Liz Schauer

This morning I was reading through Exodus, mostly out of a spirit of discipline, half expecting to learn some random facts about how to build the tabernacle, not fully expecting God to speak. Chapter after chapter of instructions about priestly garments and sacrifices passed by when I arrived at chapters 33 and 34.

Moses’ journey with God fascinates me. God pursues Moses, and Moses, reluctantly at first, follows. I see it as an incredibly unique friendship – Moses knows that he is not worthy and yet God continues to patiently walk with him into deeper intimacy. Moses becomes the spokesperson for his community. The man who was afraid to declare God’s Word to Pharaoh becomes the only man to obey the Lord as the rest of his Israelite family worships a calf made of gold (ch 32).

Moses meets with God face to face. He pleads for mercy. He reminds God of the covenant he made with Abraham. They appear to be good friends. In fact, Scripture says,

The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. 33:11

What an incredible blessing that must have been! As we see shortly after that declaration, Moses is not quite satisfied. Moses met with God face to face, and yet he knew there was more. He boldly says,

Please show me your glory. 33:18

The Lord replies with a no. He said that his face shall not be seen (33:23). I was incredibly confused – just a few short verses ago, we were told that Moses and God spoke face to face. Now, God is saying that no one can see his face.

Moses was on a path of increasing revelation of God. He met him at the burning bush, he met him on the mountain, he met him in the tent of meeting, he pleaded with God, but he wanted more. He wanted to experience the fullness of God, God’s glory. Glory in the Hebrew is כָּבֹד, kaw-bode’. It means weight and splendor; it implies a heaviness that we cannot hold.

After a warning, God invites Moses onto the mountain and makes a profound declaration:

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. 34:6-7

The Lord gives Moses a sliver of a description of who he is. Moses response?

Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” 34:8-9

Moses boldly asked to see the weight of God’s splendor. He hungered for more of God. When God passed in front of him and made a declaration of his faithful love and mercy, Moses’ perspective was placed back in order. God is holy, his glory is heavy, and we are stiff-necked people who can only plead for God to come in our midst.

I want to continually hunger for more of God. Sometimes I become spoiled because meeting with God seems normal. When I pray, he answers. When I read Scripture, he speaks. When I worship, he meets with me. Rarely do I step back and realize that, although meeting with God should be a consistent thing, it is not a right, it is a blessing bought by the precious blood of Jesus. I am so sinful, I fail daily, and yet the Lord has mercy on me. He forgives me and meets with me. Jesus made it possible and it cost him his life. I like to believe that because of the great price he paid, his greatest desire is for us to seek him in his fullness. He made a way and so I want to humbly pursue everything he is with everything that I am.