“And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.” (Exo. 33:17-18)
Whenever I read this passage of scripture, I am intrigued at Moses brazen confidence in his dialogue here with God. It would be beneficial to go back to Moses earlier encounter with God in Exodus 3 and 4. We hear Moses call himself “a man of slow speech”. We see a man who in his reluctance to answer God’s call point out every limitation he can about himself. Yet in Chapter 33 we see a man who has grown in so much confidence because of his understanding and relationship with God. Moses had gone from a man of little faith to a man oozing with shameless confidence, in his dependence on God.
Moses had seen God’s glory in different ways; he saw God’s glory in the burning bush, in the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt, the dividing of the red sea. In Exodus 24:9-11 we are told he dined with God with 70 other elders of Israel. Yet Moses was not satisfied with all of these, they were all of God’s acts. He believed there was more of God that he had not known, and was anxious to know that part of God which had eluded him.
Have you been to that place where you are no more satisfied with just the acts of God? But you want to know HIM beyond His actions.
Moses asked to see God’s glory; many would have asked him, what more do you want of God’s glory? Haven’t you seen enough? But Moses wanted the best of God; He wanted to see His glory.
The word glory conveys the idea of weight. This was an even greater presence of God than anyone had ever experienced, not even Moses had ever experienced this. He was asking for God’s best, the heaviest, the biggest, the grandest of all, something that went beyond God’s mighty and awesome acts. Moses was probably saying to God come out from behind the clouds, let me see your beauty, let me see your face, I have seen your hands but I long to see your face.
In Psalm 103:8 David acknowledges this; “God you made your ways known to Moses but your acts to the children of Israel”
It is time for the church like Moses to want God’s best, let the church go past the place of His acts to wanting His best. We have camped here for too long, there is more to God than the building, and if He was in the building we will not be able to do anything other than bow in His presence. We are told in Exodus 40:34-35, “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”
In 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD'S house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.”
I challenge us like Moses not to be satisfied with anything less than the grandest, the biggest, and the weightiest of God’s presence, His GLORY.
