For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters.
Hab 2:14
Yada yada is used as a way to skip boring or imaginable parts of a story. You, first God created the world, man messed it up – yada yada – and Jesus had to come to fix it all up. Something like that.
But what has this to do with today’s verse? I am actually playing on words here: knowledge in Hebrew is yada.
It is the word used when Adam knew Eve, and out came Cain, or Abraham knew his wife, and nine months later, Isaac was born.
It is the word used when the bible tells us that we would know good and evil:
And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he will go on living for ever.
Gen 3:22
Yada is the intimate kind of knowing. It maybe starts at “I just knew that I knew”, but reaches much deeper. It’s the kind of knowledge that begets fruit. Easy to see in marriage relationships. But how about knowing good and evil?
I don’t think that this is as shallow as having discernment capabilities, knowing what to put in the evil drawer and flee from, and what to accept as good and do.
The verse talks about our intimate knowledge of good and evil. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
With that emphasis in our mind, sentences like “know that I am your God” take on a whole knew meaning. Not yada yada, but yada! It reads: I know deep inside, for sure, and nobody can takes this away from me, as it has become an integral part of my thinking and being, that He is my God.
Let’s then look at the verse in Habakuk.
First, it is not the glory of the Lord that will fill the earth. It was true when Isaiah was caught up to heaven – old covenant. It was true a long time ago when Jesus was born, and the King came to earth. And with him his Kingdom. It was true when Jesus was announced son of God in the Jordan and began ruling. It was true when he died and rose, taking back all authority and all that was stolen. It was true when the Holy Spirit filled God’s people. And it was true when the old earth and the old heaven were destroyed, making room for the new creation.
The verse talks about the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
His glory fills the earth. But most people have no clue. Some have some wisdom, intuition, even insight, thinking or feeling that somebody has to hold it all together. Few have a revelation of what that means, and even fewer know the glory of the Lord.
Yes, we know: he is here. He lives in me. But do we really know? I mean, really, really know? Think of the implications of what that means. The God of the universe and much more lives in me, his authority, his power, his might, his glory.
Just take a pause here and reflect. Meditate on this for a while.
The earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
The earth will not be filled. It will be full. Done deal.
There is an age coming, there is a time in our future that everybody and everything on earth will intimately know the glory of the Lord. This is worth more than a short reflection, as this changes the whole view of our future.
A few blog entries ago I talked about having a positive outlook of our future instead of one of doom and gloom. This plays right into the same half of the ball park. There will be a time when nobody does not know the glory of the Lord.
Imagine the kind of fruit that will stem from this. Nothing can stand in his glory. All evil will be burnt away. Nothing standing in the way of doing God’s will. Infinite possibilities, unlimited creativity.
Now, that is a goal to work towards.
Are you with me?