Glory

 September 13, 2022

“[Moses] said, “Please, show me Your glory.” (Exodus 33:18)

“Glory” is a funny word. It used to be pretty commonplace, but not anymore. I can remember my great-grandmother saying, “Glory be!” when she was surprised, or just needed to express delight. Some years ago, I dug into Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, a multi-volume treatment of nearly every word in the New Testament. It delves into not only the Greek, but the Hebrew and Aramaic backgrounds of the NT vocabulary. Twenty large pages of small type later, and my head was swimming.

The word Moses used referred to “weightiness,” or “significance.” Whatever it was Moses wanted to see, the problem he encountered was that if he were to behold it directly, it would kill him. God told him, “I will make all My goodness pass before you…but You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” God’s glory was always hidden in a cloud, whether on the Mountain, or before the Tabernacle. It could be seen secondarily in a storm, a whirlwind, or an earthquake, but could not be experienced directly. 

The Lord continued, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”” —from Exodus 33:18-23 

And yet earlier in this very chapter, it is said that God spoke with Moses face to face, as a man talks with a friend. What is going on? Obviously, we cannot read this text literally. To do so makes it contradictory and meaningless. “Face to face” here simply expresses the unusual intimacy between God and Moses that was still limited by the latter’s ability to absorb it all. When God tells Moses he shall only see his back, he is letting him know that as intimate as his relationship with God is, it is still limited by the vast magnificence of God and the minuscule ability of even a man of Moses’ stature to experience it. 

The amazing part of the story is not told in these verses, but in the New Testament, where Moses and Elijah are seen speaking with Jesus in the Transfiguration, before disappearing from sight in a cloud. Moses’ prayer was finally answered on that day, and the wonder of it all is that we get to experience God’s glory in a way Moses never did when he walked this earth. John tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) 

Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations of glory. We expect grand and glorious pomp and circumstance, but he came to us in weakness and humility. The cloud has melted away, the curtain has been torn back, and God’s glory is seen in this Man who willingly gave his life a sacrifice for our sins and rose from death. It doesn’t seem very glorious, but it reveals who God really is, and that is what God’s glory is all about…who he really is. He is Jesus Christ, saving the world through his death and resurrection. That is where we find God’s glory!