To know God. To understand him. To be intimate with your creator. To come close to God and be enfolded and embraced in his love. To experience God and to know the ultimate reality that is God.
Well, that is what you were made for. That is why you exist. That is what your heart yearns for.
The chief end of every human is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our souls are restless until they find rest in God. And everything else is unsatisfying. I can’t get no satisfaction…. Though I try, and I try and I try.
There is something religious about being a rock star or a sporting hero. It is no accident that religious language is used of them. ‘Australian Idol’, ‘Hallowed turf’, ‘Holy ground’. Rock stars and sporting heroes rightly love the glory of their stage. The bright lights, the cheers, the adulation of the fans. But it fades. Why is it that Rock Star lifestyle involves ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’? Why is it that our sport’s stars seem forever involved in drug and sex scandals.
Here’s my theory. Because after the high of making it, of winning the premiership, or of reaching the top, there is the reality that it doesn’t last. The high doesn’t satisfy. And they come back to earth with a crash.
You know, none of us are rock stars or sporting heroes. You might never hear the crowd calling your name. But you are promised a glory that outshines everything this world has to offer. In the gospel, you are offered the very thing your heart yearns for. The glory of God in the face of Christ.
Last week we looked at Exodus 32. With the 'I do's' still echoing out', Israel has just committed the adultery of idolatry on the wedding night. With Aaron, the mediator in training, acting the pimp. Aaron made the golden calf, Israel rejoiced and worshipped, and after a feast, commenced a religious orgy.
Now, Yahweh has listened to Moses' mediation. He has not wiped out the nation. But he did show his anger. At the hand of the Levites, he put to death 3000 idolators. And at his own hand, he has sent a plague amongst the people. These were surgical scourings, to purge the people of the wickedness.
But it seems that God sees something more ominous in this sin. Despite cleansing his people, despite putting to death most of the idolators (though we note that Aaron still lived for a while longer), despite God not seeking an anullment and revoking the covenant, Yahweh takes notice of his brides heart.
She is stiff necked. There is a heart problem with Israel. She is stubborn when it comes to her God. Her heart is prone to wander to other gods. The heart of the problem here is the problem of the human heart. Sinful folly beats in Israel's breast. Re-offending will return. It is only a matter of time.
So there is now a problem with trust and intimacy. We pick it up in Chapter 33 verse 1:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants. ’" (Exodus 33:1 NIV)
No longer is God saying, ''You will be my people and I will be your God". Now Israel is the people Moses brought up.
Yahweh is also reticent to accompany his people himself. He considers sending a delegate. He is not minded to be intimately involved himself. 'I'll Send an Angel.' Verse 3:
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 33:3 NIV)
It is for the people's own good that he won't go with them. For Israel's God is a consuming fire. And if Israel won't respect him for who this God is, he cannot go with them. They will be destroyed.
And God gets the people to remove their ornaments (verses 4-6). In part, to stop them re-offending. Because it was with their earings that they made the calf idol. And in part to show their sorrow . Now is not the time to get dressed to the nines. Now is a time to mourn, in sack cloth and ashes.
And so like a shamed teenager, like a naughty school girl, Israel takes off her jewelry and makeup. And waits outside the principal's office. As Yahweh decides what to do with her.
One of the marks of intimacy is just being together, and talking together. Not necessarily for any purpose, just because you enjoy each other's company. We'd call it hanging out. And while all of Israel doesn't enjoy that intimacy with God, Moses did.
Before God gave the pattern of the tabernacle, there was another tent where God would meet Moses. Moses called it the 'tent of meeting'. And Joshua the Son of Nun, Moses right hand man, always tended this tent.
This tent was placed outside the camp. That in itself showed there was already some distance between Yahweh and his people Israel. Yahweh's earliest meetings with Moses were outside the camp, not in the middle of the camp, as would occur at the tabernacle. Probably because of the dangers associated with having God in the midst of the people.
And while Yahweh's presence at the tabernacle would be permanent, his presence in Moses 'tent of meeting' outside the camp would be temporary. The pillar of cloud would come down when Moses went into the tent. Presumably the cloud would move after Moses left the tent. So it was a temporary, not a permanent, presence. It was a presence primarily for communication as we see in chapter 33 verse 11:
The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. (Exodus 33:11 NIV)
Only in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, called by God 'My beloved Son', and who called God 'Abba, Father', shows us a more intimate relationbship between man and God. Here, Moses is on par here with Abraham, who is called 'God's friend'.
Imagine, if you could talk to God face to face, as a man talks to his friend. What would you say to God?, to ask God a question, and God would answer audibly back, what would you say? There's alot, I'm sure, you and I would ask, and speak, and say, and wonder.
Perhaps it would be enough just to be a fly on the wall of these conversations.
Well, we can be a fly on the wall. Because the pivotal conversation between God and Moses is recorded for us.
Getting God Back: First Favour: Go With Us Yourself (Exodus 33:13-17)
Now, friends speak openly with each other. They speak from the heart. They do not necessarily speak like a logicians, from premises to conclusions. Not like lawyers prosecuting a legal case, who are guarded and careful in the words they choose, lest they give their opponent something to latch onto in reply. They are unguarded and open and pour their heart out. They sometimes speak more than they mean, in hyperbole and extreme language. They might go around and around as the consider the same problem, so that they come to agreement. They might repeat the same affirmations. And this circular, open way of speaking is evident here.
But Moses is speaking with a purpose. God has said he will not go up with his people to the promised land. Then Yahweh has said to his people, 'Wait until I know what to do with you.' And now, Moses wants to bring God round. He wants God himself to still go with his people. He doesn't want Yahweh to just send an angel, as useful as that might be. He wants the whole covenant relationship, 'I will be your God, and you will be my people'.
Using the marriage analogy, he doesn't want the pre-nup and separate domicile. He wants for Israel the shared home, the joint bank account, and the name change. He wants God himself to go with them.
So the first issue Moses wants to raise in this conversation is 'Will Yahweh actually go with his people?' And Moses secures a ‘Yes’ for his people from God. Verse 14:
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. ” (Exodus 33:14 NIV)
God says that he will personally lead, attend and escort the people into the promised land. In other words, Moses secures God's personal presence. Moses get's God back.
Getting God's Back: Second Favour: Show me Your Glory. Agreed But... (Exodus 33:18-23)
But Moses wants more. God going with Israel is good so far as it goes. But Moses wants the lot. Verse 18:
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory." (Exodus 33:18 NIV)
This is an extremely bold request. It shows the friendly terms Moses enjoyed with God, that he should even ask this. Moses wants to see God in all of his glory, splendor and majesty.
And God's answer is ... "Yes, but". Here Moses is pushing the friendship. There are limits on what even a friend can ask God to do.
Yes, Moses will see God's goodness. Yes, Moses will hear God proclaim his own name. But Moses will not see God's face. Exodus chapter 33 verses 20 to 23:
"But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. ” 21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 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. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen. ” (Exodus 33:20-23 NIV)
Now this in interesting. Because in verse 11 we read:
The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. (Exodus 33:11 NIV)
But now, we read verse 20:
You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.
Moses speaks face to face, but cannot see God's face. Moses does, and doesn't see God' face. It seems like a contradiction. But it really shows the limits of human language in talking about God.
God doesn't have a body. And if God doesn't have a body, he doesn't have a face. God is Spirit, not body. And as Spirit, God is invisible to the human eye.
So Yahweh really conversed with Moses in the tent of meeting. There was a to and fro, and a two way communication. But there was also an appropriate distance and reserve, we might even say a barrier, between Moses and Yahweh. Such a distance is appropriate between creature and creator.
God didn't reveal everything about himself to Moses. He is the immortal and invisible God (1 TImothy 1:17). He alone lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16 NIV).
Except Jesus. No one has ever seen God, except God the one and only Son. Jesus Christ is God the Son, who is at the Father's side, and has now in the gospel made God known (John 1:18). Jesus, the eternal Son has seen God. He beheld the Father's glory before the world began (John 17:5). And as the only Son of the Father, God from God and light from light, true God from true God, Jesus enjoyed uninterrupted fellowship with the Father from before the creation of the world.
But not Moses. Yahweh has revealed much to Moses. Moses has even been called something close to God's friend, as Abraham was. But he hasn't seen God's face. Jesus has. Moses hasn't.
So Moses got God back, but he only got God's back. He got God back in the sense that God would go personally with his people to the promised land. But he only got God's back in the sense that he could not see God's face. In the words of the old hymn:
Holy Holy Holy, though the darkness hide thee.
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.
['Holy Holy Holy', Reginald Heber (1783-1826), MP 237]
The eye of sinful man, Moses, will not see God's glory. For if even Moses gazes upon God's face, he will be destroyed. Our God is a consuming fire, even to his friend, Moses. Even if it is friendly fire, Moses will still be consumed.
So God arranges for Moses to see only enough of himself as would-be safe for Moses, creature and sinner, to see. And as for the rest, God himself will protect Moses. Moses will be covered in the cleft by God's hand . God himself will keep his friend safe from him.
For God is both danger and saviour. God is both the danger from which Moses needs to be saved, and God is Moses Saviour from that danger. Who do we need to be saved from? God. Who is the only one who can save us from God? God.
And of course, we see all this again with the salvation won by Jesus. Augustus Toplady saw in Jesus Christ the rock of refuge from God the consuming fire:
Rock of ages cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.
["Rock of Ages", Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-78), MP 582]
Friends, Toplady was right. Jesus Christ is the refuge provided by God from God's holy wrath. God is still a consuming fire. And the death of Jesus Christ is our burnt out patch. You all know the RFS fights fire with fire. All bush fire fighters know about back burning. They hear that the fire is coming. So they burn a patch of ground, knowing that the oncoming fire cannot burn that area twice. And so the bushfire is exhausted because the controlled burn off has already gone through and consumed the fuel.
And Jesus Christ is the way Yahweh fights his own consuming fire with fire. Jesus Christ is the back burning of God, our burnt out patch. For Jesus’ death was a propitiation, a sacrifice that turns away wrath. Just as a fire can only burn through an area twice. God the consuming fire already exhausted his anger on Jesus at the cross.
Jesus and his death is our burnt out patch. All who flee to it and stand in him are shielded and protected from God’s just anger. Jesus Christ, like the cleft rock, is the safe ground in which believers stand.
Well, Exodus chapter 34 is about Yahweh starting over. In many ways, it is very similar to Exodus chapters 19 to 24, the first Covenant ratification ceremony Again, the Mountain is cordoned off, and the people are not to come up. Again, we have the two stone tablets. Again, Moses is atop the mountain 40 days with God. And again, Yahweh communicates the same law with Moses, this time with a pointed emphasis against the idol worship to which Israel are particularly prone. Israel is to destroy the Canaanite nations because they will lead israel into idolatry. They are to keep Yahweh’s festivals, not make up their own, as they did before the calf idol.
But this time, only Moses goes up to see God’s glory. Not Aaron and his sons. Not the 70 elders of Israel. Only Moses. It seems that now, God can only work with Moses. So Moses role as mediator is emphasized. The picture one leaves Exodus 33-34 with is, ‘If it wasn’t for Moses standing in the breach and getting God back, the whole thing will have been called off’. The Old Covenant would not have been made with Israelites, but with Mosesites. But Yahweh forgave the sin of the people. And went ahead with his plans for a sacred space, the tabernacle, a sacred people, the priests – even Aaron, the idol manufacturer, and a sacred calendar.
In fact, Yahweh gave Moses more up the mountain this time than he did the previous time. For Yahweh's proclaimed his name.
In Exodus 3, Moses asked God’s name. And Yahweh said, ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3:14). It was kind of a non-answer. More like a ‘watch what I will do and you’ll see who I am’.
But in Chapter 34 verses 5 to 7, Moses gets more. Exodus 34 verses 5-7:
5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 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 fathers to the third and fourth generation. (Exodus 34:5-7 NIV)
Here is God’s name. Really, a description of God’s character. What is Yahweh, the God of Israel, like? He is compassionate and merciful and loving. He is jealous and angry and punishing. He forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin. He punishes wickedness, rebellion and sin.
It seems contradictory. God forgives but punishes. And we think, how can you do both? He forgives in a punishing way. He punishes in a forgiving way.
And how God does both is shown ultimately on the Cross of Christ. The death of Jesus is where compassionate mercy and love and jealous anger and punishment meet. On the cross, God forgives in a punishing way, and punishes in a forgiving way. Jesus takes the punishment and anger. And you receive the compassion, and mercy and love, if you put your trust in Christ. As Paul says:
God presented him [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forebearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did this to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:25-26 NIV)
God is the punisher who forgives. God is the just one who justifies. And it is on the cross of Christ that wrath and mercy meet, and where love and justice kiss one another.
Well, any mountain top experience worth the name must leave the person changed. And Moses comes down the mountain having rubbed shoulders with God. He hasn’t touched noses, but he has rubbed shoulders with the living God. And a bit of Yahweh has rubbed off on him. He is glowing, literally. His face shines. And so when Moses comes down the Mountain, his shining face literally brings a bit of God’s glory down the mountain and into the camp. Scary for Aaron and the people. Glorious for Moses.
But it is a glory tinged with sadness . Because like the glowsticks we crack at the Christmas Carols, it fades. And even if you put the glowsticks in the freezer, two days later, there’s no glow left. They are just toxic waste.
Once you’ve seen as much of God as Moses has, you’re hooked. That’s all you want. Moses wants to keep the radiance, the experience of God. But the glory of God fades. And his veiled face is a reminder of glory passing by.
But friends, you have more than what Moses had. The humblest New Testament believer has a more satisfying glory than that enjoyed by Moses. Moses had the unfading glory of the Old Covenant. You have the unfading glory of the New Covenant.
So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! (2 Corinthians 3:7-11 NIV)
The Old Covenant Law came through Moses. It doesn’t save. It never could, because of sin. It condemns sinners in their sin. It can only bring death to sinners. But the Old Covenant law came with glory.
How much more glory do we have, now we live under the New Covenant, now the gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached, and the Spirit has come to open our eyes to the glory of God in the face of Christ?
Yes, the good news of Jesus Christ is veiled to some. It is velled to those who are perishing.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV)
But we who believe have something better than what Moses had. Moses, who preached the Law which condemned men, had a fading glory. But we have heard the gospel. God has now made known his unfading glory to you and me. By enabling us by the Spirit to believe the gospel, God has made his light shine in our hearts. God has given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
And [so] we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his [Christ’s] likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)
The glory we have does not fade away, like Moses’ glory. It is ever increasing. Because we are being transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ. Our troubles and sufferings does this for us. It makes us more like Jesus. So then our glory is not decreasing. It is ever increasing. As we become more like Jesus, our glory increases, and our faces shine. Christians are ‘shiny happy people’.
Let’s pray.