37 GOD'S GLORY

Moses, having returned to the door of the heavenly tabernacle, becomes a humble supplicant there for two very great favors as a prince, like Jacob and anyone today who knows how to pray earnestly in Jesus’ name and authority has power with God. He is very earnest with God for His presence with Israel in the rest of their march to Canaan in spite of Israel’s sin with the golden calf. The people had by their sin deserved the anger of God, and Moses had already successfully prevailed in that prayer. But they had also forfeited God’s favorable presence, and all the benefit and comfort of that, and Moses is here pleading for this too to return. So we often obtain not only the removal of the curse, but also an assurance of the blessing; we are not only saved from ruin, but become entitled to everlasting happiness. Moses insists on the commission God had given him in verse 12, “Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have been telling me, “Lead these people,” but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, “I know you by name and you have found favor with me.”’” I am trying to do my duty; and may I not have your presence with me in that? Whom God calls to any service He will be sure to support with His presence and necessary assistance. “Now, Lord, you have ordered me to a great work, and yet left me at a loss as to how to go about it and to go through with it.” Those who sincerely intend and seek to do their duty may in faith beg for God’s direction and strength to do it. “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people” (13). Moses knew the Lord had recently been very displeased with His people, but pleads here on the bases of his own personal right-standing with God, “If you are pleased with me.” What favor God had expressed to the people they had forfeited, there was no insisting on that; and therefore Moses lays the stress of his plea on what God had said to him, as though to say, “Lord, if ever you will do any thing for me, do this for the people.” This is the spirit of a true leader. Divine direction is one of the best evidences of divine favor and Moses had it. The offended father considers this, “My child is foolish and stubborn, but he is my child, and I cannot abandon him.”

Moses expresses the great value he placed on the presence of God. In verse 15 he pled, “Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” This was similar to Jacob’s prayer, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” He speaks as one that dreaded the thought of going forward without God’s presence, knowing that their marches and encampments could not be safe, if they did not have God with them. “Better lie down and die here in the wilderness than go forward to Canaan without God’s presence.” In this way God’s gracious promises, and the advances of mercy towards us, should not only encourage our faith, but excite our fervency in prayer. He concludes with an argument taken from God’s glory and confesses his great need for God to remain with him and Israel as verse 16 says, “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?” Let it never be said that we are a peculiar people, and highly favored, for we stand on the same level with our neighbors unless you go with us. Sending an angel with us will not serve; we need You, Yourself.” He lays a stress on the place—“here in this wilderness, where you have led us, and where we will certainly be lost if you leave us.” God’s special presence with us in our wilderness too, by His Spirit and grace, to direct, defend, and comfort us, is a sure pledge of His special love for us and will bring glory to Him and benefits to us.

In response to his prayer Moses receives more than he asked for, the promise of God’s presence and rest as verse 14 says, “The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’” Moses never entered Canaan, and yet God made good His word that He would give him rest. Moses was not content, however, with that answer which gave favor to himself only, he must gain a promise, an express promise, for the people too, or he is not at rest. Gracious and generous souls know it is not enough to get to heaven themselves, but would have all their friends also go there. And God promises this too as verse 17 says, “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.’” Moses is not stopped as an unreasonable beggar, to whom God would say, “no.” God grants answers as long as we ask because God gives liberally, and does not criticize us. My friend, see the power of prayer, and be quickened by it to ask and seek and knock and to continue regularly in prayer, to pray always and not to faint. See the riches of God’s goodness. When He has done much, yet He is willing to do more: I will do this also—above what we are able to ask or think. Now we arrive at a sobering sentence. God says, it is purely Moses’ own merit, not any thing in those for whom he intercedes; it is because you have found grace in my sight. And now the matter is settled, God is perfectly reconciled to them, His presence in the pillar of cloud returns to them and will continue with them; all is well again, and from this conversation forward we hear no more of the golden calf. God hears the prayer of a selfless intercessor and blesses others for his sake, in answer to his prayer.

Having gained this answer to his great satisfaction, Moses next asks for something I would naturally think was a most preposterous request, except that I, myself, have often asked the same thing and received many evidences of God’s answer. You can ask for it too. What was it? It is in verse 18, “Then Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory.’” Moses had recently been on the mount with God many days. He had continued there a long time, and had enjoyed as intimate a communion with God as ever any man on this side heaven could imagine and yet he is still desiring to know God better. All that are effectually called to the knowledge of God and who fellowship closely with Him in an unhurried way, though they desire nothing more than God, are nevertheless still eager to have more and more of Him. Moses had wonderfully prevailed with God for one favor after another, and the success of his prayers emboldened him to go on still to seek God more. The more he had the more he asked. When we are confidently and joyfully standing or bowing before the throne of grace, we should try to persevere and improve our advantage and opportunity and strike while the iron is hot. “Now show me your glory.” This was not that he was so ignorant as to think God’s essence could be seen with bodily eyes; but, having until then only heard a voice out of a pillar of cloud or fire, he hoped to see whatever representation of the divine glory God saw fit with which to gratify him. If it was purely for the strengthening his faith and devotion, the desire was certainly commendable, but is is also possible that there was in it an admission of human weakness and that too is good.

The gracious reply God made to this request. God denied what was not fit to be granted, and which Moses could not bear as verse 20 says, “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”” A full discovery of the glory of God would quite overpower the faculties of any mortal man in this present state, and overwhelm him even Moses himself. Mankind is common and unworthy of it, weak and could not bear it, guilty and could not but dread it. To see God’s face is an honor reserved for the future state, to be the eternal happiness of holy souls. Should men here and now know what it is, they possibly might not be content to live without it. There is a knowledge and enjoyment of God which must be waited for in another world when we will see Him as He is as 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” God did make and keep this promise, however, which is recorded in verse 19, “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.’” God had given Moses wonderful demonstrations of His goodness in being reconciled to Israel: but that was only goodness in the stream, but now He would show Moses His goodness in the spring—all His goodness at the Source of that stream. This was a sufficient answer to Moses’ request. “Show me your glory,” says Moses. “I will show you my goodness,” says God. God’s goodness is His glory; and He evidently wants us to know Him by the glory of His mercy more than by the glory of His majesty. We rejoice in the majesty of God, but we rejoice more in the mercy of God. His mercy benefits us more than His majesty. God’s reasons for exercising mercy are drawn from within himself. He is merciful. His mercy does not depend on or come from any merit in His creatures. We don’t deserve it, but we benefit immensely from it. Interestingly, it is never said, “I will be angry at whom I will be angry,” for His wrath is always just and holy; but “I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” for His grace is always free.

What did God want to say and did say to Moses in verses 6 and 7 as He passed by? I will emphasize the key words that show what the fair and righteous character of God. “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”” Many more positive merciful things are stated than the  hard reality of justice. Now that God is about to publish a second edition of the law, He prefaces it with this proclamation; for it is God’s goodness that gives the good law, the corrective law. God had pardoned them merely out of His own good pleasure, not for their merits’ sake, but from His own inclination to forgive. The proclaiming of it suggests the universal extent of God’s mercy. He is not only good to Israel, but good to all; let all take notice of it. God is a great God. He is Jehovah, the Lord, who has His being of Himself and is the fountain of all being,

Moses came down from the mount, greatly enriched and miraculously adorned. He came down enriched with the best treasure, the good law of God given to benefit us. Remember, we learned in chapter thirty-five that God’s laws were good for us. Moses now brings in his hands the two tables of the law, written with the finger of God. It is a great favor to have the law given us; this favor was shown to Israel and God has blessed the world through the descendants of Abraham as He promised to Abraham. The law is our schoolmaster; it teaches us what God wants and what is good for us. It is a great honor for any of us to be engaged in delivering God’s good law to others, an honor that here was first given to Moses. His face shown with the glory of his experience on the mount this second time. This second time on the mount he received the same law as he had received before, but he saw more of the glory of God and it showed from his face. The first time he came down from the mount with the glory of a judge which Israel needed then, to frown on and chastise Israel’s idolatry, but this second time it was with the glory of an angel, with a message of peace and reconciliation. Then he came with a rod, but now with the spirit of meekness.

As Moses came down this second time his face glowed which was a great honor given to Moses. Here are three important observations regarding Moses’ glowing face and the veil he put over his face. 1. The humble Moses was not aware of it himself as verse 29 says, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.” Some, though their faces shine in true grace, yet do not know it or take comfort from it. Their friends see much of God in them, but they themselves are ready to think they have no grace. It is their humility that, though their faces shine in wonderful gifts and usefulness, yet they do not know it and are not puffed up with it. 2. In modesty and humility he put a veil on his face. We must be content to have our excellences obscured, and a veil drawn over them. Anyone who truly desires to be owned, accepted and used by God will likewise not want to be noticed or applauded by men. The veil also teaches ministers to accommodate themselves to the capacities of people, and to preach to them as they are able to understand and receive it. 3. When Moses went in before the Lord, to speak with him in the tabernacle of meeting, he put off the veil as verse 34 says, “But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,” he did not need the veil in God’s presence because every man does and must appear unveiled before God. All things are naked and open in God’s eyes and it is silly for us to think of concealing or disguising anything in front of God. Every veil must be thrown aside when we come to present ourselves before the Lord. This will force us to be honest with ourselves and that will help us become a better leader of God’s people.

Seeing and experiencing the glory of God will make us better Christian leaders. When we have been alone with God, we should let our light shine before men, in humility and meekness so that the beauty of our God may be seen in us. Remember Act 4:13 which says, “When they (the Sanhedrin) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” If we want to see and reflect God’s glory, we need to spend time alone with Him. Then we can lead God’s people.