God’s Glory and Majesty

About this episode

The episode explores the themes of divine glory and human fallibility through historical examples of kings and prophetic messages.

The ceiling of London’s Banqueting House is magnificent. Painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens between 1629 and 1634, it was commissioned by King Charles I to glorify his family’s reign. In one painting, the goddess Minerva celebrates the achievements of Charles’ father, King James I. In another, James is carried to heaven on the wings of an eagle. Gazing up at the ceiling, banquet guests got a clear message: kings like Charles and his father were virtually divine.  In the prophet Isaiah’s day, the king of Babylon felt similarly about himself. Here was a king who longed to “ascend to the heavens” and sit “on the mount of assembly” where the gods were thought to reign (Isaiah 14:13). Instead, Isaiah prophesied that this king would fall (vv. 3-4), being “brought down to the realm of the dead” (v. 15) without even a tomb to be remembered by (vv. 18-19). Charles I met a similar fate. In an ironic twist, he was marched beneath the very ceiling depicting his supposed divinity before being executed outside Banqueting House in 1649. It’s a sad fact that has repeated through time: powerful people who claim divine glory for…

People in this episode

Host: Our Daily Bread Ministries

Topics covered

• divine glory
• historical kings
• prophecy
• humanity
• majesty

Keywords

• God's glory
• majesty
• Isaiah
• King Charles I
• Banqueting House
• historical prophecy
• divine majesty

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Banqueting House

Places: London

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