What do we even think we’re saying when we say that?
“Give God the glory.”“Glory to His name.” We’ve repeated it for so long it rolls off the tongue like punctuation. But what does it mean? It’s not just a spiritual pat on the back for God. Not a word of flattery tossed upward.
The word in Hebrew is כָּבוֹד, kavod.
That word shakes me every time I say it.
It comes from the root כָּבֵד (kavéd), which means “heavy.” Weighty. Substantial. Not just physical weight, but importance. Massiveness. Impact. A person with kavod carried honor, respect, dignity, but not because someone handed it to them. Because they had something that couldn’t be ignored. Their very presence meant something.
So when we speak of the glory of YHWH, we’re not talking about sparkles or ambiance.
We are speaking of His overwhelming, undeniable, uncontainable, unbearable weight, the force of His being.
Glory is God’s presence made visible.
When that kavod appears in Scripture, the world responds. Not with polite applause. With terror. With silence. With awe.
Exodus 24:17 says, “The appearance of the kavod of YHWH was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.”
Did you catch that? Not “a pretty light.”
Not “a strong feeling.”
A consuming fire. Seen with their eyes. They watched His glory descend like fire and cloud, and it scorched the stone beneath their feet.
This is the same kavod that filled the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, when the priests couldn’t even stand to minister. Exodus 40:34-35: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the kavod of YHWH filled the tabernacle.”
And yes, that word is right there in Hebrew:
וּכְבוֹד יְהוָה מָלֵא אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן – “U’k’vod YHWH male et ha’mishkan.”
The kavod didn’t whisper in. It filled. It overtook. It owned the place.
✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️
Now roll into the Greek. The Septuagint translates kavod as δόξα (doxa).
At first glance, that doesn’t seem to carry the same weight. It originally meant “reputation” or “judgment” in ancient Greek thought, what people think of you. But by the time of the Apostolic Writings (NT), the word had evolved, and in the mouths of Jewish believers in Yeshua, doxa was pregnant with the Hebrew meaning.
Doxa became splendor. Radiance. Glory as the visible outshining of the divine nature.
So when John 1:14 says:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…”
That wasn’t poetic exaggeration.
The word there is δόξαν (doxan), accusative form of doxa.
And John is saying:
“We saw it. With our own eyes. The kavod of God walked among us, wore skin, breathed our air, and we looked straight at it.”
That verse continues: “…the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
It’s not just glory from the Father. It’s glory that was of Him.
Of His essence. Of His uncreated nature.
The same glory Moses couldn’t look at on Sinai, John saw in the face of the Nazarene.
Paul catches it too. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, he writes:
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah Yeshua.”
That’s not a metaphor. That’s Bereshit echoing into new creation.
The same El who said, “Yehi or!”, Let there be light!, has now shone another kind of light, a light that reveals the kavod of Elohim in the very face of the Son.
The fire from Sinai is now walking among us. That’s what Paul’s saying.
And I tremble.
✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️
But here’s the part that keeps me up at night wondering. Not only does Yeshua reveal the glory,
He shares it.
In His high priestly prayer, John 17:22, He says:
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one.”
Read that again.
He gave it to us.
What do we even do with that? We can barely stay clean for a day, and yet He says:
“You see this eternal glory I’ve shared with the Father since before the world was? I’m giving it to My disciples. They will carry My kavod.”
And the crazy thing is… it wasn’t just poetic.
This is Psalm 8:5 coming to pass: “Yet You have made him a little lower than Elohim, and crowned him with glory and honor.”
The word for “crowned” there is תְּעַטְּרֵהוּ(te’attereihu), to encircle, surround, wrap in glory.
You and I were formed to carry kavod.
Formed to reflect the radiance of our Creator.
But sin broke that.
Romans 3:23 doesn’t say “all have sinned and are bad people.”
It says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
We didn’t just fall from rules. We fell from glory.
We lost the weight.
We became hollow.
But through Yeshua, we are restored, not just to life, but to kavod.
Now look at the prophetic picture.
Isaiah 6, He sees YHWH high and lifted up, Seraphim crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The thresholds shake. The temple fills with smoke.
But what do the angels say next?
“The whole earth is full of His glory.”
מְלֹא כָל־הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ (m’lo kol ha’aretz k’vodo)
Then why don’t we see it?
Because it’s veiled.
Because we’re blind.
Because we’re too busy looking for His glory in lights and noise and emotions instead of looking for weight, for presence, for truth, for substance that burns the chaff.
Glory isn’t a church mood. It’s not a vibe.
Glory is God’s essence made manifest.
When His kavod shows up, you don’t lead worship.
You fall flat. You cover your mouth. You burn.
The prophets fell on their faces.
The priests couldn’t stand to minister.
Even demons screamed and fled.
We want that kind of glory? Then we have to make room.
And room doesn’t mean more space in our schedule, it means less of us in the vessel.
Because you can’t carry kavod and ego at the same time.
You can’t host the weight of YHWH and still care about your image.
You can’t reflect glory and still chase attention.
Creation itself is built on glory.
Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of El, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”
Even the stars are screaming kavod.
Gravity? A faint whisper of His weight.
Light? A flicker of His radiance.
The beauty of DNA, the structure of atoms, the fractals of nature, they all echo the unseen weight of a glorious Elohim who speaks in patterns, pulses, and power.
And in the end? Glory is the final word.
Revelation 21:23 says the New Jerusalem has no need for sun or moon.
“For the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
Not “the presence of God is there.”
Not “God gives light to it.”
But His glory is the light.
Kavod is what will illuminate eternity.
So what now?
We don’t just admire glory.
We were made to walk in it.
To reflect it.
To live lives that speak His weight into a weightless world.
But that takes fire.
It takes purification.
It takes death to the flesh, and hunger for the face of YHWH.
You want glory?
Get low.
Let Him burn the veil.
And let every breath in your lungs be an invitation for the kavod to rest on you again.
Not for your sake.
But for His Name.
Because He alone is worthy.
And THAT is…
