Human Response 392: Could Not Stand

1 Kings 8:10-11 The cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

When the Temple of Solomon was dedicated, the cloud of glory filled the house of the Lord. The response of the priests was to fall prostrate before the powerful presence of God. The Almighty, All-powerful, Creator God showed up and manifested Himself in the cloud of glory. The nearby witnesses could not stand. This is the natural and expected reaction to the revelation of God coming into our earthly existence.

The least response to God appearing is to kneel, but in several cases the breaking through of the spiritual into the physical world causes the witness to fall flat. Philippians 2:10: God has highly exalted Jesus so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” This will happen to all people when Jesus is revealed in all His glory, in real life. For now, it happens to us by faith, in the Spirit. We may physically kneel or lie prone before the Glory of the Gospel, but not usually. It happens in our spirit, invisibly, when the awesome love of God sweeps over us in our receiving of the Gospel.

We don’t always feel it, but this is what really is going on when we are baptized, when we take Communion, when we receive absolution, or however we hear the Gospel. We respond in humble worship and grateful praise, and in a spiritual, but real, sense we cannot stand. Our God is so good and so great! His love bowls us over.