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Please read: Exodus 33:12-23
Now show me Your glory.
Exodus 33:18
The glory of God is “that aspect of … God worthy of praise, honour, or respect”
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible.
Moses had seen something of the glory of God e.g. at the burning bush (Exodus 3); in the plagues (Ex. 7-11); the Exodus (Ex. 12:31-14:31) and at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19-31). But now the people of Israel had seriously sinned in making a Golden Calf and God was no longer going to go with them but rather He would send an angel to accompany them through the Wilderness and onto the Promised Land:
“I will send an angel before you …Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
Exodus 33:2-3
This greatly distressed the people and Moses began to intercede for an assurance that God would go with them, and the Lord relents and assures him:
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest”. Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Exodus 33:14-17
But Moses wants more:
“Now show me Your glory”.
Exodus 33:18
And God gives him this request also but with a limit on it,
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” He said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in 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.”
Exodus 33:19-23
Let us all seek for more of the glory of God at Bethel!
Quote of the week
“What is the glory of God? The answer is as infinite as God’s glory itself!”
J. M. Hamilton
Verse of the week
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
Let’s Pray
Father in heaven, let more and more of Your glory fall upon us once more in this nation. Pour out Your Holy Spirit in and through Jesus Christ, Amen!