And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3: 18, NRSV
Holy Father, we thank You for the aid of Your Holy Spirit as we study Your Word. Amen
Yesterday we took the text and gave it a possible twenty-first century application. Today, we are going to look at the text within its context. and in so doing, we will look at another aspect of this beautiful promise: the reason Moses was allowed to see the glory of the LORD. In Exodus, chapter 33, we read, “Then Moses said, ‘Now show me Your glory’ ” (18, Today’s New International Version). God had asked Moses to go before the Israelites to the land that He would give them. Moses said, ” ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here…’ ” (15, TNIV). God promised that He would do as Moses requested (17). That is when Moses asked to see God’s glory.
We are never the same after we have seen the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 6)! “Then He said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you…’ And the Lord said, ‘Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by…’ ” (Exodus 33: 19, 21, 22). Oh, how great is His glory! So great that He must cover us with His hand! I wonder if Moses knew what was in store for him when he asked to see God’s glory. I wonder if any of us really know what to expect when we make certain requests of God.
“Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before Him and proclaimed, ‘the LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (34: 5-8).
When they saw the glory of the Lord, and heard His name proclaimed (grace. patience, abundance of mercy and truth, forgiveness, without overlooking sin; punishing the guilty in every generation), Isaiah exclaimed “…I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6: 5)! Moses “worshipped,” and acknowledged their sins “even though we are a stiffnecked people…pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as [Y]our inheritance” (Exodus 34: 8, 9). When we see His glory, and hear His name proclaimed, mercy and justice will kiss each other. Then we will be inspired to confess our sins and to fall down and “worship Him.”
The reason Moses saw God’s glory was because he asked to see it; and his face reflected the glory. When we sincerely ask to see God’s glory we will see it, and others will take notice that we have been with the Lord!