This Sunday our journey through the Sermon on the Mount was “interrupted” by a Scripture that was read during our time of worship and intercession, Exodus 33. As worship came to a close Abie felt it was necessary to expound upon Exodus 33 in light of how the Holy Spirit had led in worship. Exodus 33, God’s interaction with Moses after Israel’s first corporate bout with idolatry (the golden calf) reveals two points of beauty in God’s character, His grace and His glory. God said to Israel twice in the passage that He could come and consume them, but in both instances He gave them an opportunity for repentance. God’s judgment reveals His grace, when He reveals and convicts of sin, when He disciplines, and even chastises us as children He is revealing His grace. I firmly believe that grace can’t and won’t be realized where the reality of judgment is not recognized. God made clear to Israel that He was fully capable of destroying them not to vent His anger but to reveal His grace.
After much discussion with Moses God agreed to go with Israel, to not withdraw His presence and in that moment Moses was not content with the promise that God would not leave, he asked, “Please, show me Your glory.” That request was not one of pride or a desire for blessing; it was a request for intimacy, for communion and for a new depth of relationship that had been forged in prayer in the secret place. “Show me your glory” should be the cry of our hearts, it should be the next thing uttered when grace is realized, and it should be the desire that drives us. There is something that Moses knew that I think we need to learn, seeing the glory of God is not a worship experience it is a transformation that both provides and requires obedience. God’s glory is not a feeling, it is not a manifestation, and it is not a pleasure to be strived for; it is seeing His beauty in a manner that burns away our foolish longings, seeing His power in a way that humbles our prideful thoughts, seeing His humility in a way that removes our hasty requests and bent toward disappointment and seeing His love in a way that sets our hearts aflame. I believe that Moses was well aware that seeing God’s glory carried the heavy weight of being changed by it, I believe Moses counted that cost and wanted not only to see God’s glory but to be changed by God’s glory. There is also something that I believe we should be aware of that Moses was not in the moment he uttered this request, seeing the glory of God is seeing Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, He is the only Way to the Father, He is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, the firstborn from the dead, the second Adam, and the Beginning and the End. I believe that when Isaiah wrote “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.” he was announcing and prophesying the coming of Jesus the Messiah. When we ask to see God’s glory we are asking to see Jesus and when we see Jesus is it not to make us feel better it is to call us to greater obedience, greater love and greater intimacy. I pray that these few minutes in Exodus 33 will prick your heart, that the Holy Spirit that inspired the Scripture to be written will inspire us to hear His Words and that we will seek the glory of God because we are fully aware that we have received the grace of God. John wrote “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” The fullness of our transformation will not be complete until we see Jesus face to face, but we can begin being transformed today, by looking at His face through Scripture, by asking to see His glory in prayer and by allowing the conviction and grace of the Holy Spirit to mold and shape us into His image. Today, I pray that God’s outpouring of grace will give you a thirst for His glory and that His glory will change you into the likeness of His Son.