For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh’s glory, as the waters cover the sea.For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.
5 sermons cite this verse
… be silent. And then notice in verse 14, if you're tempted to doubt that it's all going pear-shaped, that everything is going horribly wrong, know this—the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. All the proud kingdoms of time will pass away, but God's kingdom stands and grows forever. And the pathway of the righteous, verse 4, is the pathway of faith. And the righteous will live by his faith. And, of course, that verse is picked up and employed by Paul and by the writer of the Hebrews and pressed into service at the time of the Reformation, both by Calvin and by Luther, as a very cornerstone of the nature of Christian living itself, so that not by our endeavors, by our good deeds, by our attempts at righteousness, but on account of the provision of a righteousness that we are undeserving of and could never gain, the conduit of which is our faith, is our childlike trust. For the only thing that we bring to our Christian lives is the sin of which we need to be forgiven. …
… and establishes a town by crime! Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they're drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it's your turn. Drink and be exposed. The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming round to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed man's blood, you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it, or an image that teaches lies. For he who makes it trusts in his own creation. He makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, Come to life, or to lifeless stone, Wake up! Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver. …
We can cling to the promises of God, knowing that one day, yes, the promise of chapter two, verse 14, that for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Praise God. But that day is not yet. Right now you're still hurting. You are still suffering. You're still in pain. What do you do? In the meantime, what do you do? What happens? When you're in that waiting between the promise and its fulfillment, what are you supposed to do? I want you to look at the last three verses of this book. Verse 17 of chapter three. Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. …
… Look it up. We don't have time this morning, but Habakkuk 2.14. There's some good stuff in Habakkuk, believe it or not. Habakkuk 2.14 says this. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the seas. And see, here's the deal. The early church knew that. The early church believed that God wanted his glory and his worship to be spread all over the earth like water covers the seas. and so they prayed for it. They longed for it. They asked for it. And God gave it. Do you see what's going on here in the book of Acts? Is these 11 guys, a small group of 100 beyond that, turn the world upside down for Christ? One of my favorite preachers from the past is a guy named D.L. Moody. I shared this story with the staff in our retreat. D.L. Moody, great preacher, inner city Chicago in New England and then overseas in Europe. God poured out his spirit in mighty ways through Moody. …
… The prophet said, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Praise God as the waters cover the sea. The motivation of God's kindness is his glory. For my own namesake, here we are again. I want you to notice these when you're reading now. For my own namesake, I delay my wrath. For the sake of my praise, I hold it back from you so as to not destroy you completely. In other words, you're getting the benefit, but I'm only doing it for my namesake. I do love you. We can't deny that. We are incredibly valuable to God. This is the gospel. We're woven into being in his image. We are his. But when he works and moves, he's oftentimes not doing it primarily for your benefit. He's doing it for his own names sake. see I've refined you though not as silver I've tested you in the furnace of affliction anybody ever been in there why was I in there for my own name sake I do this that just wrecked a whole lot of people's theology right there God put Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the furnace I mean he Human instruments put them in the furnace just like human beings put Christ on the cross. …