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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then Moses said, "Now show me Your glory."
And the Lord said, "I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live."
Then the Lord said, "There is a place near Me where you may stand on a rock. 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. Then I will remove My hand and you will see my back; but My face must not be seen.”
The Lord said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to Me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."
So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 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, 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."
Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.
Exodus 33:18-23, 34:1-8
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Every day in the United States, there are roughly 10.000 babies born. That’s 10,000 living children who have been developing within their mothers’ wombs for nine months as God has been carefully crafting every part of them and preparing them to eventually serve Him and others.
When these babies emerge through their respective birth passages, they will emerge into a new world different than the one they had lived in over the prior nine months. And although they are born into uncertainty as to what their future lives might encompass, there is one certainty they will carry with them from the very beginning. For in and of itself, their birth and introduction to life outside the womb fully represents the very glory of God, and it’s this same glory, the glory of God that we find Moses looking for in our passage today.
Now, you’ll recall in yesterday’s message that Moses had found favor with God because he trusted Him, relied on Him, and wanted to know Him better. In other words, Moses hungered for God and in return for this devotion, God promised that His presence would be with Moses and the Israelites as they finished off their journey to the Promised Land, the land said to be flowing with milk and honey.
As we turn to today’s passage, here’s what we find God saying to Moses after he asks to see His glory:
"I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live."
"There is a place near Me where you may stand on a rock. 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. Then I will remove My hand and you will see my back; but My face must not be seen.”
Here we see where God accepts Moses’ request, agreeing to pass before him and show His glory but with some conditions. For Moses would need to be concealed from looking into the face of God for this would bring his death.
Before that happened, the Lord had something He wanted Moses to do first, saying:
"Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to Me there on top of the mountain.”
This was the second time that God would be writing His commandments on stone tablets. For you’ll recall that after the first instance, Moses smashed the two original ones after coming down Mount Sinai and witnessing the sinful idol-worshipping behavior of the Israelites.
Well, we read where Moses did as the Lord commanded and "chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones" before going "up Mount Sinai early in the morning." Once back on the mountain, scripture tells us that "the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him”, proclaiming the following:
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 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."
With this, the Lord had done what He promised, as He always does, showing Moses His glory.
How did Moses respond?
The scriptures tell us that he "bowed to the ground at once and worshiped."
Friends, whether it’s in the birth of thousands of babies this day or any other, whether it’s in the wonder of a cloudless night where every star and some planets are visible, whether it’s in the beauty and grandeur of setting or rising sun, or whether it’s in any number of other countless amazing things we witness each and every day in creation, our Lord is always putting His glory on display for us to witness it, a truth affirmed in this verse from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. v.20
In response to this, let’s not let a single day go by where we don’t emulate the response of Moses, bowing down and worshiping our glorious, magnificent Creator God.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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