A curious commandment.
Exodus 33:18–34:3 (ESV)
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 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. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 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. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
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. 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. 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.”
Moses’ request to see God’s glory is almost childlike. He just made a wonderful personal appeal to God’s mercy and won a reprieve for the people of Israel. God’s going to accompany them on their journey to the Promised Land. Now he just blurts out a request to see God’s glory.
What does “show me your glory,” mean anyway? From God’s response, we see that it must mean seeing God without veiling. Seeing His face would be more glory than even Moses can handle, so he only gets to see the LORD’s back. Still, God does grant this unique request.
God also gives Moses a mulligan on the stone tablets. Moses never asked for permission to destroy God’s handwork, nor for forgiveness for doing it. He doesn’t ask for replacements either.
But God replaces them, while letting Moses off the hook for his impetuous temper tantrum. This is beautiful “child of God” stuff. Sure, Moses is imperfect—he has been and will be error-prone—but here, he’s just being himself. He loves the LORD, and he’s speaking from the heart. He’s following the greatest commandment, which he will later record in Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV).
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
There’s a curious twist to this. “Love God with all your might,” sounds like it takes effort. Yet Moses asking to see God’s glory doesn’t take any effort.
Right; this part doesn’t take any effort. Simple infatuation-love is a gift, one we should ask for.
The other part of loving God is obeying His commands. That does take work. Still, it isn’t exactly effort-based either. Sure, if we make a mockery of Jesus’ lordship, that’s a disaster, but if we rely on our own strength to be the Christians He wants us to be, we fall into a trap.
We need to ask for the strength and the focus to grow in Christ so as to serve Him better. Ask for that too.
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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays’ by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NASB stands for the New American Standard Bible. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.
