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Seeing the Glory of God
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Moses was one of the most unique individuals in all of history. He was chosen by God to do amazing things. Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and slavery while the man who was, arguably, the most powerful man on earth stood by helplessly. Pharaoh had done everything he knew to do, but he had been brought to submission by a preacher who didn’t even do most of his own talking. Even when Pharaoh changed his mind about letting Israel go, and sent his army out to retrieve them, they were destroyed by God, seemingly at the hands of Moses, at the Red Sea. And then Moses single-handedly led these people through the desert of Sinai for forty years. And all the while, as the verse just prior to our text says: “The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with a friend.”
And that is where we find Moses in our text: conversing with God. God has explained how Moses has found favor with Him. Favor, by the way, is the Old Testament word for “grace.” And Moses is making use of that favor. Much of what Moses says is well-pleasing to God. He asks God to be with His people as they make their way toward the Promised Land. God graciously promises to go with his people, though He warns Moses that they are a stiff-necked people and that His presence with His people will be hard for them to bear. But for the sake of his servant, God will go with the people, and he promises Moses rest.
But then, Moses makes this request: “Please show me your glory.” Moses was asking for something he could not understand. The glory of God is not what Moses expected. He wanted to see something a human could comprehend. But God explained to Moses that what he was asking wasn’t possible. And so, God said to him: “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 you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” What Moses wanted to see was the undiminished glory of God. He wanted to look upon God and fully understand Him. And what God meant in response, was not that no one could see Him, but that no one could see Him as He is, in all His power and glory and holiness. In the Scriptures, God showed himself to various people in various ways. But when those people saw God, they saw what He wanted them to see, so that they would believe what He said to them. None of them, however, saw God fully as He is. So God gave Moses only what he could see and still live.
In the same way, because no man can see God’s face and live, God veiled His glory in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Jesus is no less the glory of God; that glory is just filtered through His human nature so that we human beings can see Him. The glory of God is not chiefly in His power; the glory of God is in His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, in all that He has done to redeem us from sin and death.
God’s glory is in the suffering of the cross! His grace is such that Jesus set aside, for the moment, all that it is to be God, and willingly took on human limitations and human flesh and blood and became man. At the same time, of course, He was and is fully God. But for us and for our salvation, He permitted Himself to endure being born as an infant, to growing slowly as a child, to living humbly as a man—a man who had neither wealth nor influence in the circles of His day. He endured human sin and unbelief. He would suffer ridicule and torture and be cruelly executed on the cross for us to satisfy the justice of God and to endure that wrath of God against sin and sinners. He died in your place; He paid for your sins; He redeemed you, setting you free from sin, enabling you to live as God’s people should live. You don’t have to look like you deserve salvation, nor do you need to have a lot of the stuff of this world to know that the love of God is with you. You need only look to the cross, and take God at His Word, and trust in His promises.
And so, if you want to see the glory of God, then look at the cross, where the Son of God endured the unendurable for you. Look at the Baptismal font, where God called you by name and took you as His own dear child in Jesus Christ. Then look at the altar and the Holy Supper, where the Son of God feeds you with His true body and blood. Finally, look around you at this holy fellowship into which He has gathered you. Don’t be deceived by appearances or the size of the crowd; instead, look and believe all that God has spoken about these things and all the things He has promised about them, and you will be seeing the glory of God! In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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