Moses’ prayer was something that you would think God would be delighted to answer, all he wanted according to Exodus 33:18 was, “Now show me your glory.”
God said no, he didn’t let him see it. The next few verses God says, “I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.”
This is a very odd passage to say the least. Doesn’t God want his people to see his glory?
Of course, he does, but one thing God says to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” God knows the truth, and truth is that his glory is too wonderful for a sinful man to behold. His purity will consume us in our fallen nature. There is an arrogance about us that believes we are on par with the eternal one himself. Some of us actually think we know just as much as he. Some cultural crusaders even act as if they are more understanding and tolerant than God himself.
But God is Holy, and his glory is like nothing we have ever seen. It is terrifying and dreadful.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, said that even now, God continues to hide his glory from us. And the only way he allows us to see him is through the cross. He compares the cross to seeing the backside of God. “God refuses to be seen in any other way, both for our protection and to put down the pride of arrogance in us.”
Paul says a very interesting thing in Colossians 2:18, ” Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.” There are many Christians that are seeking to behold the glory of God in visions and moments of ecstatic leaps of wonder, they desire to be overwhelmed emotionally at the contemplation of the Holy. But Luther says all of that is fiddle-sticks because it tends to “puff up”, it makes us believe we can see the face of God as we are and live.
Don’t forget, on this side of heaven, you still will die in the presence of God.
God wants to be known through the cross. It displays his mercy and our pride, his compassion and our arrogance – – it is the only message we need to know for now. We need to be humbled before we can be dazzled. That is why the message of the cross is all Paul wanted to proclaim because it is “folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”
The way of glory is through the cross. You need to die before you can be raised to new life.
So if you will allow me to be brutally honest, come to church to first and foremost consider the cross. Stop chasing tears. Visions of glory do less for you than conviction of sin. Humility and service is more a sign of the presence of God than miracles. Can God do extraordinary, miraculous things that make you go ‘Wow”? Sure he can, but so can the Devil.
But the Devil hates the cross. He doesn’t want to suffer, or die, or wait patiently for the salvation of the Lord. The Devil is a showboat, a false glory monger, a being of tinsel and lights. God hides in the shadow of the cross. That is where you find real glory.
It is his backside.
