in 2 Samuel 7 starting in verse 12, "When the time comes for you to die, David, I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons to succeed you and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name and I will make his dynasty permanent." The promised son who will build God's glory a house would be king Solomon, and that's exactly what Solomon did, he built God a physical home that we call the temple.

In 1 Kings 8, after the temple's construction was complete, God and the priest inaugurated the temple and watch what happened. It's amazing. Starting in verse six, it says this, in 1 Kings 8:6, "The priest brought the Ark of the Lord's Covenant to its assigned place in the inner sanctuary of the temple in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim's wings extended over the place where the Ark sat. The cherubim overshadowed the Ark and its poles. The poles were so long, their ends were visible from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point."

"They have remained there to this very day. There was nothing in the Ark except two stone tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb, and it was there that the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after he brought them out from the land of Egypt. Once the priest left the holy place, the cloud..." Watch, here it comes everybody, "... the cloud filled the Lord's temple. The priests could not carry out their duties because of the cloud." Here it is, the Lord's glory, the kavod, the presence, the substance of God filled His temple.

And then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he lives in thick darkness. Oh Lord, truly, I have built a lofty temple for you, a place where you can live permanently." God's glory was revered by Solomon and the priests, His substance, His presence, His glory came down and remained with Israel for nearly 400 years until Israel's complete irreverence would once again force God's glory to leave His home, which is the temple. You can read all about that in Ezekiel chapter 8 through 10.

Here are some key takeaways from understanding God's glory and His holiness as men like Moses, Aaron and King David interacted with Him. First, God's glory, His presence. Think about this, He desires a relationship with us, His creation. Just stop and think about this for a moment. Ponder God's grace here. God doesn't need us. God is completely self-sufficient, and yet from the very first words of the Bible, He has consistently taken action to be with us. He was with Adam and Eve in the garden. He came down to Moses in the burning bush in Sinai. He came down into the tabernacle and the temple. He even told Moses, "Build me a tabernacle that I might dwell with my people." He loves us and wants a relationship with us, His creation, but in God's wisdom, He will not and cannot compromise His holiness in His desire to be with us.

You see it in the story of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus. You see it in the story of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6. From the text, Nadab and Abihu didn't intentionally attempt to show irreverence to God's glory, but they chose to do it their way over God's way and His holiness, God's holiness cleansed the altar. And I'm sure Uzzah's intent wasn't to undermine God's holiness by steadying the ark on the journey, but God cannot compromise His holiness, which leads us to ask, how should we approach God? How should we understand his presence in our lives?

Well, this is what we're going to look at more next week, but this is where we see God's grace. God shows us that He wants a relationship with us, that His glory would be with us. That's grace. He wants to be with us. God's holiness cannot be compromised when He engages in a relationship with us, and for that reason, He creates the order in which we, sinful humans, can have a relationship with a Holy God. That is grace.

Steve Conover: Israel, on the verge of becoming a state, a teenaged Holocaust survivor arrives on her shores alone, his name is Zvi Kalisher. Little did he know his search for a new life in the holy land would lead him to the Messiah. Zvi, enthusiastic to share his faith, engaged others in spiritual conversations, many of which can be found in our magazine, Israel My Glory. While Zvi is now in the presence of his Savior, his collected writings from well over 50 years of ministry continue to encourage believers worldwide. Now, Apples of Gold, a dramatic reading from the life of Zvi.

Mike Kellogg: When I returned home from one of my frequent army tours of duty, I took my family for a walk to the district of Mea Shearim, inhabited by the most orthodox Jews in Jerusalem. Several children were dancing around a bonfire singing, "We shall rebuild the Holy Temple." When I came close, I noticed New Testaments burning in the bonfire. I asked the children, "Why do you burn these books?" I said, "Everything in this book is about the living God and Messiah." They all shouted, "We must destroy it. Burning these books is a mitzvah, which means a good deed." Suddenly, a bearded man came up and said, "Throw that book back into the fire." I said, "I will not throw this holy book into the fire. I will show it to your rabbi and ask him if he permitted you to do this." As soon as I said this, the rabbi came.

I opened the New Testament and started reading from it at random. The page to which I opened was Hebrews 11. I read it aloud and all listened, and when I finished, the rabbi asked, "Did you study in the Yeshiva? "No." I said, "The book was my yeshiva." Then I opened to Matthew 5:43 and 44. "You have heard what it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." The rabbis looked at the New Testament and shouted, "He's a goy." Goy means Gentile. I said, "I only tried to show you what this book is all about. Here, you may have it if you still want to burn it."

He reached out to take the book, but suddenly his hand started shaking. I asked, "Why are you shaking? Perhaps the spirit of God is speaking to you. This New Testament is the same holy Scripture of whom did Isaiah speak when he wrote, 'And therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.' Or this, 'For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace.' You are burning the very faith you profess to believe. I am also a Jew." I said, "But I believe with all my heart in Messiah. Through him, I receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life."

His poor lamb started yelling, 'Meshummad.' Meshummad means apostate. This time the rabbi silenced them and asked me, "Are you still angry at me?" "No, I'm not angry at you or your foolish sheep. I just feel sorry." I gave him the New Testament and asked him to read it. This time he did not cast it into the fire, but put it into his pocket. A good sign, the Lord can do the rest.

Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for today's episode of The Friends of Israel Today. We have one more week studying the glory of God.

Chris Katulka: Yeah, Steve, we're going to take a look at the New Testament. We've been looking at all the stories from the Old Testament about the kavod, about the presence, substance of God, His holiness, how we interact with God's holiness. Well, does that change when we get to the New Testament? We're going to examine the New Testament and really see how God is going to fulfill what He promised in the prophets of the Old Testament as well.

Steve Conover: We hope you'll join us then. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione, edited by Jeremy Strong, who also composed and performs our theme music. Mike Kellogg read Apples of Gold, and I'm Steve Conover, executive producer. Our mailing address is FOI Radio, P.O. Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, P.O. Box 914 Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Our web address is FOIRadio.org. Again, that's FOIRadio.org, or you can call our listener line. That number is 888-343-6940. Again, that's 888-343-6940. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide evangelical ministry, proclaiming biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, while bringing physical and spiritual comfort to the Jewish people.