God’s Glory

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah 42:8

Jehovah is the name God uses here in the Hebrew, and it is translated as LORD. The name means “self-existent” or “eternal.” The ideas of self-existence and eternality are a bit difficult for us to comprehend; but as we ponder the meaning of God’s name, we begin to get a small glimpse of the nature of the omnipotent God we serve. Our lives have a beginning point and an ending point, but God simply exists. He never began. He is the source of all life and the Creator of all things. He wants us to know Who He is and give the proper praise and honor to His name. If we know His name, we know that He is the LORD, the self-existent and eternal One. His name suggests to us that He is without peer and without rival. God says here that He will not give His glory to another. The first of the Ten Commandments is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). We all inherently know that there is a Creator and that He is great in power. It makes God angry when we suppress that instinctive understanding and ascribe God’s glory to an inanimate object or an unseen and impossible process. Though idol worship is still prevalent in many parts of the world, man’s intellect is becoming the god of choice in many cultures. People who know deep in their souls that God exists are trying to replace Him with the theory of evolution. God is not willing to give His glory away. Each of us is responsible to observe His power and acknowledge His glory.