The Pastor's Letter (October 1978)
Dear Friends,
The word of God is full of many great requests that the people of God have made before their God in all generations. Of all the great requests of the Word of God, there is probably none greater than the one that Moses made, as he stood before God in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and said, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory;" (Exodus chapter 33 verse 18). That was, surely, a great request, and a daring request; and it came as the culmination of a time where Moses has been setting before God one great request after another.
The children of Israel have greatly sinned against the Lord who has brought them out of Egypt. Moses has gone up Sinai to receive the Law, and in his absence, the people have set up the golden calf. There follow God's threats and punishments, but Moses comes time and time again, interceding on behalf of the people until, finally his prayers are acknowledged, and Moses might well have had the opportunity to relax and rejoice in the atmosphere of answered prayer. But he doesn't. And, in fact, the last thing that Moses is apparently going to do is leave-off asking from God his heart's desire. So, that desire comes in the 18th verse of the 33rd chapter of Exodus: - "And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory." What a request! What a great request.
Now, what exactly Moses meant in his great request must be drawn from the context of what follows. And it appears that he has requested some kind of "tangible", or "physical" manifestation and appearance of God. A sight on earth such as may only be realised in heaven. But whatever the exact nature of the request, it is the motive, and the desire underlying the request that serves as an example for every generation of the Lord's people. What really falls from the lips of Moses are the heart-breathings of the Lord's faithful in all ages - when they would know the Lord more and more to the blessing of their souls. Like Job; "O that I knew where I might find him." Like the old hymn-writer;
"More about Jesus would I know."
And a very significant point about Moses' request here is this - that the reason that he wants to see the Lord's glory is because he has seen the Lord's glory! He has seen much; he longs to see more. He has been forty days and nights on Sinai; he has seen wondrous things and heard wondrous things. But the more he sees, the more he wants to see. He has become accustomed to asking God for His grace and favour, and it seems the more he asks, the more he receives - and so, he asks for more; "I beseech thee, O Lord, show me thy glory."
It's a word that ought to find consideration in our hearts and minds today - in this day of the Church's life on earth. In the general run of things, one of the least features of our age is the presence of the glory of God in the midst of His people. How much do we strive after an enhanced view of the glory of our Maker? And it would appear that, perhaps, we are on a "vicious circle" - one that is running anti-clockwise to Moses' at that point. As a people, have little experience of any real presence of the glory of God among them, so there is nothing to urge them to seek more of that glory. May the Lord give us all such a taste of His glory in our day that we learn the great request of Moses of long ago; "I beseech thee, show me thy glory."
Now, on the back of Moses' great request that day, you get God's great reply to that request; and I don't think we should miss that at all. (Exodus 33 verses 19 to 20) "And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live."
God then undertakes to place Moses in the "cleft of a rock" that is nearby and to "cover" him with His hand until He passes by, only removing His hand in order to allow Moses to see His back as He moves on.
The incident is a famous one. But the important thing to grasp is that, ultimately, God's glory is displayed to Moses, not so much in what Moses sees, but in what Moses hears! The whole incident rests on the declarations that God makes about Himself in His attributes and character; verse 19 - "And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee ..." And once the actual display takes place, in the next chapter, it is the relating of the glory of God in His character that dominates; - "And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed - The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," etc. God is especially glorified in the declaration of what He is as revealed in His truth. And that view of God's glory is open to any of the Lord's people with a heart to desire it, and a faith to see it within that truth.
Here is one of the great downfalls within our churches today: people are so often looking for the spectacular instead of listening for the glorious. "Will you see my glory, Moses? Then here is what I will do; 'I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.'" And when God's reply is given in the next chapter, it is the word, not the sight, that causes Moses to bow in adoration before the God who has declared what He is in His person and work. And if we ask what it is that God declares Himself to be there, it is this: a glorious sovereign, and a gracious saviour. The world revolves on its two "poles," and the glory of God revolves on those two mighty arms. God is a just God and a saviour; He is gracious, and He is glorious. Either of these is minimised at our absolute peril.
When George Gillespie opened that meeting of the Westminster divines in prayer, it was that prayer that formed the basis of the answer to the question that those men were trying to answer for the Shorter Catechism: "What is God?" "O God," George Gillespie had prayed, "Thou art a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." And who can we possibly conceive of a God who is not something like that? We always need to go back - back beyond ourselves; back beyond men at all - back beyond Adam, when there were only the angels of God. But back yet; back beyond the angels, and beyond any created being or thing, when there was only God! We are to listen to the silence! There is nothing; only God in all the fulness of the Godhead. He is a sovereign God; an all-glorious God.
He is a gracious Saviour, as well. Wasn't it a gracious word that God spoke to Moses that day: and wasn't it a gracious illustration of God's coming graciousness in Jesus Christ His Son that God gave to Moses that day for us? "Stand upon a rock," says the Lord to him, "and I will put thee in a cleft of the rock." He was surrounded by a rock, you see: that rock was roof, and floor, and walls on either side and behind him. God put him in that rock, and from that vantage point he was to realise the greatness of God and the graciousness of God - those two "arms" that gathered within them all the glory of God that Moses could contain at that present hour.
We need only note, Moses' great response to all this; Exodus 34 verse 8 - "And Moses made haste, and bowed his head towards the earth, and worshipped."
May we learn to worship God in our day. Beseeching God that we might see His glory more and more. Realising that that glory is enveloped within those two mighty aspects of our God revealed for us in all His Holy Word. His sovereignty and His saviourhood; His greatness and His goodness towards us. The apostle Paul, although in a Roman prison, wasn't cut off from that sight. After reviewing God's grace towards him, "Now," says he, "unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,