#DailyDevotion The LORD Shows Us His Glory In The Face Of Jesus

Exodus 32:17-23 ¹⁷“I will do what you say,” the LORD answered Moses, “because I am kind to you and know you by name.” ¹⁸“Please,” he said, “let me see Your glory.” ¹⁹“I will let all My goodness pass by you,” He said, “and will call out the name ‘the LORD [YAHWEH]ʻ before you. I will be merciful to whom I want to be merciful and will pity whom I want to pity. ²⁰You can’t see My face,” He added, “because a man can’t see My face and live. ²¹“See, here is a place by Me,” the LORD said. “Stand on the rock. ²²And when My glory passes by, I will put you in a crack in the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will take My hand away, and you’ll see My back; but My face must not be seen.”

The LORD in his great kindness listens to Moses and promises to do what he asks because he is kind and knows Moses by name. Now of course the LORD should know Moses by name. Doesn’t he know everyone? Yes, but this is a Gospel knowing. The LORD knows him as one of his own. So Jesus in the Gospel refers to this in the opposite way, “I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who are so busy doing wrong.”(Matt. 7:23)

Now remember earlier Moses asked to know the LORD’s ways better. Now Moses wants to see the LORD’s glory. He wants a more intimate way of knowing the LORD than he has known him already. The LORD loves Moses and wants to satisfy Moses. We know Moses had been talking with the LORD like a friend, face to face in the tent of meeting. Yet there must have been something lacking in these “face to face” meetings for the LORD here says, “You can’t see My face, because a man can’t see My face and live.” Face to face in those other places describe the relationship Moses has with the LORD and the type of revelation he had from the LORD. Practically all other prophets the Word of the LORD came to them, or they were given visions, or dreams. But Moses would talk to the LORD just like friends talk.

The LORD in his kindness and mercy deigns to give in to Moses a bit. He would let his goodness pass by Moses, he would declare his name. But when his glory passed by he would hide Moses in a crack of a rock to protect him and then he could see the LORD’s back (whatever that means, well I guess it’s not God’s full blown glory.) The LORD wants to be intimate with his people but he doesn’t want to destroy them because of their fallen nature.

Now Paul in 2 Cor. 4:6 says, “’Let light shine out of the dark,’ has shone in our hearts to bring you the light of knowing God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” Here we see God shows his glory and his face in the face of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to show someone your face? To see someone’s face is to really know them. There’s a joke, a man doesn’t really know the woman he loves till he wakes us next to her (you know, because all the make up is gone). If you really want to know what the LORD is like, you need not look any further than Jesus. When we look at Jesus, who is is, what he did, what he taught, why he did it, then you know everything there is to know about the LORD. You will see in Jesus the LORD’s name, “merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, ⁷continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin, without treating it as innocent, but disciplining children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their fathers.” And in trust in him, he also knows your name and sees your face.

Heavenly Father, continually reveal to us who you are in the face of Jesus that we may see your glory there, know you and be known by you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.