Beautiful Glory—Glorious Beauty
Exodus 28:2-3
“And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.”
We shouldn’t take for granted the wonderful truth that the glory of the Lord and the beauty of the Lord go hand in hand, especially in a corrupt world where glory and beauty are not synonymous.
Think of someone like Pharaoh, surrounded in power, fame, and fortune, sitting on his throne, worshipped by adoring citizens, reigning not just as a king among men but as a god among them. Yet, he beats his hapless captives if they fail to gather enough straw for bricks. He commands the genocide of thousands of babies in order to maintain power. He spends limitless resources on his own welfare while his own citizens dig for their lives along the bloody Nile. That’s a picture of ugly glory. A forced glory—not an earned one. A corrupting power—not a benevolent one. A hideous strength—not a helping one.
Then picture someone like Delilah, a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, the kind who walks into a room and everyone turns around to look; but she uses those deep eyes and soft demeanor and flowing locks of hair to lure Samson in the way a weasel mesmerizes its prey before biting. Not to love him, but to possess and corrupt him. To pry day after day, until she invades the inner courts of his devotion; till the devils storm through the door, expose his weakness, and drag him off in chains. That’s a picture of detestable beauty. A beauty of mermaids and sirens and lying serpents and poisoned apples. A skin- deep beauty with no soul behind it; one that tarnishes the world rather than furnishes it.
And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. Friend, we’ve been born in our Lord’s image and likeness, haven’t we? We’ve been clothed in the glorious and beautiful priestly robes of His righteousness! We stand as His ambassadors before an ever-disintegrating world to shine as lights. Oh that our words and deeds today would match our heavenly raiment! Oh that our faces would shine with His undiluted brightness, without any hidden shadows!