|
The Glory of God – Revealed
We often use the phrase, “To the glory of
God“; but do we really know what it means?
We want to do all things ”to the glory of
God.” We sing "To God Be the Glory." What
does that mean? Is it a beautiful edifice
built to honor God for His people to
worship? Is it the glorious strains from
the organ and the harmonious choir? Is it
the cloud that enshrouded the mountain and
the fire that was displayed at Mt. Sinai in
Israel’s presence?
“That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him: The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling, and what the riches of
the glory of his inheritance in the saints”
(Ephesians 1:17-18).
He wants us to know “the riches of His
glory”; it is “knowable.”
Moses desired to know God's glory. He saw
the momentous task he had been given to lead
a multitude of people to the
Promise Land and knew that he was
inadequate. He petitioned God "...If I have
found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy
way, that I may know thee..." (Exodus
33:3). Notice he wasn't yet asking to know
the way to "go" but that I may “know thee,
know thy way."
He needed to "know" God first, and then he
could follow Him. "...If thy presence go
not with me, carry us not up hence."
(Exodus 33:15). Moses would have preferred
to stay in whatever comfort zone he could
find in the wilderness over proceeding
without God's presence. His greatest desire
was to know God, that the people he was
leading would know Him and follow Him.
Moses had enough of a glimpse of the glory
of God to know that there was more, much
more and wanted to know the rest of the
story. The desire to know God is in each of
us, though our flesh fights against deeper
knowledge. To know "self” is the cry of our
flesh. Many cults preach that God is within
us - our flesh and our abilities - and we
need to get in touch with out inner selves;
that to get in touch with our inner selves
and our inner light is to know God. Nothing
could be further from the truth. A
"self-god" is no more than that--self, with
all of the limitations and frailties of the
flesh.
Moses knew this and wanted to know the
truth. He wanted to know God--the true God,
to see His glory. God told Moses that He
would answer his prayer and go with them,
but Moses still was not satisfied. God even
told him "I know thee by name" (Exodus 33:
17). Maybe this was alarming to Moses; if
God knew him "by name" then He would know
how inadequate he was for the awesome task
of leading these people. If God knew him by
name, Moses wanted to know God in the same
way.
Moses' request should be on the heart of
every Christian: "And he said, 'I beseech
thee, shew me thy glory.' " The problem for
us seems to be how to recognize the glory of
God, to know the God of the glory.
To know God and be shown His glory is a
worthy goal.
God honored Moses' request, but He had to
limit the answer to Moses' human ability to
receive it. God said, "Thou canst not see
my face; for there shall no man see me, and
live." (Exodus 33:20). Moses was unable to
see the full impact of the glory of God
which was evident in the "face" of God, but
God put Moses in a cleft of the rock,
covered his face with His hand until He
passed by and allowed Moses to see His "back
part.” So Moses was able to see God's
glory veiled.
God must have given Abraham a peek into His
glory. He pulled up stakes and headed for
an unknown destination "in search of a city"
and he never looked back. This is what
every Christian needs to see--the Glory of
God--so there would be greater commitment to
keep the faith and head toward that “city”
without a backward glance. It would delight
God to show us His glory.
The golden calf crisis had humbled Moses to
realize his inability to be the leader that
was needed to guide this rebellious people.
Even with his experience in the mount when
God came and with his own finger wrote on
tablets of stone His Law for the people,
Moses knew he needed something more to
continue with the job he had been given, and
said to God, "...Lord, See, thou sayest unto
me. ‘Bring up this people:’ and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me.
Yet thou hast said,’ I know thee by name,
and thou hast also found grace in my sight‘
" (Exodus 34:12). God's response was: "... I
will do this thing also that thou has
spoken..." (Exodus 33:17) and let His glory
pass by Moses as he requested. Jesus said,
"Fear not, little flock: for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom" (Luke 12:32). As
awesome as it may seem, God wants us to see
His glory. He desires to give us the
kingdom. He just wants us to desire that
more than anything else in life, like Moses
did.
God told Moses, "...1 will put thee in a
cleft of the rock and will cover thee with
my hand while I pass by: And I will take
away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back
parts; but my face shall not be seen. And
the Lord passed by before him. and
proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful
and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty..." (Exodus 33:21-23
34:6-7)
The revelation of God's glory prompted Moses
to repent for Israel and
"worship" (Exodus 34.9). He would spend the
rest of his life leading Israel toward the
Promise Land. That veiled view provided
Moses with the motivation to follow God to
Sinai into God's presence again to receive
the stone tablets on which were written the
Law that he had broken in his anger toward
the idolatrous people; the Law that would
guide Israel and become a basis for laws made by
man for the rest of the world's history.
What did Moses view that filled him with
such commitment that would consume him to
fulfill the task and fill his very existence
with motivation to follow God wherever he
would be led? Moses received an
audio-visual answer to his petition to see
God's glory. It revealed God’s attributes
(Exodus 33:6-7). The "simplicity" of
God's response to Moses' request can easily
be overlooked. We look for thunder,
blinding light and quaking earth to be the
glory of God. Those things are only
window dressing for the revelation of God's
nature/glory.
This is what Moses saw as God passed by--
-Mercy-
-Grace-
-Longsuffering-
-Abundance in goodness and truth-
-Keeping mercy for thousands-
-Forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin-
-By no means clearing the guilty-
When all God's goodness passed before him,
what Moses saw caused him to worship the God
who had shown him all these attributes.
This seems to be the first account of Moses
actually worshipping God. He "made
haste and bowed his head toward the earth,
and worshipped." (Exodus 33:19, 34:8).
Even though he had communed with God,
especially in behalf of the people he was
leading, this revelation of the glory of God
stirred something in him that was
different. He was not just communicating
with God for his charges, but he was
personally worshipping this God who was
leading him. It seems at this point, he
really "knew" God. He was overwhelmed by
the glory of God.
He also saw Israel’s iniquity and rebellion
and the judgment it would bring upon them;
but more than that, he saw a God that was so
full of love for His people that He would do
all to save them. God began this revelation
by "proclaiming the name of the Lord"
(Exodus 34:6). Throughout the Bible God
revealed His "names" which expressed the
attributes that Moses saw that day. The
powerful name of the Lord would redeem
mankind from the awful tragedy of the
results of sin. Then He proceeded to reveal
all the glory that would follow those who
knew His name. The love God exposed to
Moses would produce all the glory that was
revealed through the attributes. God has
always been revealing His glory since
creation by His acts and in His Word to
those who seek to know Him. It just had not
been understood; and Moses seems to be the
first person who sought to know the
glory of God in its fullness.
Having experienced and seen firsthand the
awesome glory of God, Moses knew that God
would forgive His erring people if they
repented. The Bible speaks of God
“repenting” or changing His mind about
judgment when Israel repented
(example: Joel 2:14). We must not equate
that expression with the way we look at
“repentance.” God will never change His
mind about sin; He will never overlook it to
any extent. A more correct understanding of
God’s “repentance” comes from His glory.
God operates in the
“judgment-characteristic” of His glory (not
sparing the guilty) when sin is present.
When we come to Him with a repentant heart,
God steps over into His glory where mercy is
and dispenses grace and restoration.
So it isn’t a matter of God “repenting” as
we think of it; He is just operating in
another facet of His glory. If
judgment against sin were not part of His
glory, sin would be so rampant, we would
self-destruct. If longsuffering, mercy
and grace were not characteristics of His
glory, there would be no hope for the
sinner. God would have to fulfill the
part of His glory that “by no means spares
the guilty.” He is wholly just; He is
wholly merciful and gracious; all part of
His glory. God’s glory embraces the
grace that came to us through Jesus Christ.
When we view saving grace through Him, we
are seeing the glory in its fullness.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable…” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Surely, the hunger in the heart of Moses was
God-inspired that he be shown the glory of
God so God could preserve the answer in His
Word for our benefit as well!
Points to Ponder
*
Moses had a relationship with God as no
other. God got his attention at the burning
bush on the back side of the desert and
brought him back to Pharaoh’s court to lead
the slaves out of Egypt to the Promise Land
*
God called Moses into the mountain and
revealed to him His Heart for Israel and His
glory. He gave Moses guidelines for living
in that glory—the Ten Commandments.
*
God honored the heart-desire of Moses by
allowing him to see the “backside” of His
glory.
*
Moses was so moved and humbled by his
experience that he repented for Israel’s
sins. The awesome presence of God created
such a relationship with Moses that he spent
the rest of his life in that glory.
*
Is it any wonder that Moses was overwhelmed
when he saw the glory of God? Yes, a cloud
covered Mt. Sinai and a devouring fire,
there was thunder, lightning, blasting
trumpet, but that was only the herald
trumpet to draw attention to the real “Glory
of God.
*
God’s ways are transcendent, as high above
us as the heaven is the earth. If we
were able to comprehend Him, He would not be
God. Though transcendent, God
graciously passed by Moses and unveiled
Jesus prophetically in His glory.
Later when Moses erected the Tent of Meeting
(Tabernacle in the Wilderness), the cloud
that led them settled on the Holy of Holies
exposing yet veiling the glory of God.
*
Why do we need to know what the "glory of
God" is? If we think of the glory of God as
only the "fanfare" that was present at Mt.
Sinai, we will miss it. Jesus is the
embodiment of the glory of God. “And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth” (John 1:14).
*
Our omnipotent, omniscient God is completely
and perfectly just. His very essence
requires that He judge sin. The Glory of
God, His fullness, His character, His
essence also includes and extends
mercy to the
repentant sinner. Mercy opens the way
for grace to accept and forgive the sinner.
Oh the fullness of His Glory!
*
We are to be like Jesus. God is
shaping us to be like Him; then He will be
revealing His glory, as revealed to Moses,
in and through us. The revelation God
gave to Moses of His glory is our guideline
to become more like Jesus that the "glory of
God" will be evident as we "pass by" others
as it was evident to Moses as God passed by
him in the cleft of the rock. The only
fanfare we need is to live out the glory of
God in our own lives. The “treasure”
we have in our earthen vessels is to show
that the “excellence of the power” is of God
and not of us! God reveals His glory
through His redeemed ones.
“But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians
4:7).
......Delores
Continued on next page. See link
below.
|
