Exodus 33:18-34:4 ~ 20120909 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

09/09 Exodus 33:18-34:4 Please Show Me Your Glory


We are approaching one of the most awesome passages in the book of Exodus, even in the whole Old Testament. This is a passage that contains the self-revelation of God. He is going to show us what he is like. To properly appreciate this passage, we need to set it in its context of the narrative of the book of Exodus as a whole. God has rescued his people from slavery. God has brought them out into the wilderness where they will hold a feast to him, where they will enter into a covenant relationship to be his people, and he will be their God. He will dwell with them. But before they even receive the written terms of the agreement, they have shattered it, worshiping the works of their hands. They have sinned a great sin. They have abandoned their God and gone after idols. God threatens to destroy them, but Moses intercedes, pleading with him on the basis of his past demonstration of undeserved grace toward his people, and on the basis of his reputation among the nations. God offers to send them off to the promised land, but without his presence. They are not satisfied to enjoy the honeymoon destination without the groom. This is a disastrous word. They mourn and demonstrate genuine repentance. Moses pleads for God's presence to go with them, as evidence of his grace toward his people.

Let's pick up the story in verse 12:

Exodus 33:12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Persistence in Prayer

In Genesis18, Abraham bargained with God, asking that Sodom be spared on account of 50 righteous, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. In a similar way, Moses is wrestling with God in prayer on behalf of his sinful people, and God, not all at once, but incrementally, concedes to his requests. He will destroy all the people and start over with Moses; then he will not unleash his wrath and consume all the people; then he will send them on their way to the promised land but he will keep his distance; then he will send his presence privately with Moses; then he will go with his people; then ultimately he will pardon their sin and dwell in their midst and take them back to be his own inheritance. Sometimes prayer is a process. Jesus taught his followers the principle of persistent prayer; that they ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1-8). We are invited to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). In this passage we see the great value of persistence in prayer. Moses is growing in his role as intercessor for the people. Here in verse 18, Moses makes a very bold request. Moses says 'please show me your glory'. What is this all about?

How This Fits In

Let's look at this request in light of the sequence of asking God for his presence. In verse 16 Moses asks that God demonstrate the distinction between Israel and the rest of the world by allowing them to experience the undeserved grace of his presence. God responds

18 “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

God said yes! He threatened to abandon his people, but now he is agreeing to go with them. Moses' next request, to be shown God's glory is not off topic. Think back to the burning bush in Exodus 3. There, God sends Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. Moses is reluctant but God promises to be with him. Moses asks how his ministry is to be authenticated; if they ask 'who sent you? what is his name?' what should I say? God replied with a revelation of his character and nature; 'I AM WHO I AM' I am YHWH, the self-existent one. YHWH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (3:13-15). Here, God is renewing his promise to be with his sinful people, and he is sending Moses to lead them to the promised land. Moses is asking for authentication of his ministry. God has agreed to go with his people in answer to Moses' prayer. Moses is asking, 'will you set your seal to this, will you sign your name? Show me your glory!'

This is a bold request. What is God's response?

19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

In response to the request to be shown the glory of God, he responds 'I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'the LORD'. God is good. This is a further revelation of God's character. God will communicate to Moses in a greater way what he is like. To proclaim is to preach, to herald, to announce, to publish. God is a God who communicates. He preaches. He is the evangelist, declaring the truth about who he is. To be shown the glory of God is to hear his name, his character, to know him.

Sovereign Grace

God says “And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” In verse 12, Moses quotes God saying that Moses has found favor or grace in his sight. In verse 13, on the basis of this favor, Moses asks to know God better in order to find more favor or grace. In verse 16, Moses claims that the evidence of finding grace in God's sight is his presence among his people, and this is what makes them distinct from every other people. God answers that he will do what Moses asks because he has found grace or favor in his sight. Now God declares 'I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious'. The idea here is when I smell something good coming from the kitchen, and I ask my wife what's for dinner. When she responds 'I will cook what I will cook'. That means 'you stay out of it, this is my territory; I can cook whatever I want, and your job is to eat it and like it.' God is saying that grace and mercy are his to give. He doesn't owe grace or mercy to anybody. He's not obligated to show anyone grace or mercy; that would negate the very meaning of the words. By definition grace is favor and kindness that is not deserved. Mercy is tenderness, compassion or pity because of our helpless condition. God is free to extend his grace and mercy to whomever he chooses. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 9 to defend the justice of God in his purpose of election, that it does not depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Moses is asking for more grace for himself and for the people, and God has responded 'yes, I will show you grace and mercy, but because I have said yes, don't think for a moment that you are entitled to it, that you deserve it, or that I am obliged to give it.' Don't ever take God's grace and mercy for granted. Treasure the fact that God has extended mercy to you; be amazed that you and I, as undeserving as we are, have been freely shown his grace!

You Cannot See My Face

God goes on to clarify what it will mean for Moses to be shown his glory. He says 'you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live'. Remember, just a few verses earlier in this chapter we were told that 'the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses, who recorded both of these verses, is not contradicting himself. As we saw last time, speaking to someone face to face means speaking in an intimate personal way. That kind of language does not require that both parties have literal faces, or that there is any visual perception of the other party. It means there is real personal communication going on. Back in chapter 24, when the elders of Israel went up the mountain to eat a covenant meal in the presence of the LORD, it says “they saw the God of Israel” and it goes on to describe what they saw; they describe the pavement under his feet. It says “he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank” (24:10-11). The elders of Israel had a real experience of the presence of God. The statement that 'he did not lay his hand on them' indicates that this was exceptional, that under other circumstances they would be dead. But whatever they saw, they did not see the face of God, 'for man shall not see me and live'. This is the unanimous testimony of scripture. Romans 1 states that God's divine nature is invisible. Colossians 1 states that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. I Timothy 1 tells us that God is immortal and invisible, and in chapter 6 he tells us that he “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see”. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham “endured as seeing him who is invisible”. John 1 and 1 John 4 both tell us that “No one has ever seen God.” This passage goes on to speak of God not only in terms of his face, but also his hand and his back.

21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

This does not mean that Moses got a glimpse of the hindquarters of God but couldn't tell what shape his nose was or what color his eyes were. It doesn't mean that if he had been on his toes, he could have captured the fingerprint of God. In fact, when this event unfolds, the only visual description given is that of the cloud. The whole event is audible, God proclaiming his character. If God is not a man and if he is invisible, as all of scripture confirms, then this would be experiential language, the same way we talk of the sun rising and setting, rather than the earth's rotation on its axis. The hand of God would speak of the experience of the strength, protection, and tender care of God. To see the face of someone in the bible usually means that you are experiencing their favor, and to have them turn their back on you has the same metaphorical message that it does in our language; it means they are no longer paying attention to you; they have abandoned you. In this passage, it seems that a full experience of God in his undiminished glory would be too much for any mortal to survive; all that we could handle is the effects that remain after he has passed by.

Presence of God in the Context of Covenant Relationship

It is very instructive to observe carefully how the narrative unfolds. Moses asks to be shown the glory of God, and God describes the confirming experience he will have, but the actual experience will have to wait until verse 5 of the next chapter. First comes verses 1-4.

Exodus 34:1 The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone.

Remember, the covenant had been broken. The people had sinned a grievous sin. They had quickly turned away from God, so God had removed himself from his people. Now, if his presence is to return, the covenant must be remade. There is no experience of the grace of God, no enjoying the presence of God outside of a covenant relationship with God. God is about to preach the good news of himself in one of the most powerful ways in the whole Old Testament, but first the stone tablets must be remade.

New Covenant Relationship

God reveals himself in the context of covenant relationship. God's goodness and grace is experienced by those who are in his covenant community. We get to know him through our interaction with him as we walk in obedience to him. This is an amazing truth for us who are members of God's new covenant community. Jesus taught that to enter his kingdom we must born of the Spirit (Jn.3). Paul says that God “has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2Cor.3:6). He tells us that we are “a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2Cor.3:3)

The beginning of the gospel of John describes Jesus, and what it means to enter into this new covenant relationship with him.

John 1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Those who receive Jesus as their king, those who trust him, who depend on him, are given the right to become children of God, part of this new covenant community, those who were born of God. And we see, in the context of this new covenant community, the fullest revelation of the character and nature of God.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ... 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Moses' prayer was “Please show me your glory” We who have experienced the new birth have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. We are the recipients from his fullness of grace upon grace. No one has ever seen the Father. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. We may read the spectacular account of Moses in the cleft of the rock and become a little bit envious. Moses has nothing on us!

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Jesus, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. To know the character and nature of Jesus is to know the Father. Oh! To know Jesus more!