The Eclipse of God’s Glory

The Eclipse of God’s Glory

From Texas to Maine, people will be flocking to “the path to totality” in order to see a full solas eclipse. It is a notable event, and aside from widespread FOMO (fear of missing out), scientists and astronomers, professionals and amateurs, are interested. The sun is the dominant feature of our solar system, and it is jarring for the sun to be obscured, even for a few seconds. But what about the eclipse of God’s glory?

How’s that for a transition? But let me give you one parallel: you can’t look directly at the sun, due its brightness or glory, without physical damage. Nor can a person see directly the glory of God and live. Moses asked to see God’s glory, and God said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20). Our vision of God is a mediated vision. We see God in the face of Jesus Christ, or we don’t see Him at all (2 Corinthians 4:6). We don’t need funny-looking glasses to “see” God. We need Jesus, - faith in Jesus.

One feature of Monday’s eclipse is that the “culprit” of the eclipse is a piece of rock called the moon. There are many, many moons.They produce no light of their own, but our moon is able to obscure the sun’s glory for a few seconds on a narrow track across our continent. I am more interested in the obstructors which obscure the glory of God across the centuries and much more widely. Let me suggest a couple:

Spiritual blindness: it is the condition of being unable to ascertain heavenly things (Nicodemus), a casualty of the human race falling into sin. The Bible says that we are all spiritually blind, and that it is the Spirit of God, along with faith in Christ, which removes our blinders. The sad point is that spiritual blindness is universal apart from regeneration, and yet people are unaware of this spiritual blindness. They see many glories in the world, but they are not able to see the glory of God or God’s connection to these created glories. In essence, people are left to worship the created order rather than the Creator, because they have not yet been bowled over by His glory.

Unbelief: we do not overcome spiritual blindness by trying harder. We come to a place of despairing in out own abilities, and then we turn to Jesus who is able to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, even as He opened the eyes of the physically blind. This “turning to” Jesus is a step of faith, and it is an abandoning of the unbelief that has reigned in our heart. This new faith leads to a new life, and a new vision of the glory of God.

World News interviewed David DeFelice, a NASA retiree who has an appreciation, not only for the glory of the sun, but also for the glory of God. He notes that “NASA talk(s) about solar eclipses on Earth (as) a convenient coincidence, because the sun's diameter is 400 times larger than the Earth and the Sun 400 times farther away than the moon. .. (Y)ou can .. see how God did that, and that’s not just an eclipse.”

I believe his point says this: that for those who have been gifted with a vision of the glory of God, we see the glory of God everywhere in creation. We hear it in the frog’s croak and the bird’s song, and we see it in the movements of the sun and moon.

Psa. 19:1 “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
Psa. 119:18 "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things.”

I pray that you will not miss out.