I’ve been meditating on this passage from Habukuk. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, just as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). This liberating knowledge, this radiant glory, Christians believe, is found in none other but Jesus the Son (Heb 1:1-3, John 1:14). In fact, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that when God showed up, he pierced through the darkness in the light of his own glory, which was “found in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
How amazing, how wonderous! God, our triune Creator, enfleshed his sovereign Self in Jesus the Son, through the power of the Spirit. The depths, the riches!
Many of us have traversed these Christian paths for a while. We’ve all undoubtedly run across many interesting doctrines and streams of theology. In my younger days, I was taught that God was indeed still coming to fill the earth with His presence. The idea of end time revival is still quite strong in Pentecostalism due to it’s particular views on the end times. I can see why holding out for some divine worldwide movement is so attractive. Surely, when God decides to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea, the mountains will indeed quake, and the world as we know it will be forever changed in an instant, right?
As convenient as it might be for us to wish upon God to pour Himself out upon the nations, the truth is that God already has. The glory of God has been, and is now, filling the earth with every soul that receives and shares Jesus love to another. Is this promise from Habukuk for the future if Jesus, God’s glory in the Son, has already come, lived, died, and rose again? What if the earth began to be filled, in this particular sense, when Jesus was born? What if the glory of God has already been poured out, deposited, and now resides within us, waiting to be shared?
You and I, we are ambassadors of God’s gift to the nations. “He has filled us with a treasure with which we are to enrich the world,” said Spurgeon. We play an important, even critical role as the body of Christ in the dispersion of God’s glory (insert Jesus), throughout the earth. This is not the work of a select few. It’s a work that each of us is invited to participate in, at some level. In our Creator’s wisdom, God has decided to partner with humanity, while taking up residence within our fragile human hearts. We are the vessels, carrying this treasure, filling the earth! (2 Cor 4:7).
As we move with the impulse of God’s love, may we fill every place with His fragrance. This is our generation. It’s our time to be filled up and poured out until His glory fills the earth just as the waters cover the sea.