Glory

I finished reading Isaiah this morning. It has definitely become my favourite Bible book.
I've been noticing how a recurring theme is how people will see God's splendour in his people and will come to worship him. Here are some examples:

Nations you do not know will come running to you

because of the LORD your God ,

the Holy One of Israel,

for he has endowed you with splendour.

55.5

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

....the LORD rises upon you

and his glory appears over you

Nations will come to your light.

60.1-3

They are the shoot I have planted,

the  work of my hands,

for the display of my splendour.

60.21

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendour.

61.3

All who see them will acknowledge

that they are a people the LORD has blessed.

61.9

And I...am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages,

and they will come and see my glory.

66.18

It is such an awesome privilege that we, the sinful, weak and often times pathetic people of God can be used by God to display his splendour (the splendour Isaiah saw in 6.1-5).

 It reminds me of this verse in Zechariah:

In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take hold of one Jew

by the hem of his robe and say, 

"Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you."

We pray for that day to happen- that there will be those who can see that God is with us and ask to go with us to find him.

From the New Testament it makes me think of 1 Peter 2.11-12:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles,

to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

Live such good lives among the pagans that,

though they accuse of doing wrong, 

they may see your good deeds 

and glorify God on the day he visits us.