Moses saw God’s glory in two ways. First, God passed him by in the cleft of the rock. Immediately after that, Moses saw God’s glory in His character. He gave Moses six ways to know Him and thereby to love Him.

The first thing God revealed about His character is His compassion for His people. David compared it to an earthly father when he wrote, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.” There’s something sad about a father or a mother who is always looking to punish or embarrass or shame their child. God is not petty or cruel. He is full of compassion. 

Second, the Lord is gracious. To those of us who can never measure up, and I am one, He gives grace. I am so thankful for God’s grace, paid for by Jesus. Maxie Dunnam tells the story of a woman who took her friend with her when she went to a photographer to have her picture taken. The beauty parlor had done their best for her. She took her seat in the studio and fixed her pose. Then she said to the photographer, ‘Now be sure to do me justice.’ The friend who had come with her said with a twinkle in her eye, ‘My dear, what you need is not justice but mercy.’” That’s what we all need as we are always before the eyes of the Lord who sees us and knows all about us. We need God’s grace and mercy. As you may have heard before, grace is God giving us what we do not deserve, and mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. 

Third, the Lord is slow to anger. To those who are rebellious, this is good news. The literal translation of “slow to anger” in Hebrew is “long of nose.” We sometimes say an angry person has a short fuse, and someone who is more patient has a long fuse. But there were no fuses or bombs in ancient Israel, so why “a long nose?” Many believe the idea is that this person takes a long and deep inhale. He can wait.  One commentator said it may be because short-nosed animals are the ones that snort. Think of pigs, grunting and snorting. That’s not God. When something sets us off, we may blow up, but God does not. His patience is perfect.

Fourth, the Lord abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. The Pacific Ocean is so deep at the Mariana Trench that if Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world,  were placed into it, the peak would still be more than a mile underwater. We cannot fathom that depth, no pun intended, but the steadfast love of the Lord makes the Pacific Ocean look like a plastic kiddie pool. The love of the Lord never ceases and has no bottom floor. 

Fifth, the Lord forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. The word forgive means “to lift or carry.” For the repentant, God lifts their sins from them and carries them away. He forgives iniquity, which is turning aside from what we know is right. He forgives transgression, which is rebellion, open opposition to God, sometimes called treason. Paul was guilty of that: he was a treasonous rebel, hell-bent on destroying Christians and Christianity. After God apprehended him on the Damascus Road, Paul referred to himself as the chief of sinners. For the rest of his life he held up the unsearchable riches of Christ’s forgiveness. God also forgives sin, which refers to all sin, or, our sin nature. Remember, we aren’t sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. 

Sixth, the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. The same God who forgives sin also condemns the guilty. The sins of the fathers are passed down from generation to generation. That does not mean that a grandchild is punished for something his grandfather did. It means the patterns and the cycles of sin continue from one generation to the next.

God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving, and just. We cannot pick and choose which attributes we believe in or even which attributes we like. They are all true or none of them are true. God is who He says He is or we are all without hope.

My hope is in God.

Moses cried out, “Please show me your glory!” Much has been written about this over the years, and we must not overlook this powerful plea. Charles Spurgeon likened it to Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and seeing Him in His glory. Peter blurted out, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Can you blame Peter for wanting to make a place for these three to live? Let’s keep this glory right here! I think we see in this story, and in God’s response, that He does not rebuke His sons and daughters for having a hunger to see Him and to know Him in greater ways. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “We may have been Christians for many years, but have we ever really longed for some personal, direct knowledge and experience of God? We all ask for personal blessings, but how much do we know of this desire for God himself? That is what Moses asked for: ‘Show me your glory. Take me yet a step nearer.’”

God said yes. And He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you.” Goodness! Not justice, or wrath, or even holiness. God’s glory encompasses all of His character, but you could say that God’s glory rests in His goodness. He said to Jeremiah, “My people will be satisfied by my goodness.” If we don’t know that God is good, then we really don’t know much about Him. Remember when Susan asked Mr. Beaver if Aslan was safe? Mr. Beaver said, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He’s the king!” God is good. 

Then notice God said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” God is Lord of all creation. That gives Him alone the right to be compassionate and show mercy on those whom He chooses. And because He is good, everything He does is good. Why did God choose Abraham? Why did God choose Moses? Not because of anything He saw in them. He chose them simply because of His compassion and mercy. His goodness. If you know Christ, why did God call you out of darkness and into His marvelous light? Because of His God’s grace. His mercy. 

God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, because no one on earth can see the face of God and live. I love this: Moses was protected from God by God. God covered Moses with His hand and passed by. When God passed by Moses, hidden in the rock, He took away His hand and Moses saw the back of God. Perhaps more accurately, Moses saw the after-effects of the radiance of God’s glory, since God is spirit. What was Moses’ response? We are not told. But we can guess, based on others’ responses in the Bible. 

When Isaiah beheld a vision of God, he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost!” When John got a glimpse of heaven in a vision and saw the Son of Man in all His glory, John “fell at his feet as though dead.” And when Paul was caught up to the third heaven in a vision, he could barely describe it, writing of himself in third person, “He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” 

What we know of Moses’ experience with God is very limited. But what we know should call each of us into greater desire to know God more deeply. God heard Moses’ request to see His glory and rewarded his seeking heart. Seeing God’s glory assured Moses that the Lord was with him. And we need nothing more as followers of Christ and nothing more than a church than to know that God, the God who makes Himself known, is with us and will never forsake us. 

Do you want to see God’s glory? I hope so! Listen beloved, what Moses experienced in the cleft of the rock does not compare to the revelation we have been given in the person of Jesus Christ. John wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” You may say, but John saw Jesus, face to face! Yes, he did. But Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And Paul wrote, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The glory of God in Jesus. Celebrate it. Tell others about it.

When God saw what was going on below with His people, He sent Moses down the mountain. When Moses saw what was going on, he smashed the two tablets of the law that God had personally written. The golden calf was burned, the people drank down its ashes, and three thousand of the ringleaders in that idolatrous orgy were killed that day. The greatest cost for their disobedience, however, was when God told them they could still go to the Promised Land, and He would protect them on the way there and help them defeat their enemies, but He would not go with them. He would destroy them if He did.

Imagine a wedding ceremony where the bride and groom say “I will” to the charge, and “I do” to the vows, and “we will” to the kiss, and they nod “we are” to the pronouncement of being husband and wife. And then as the music for the recessional starts, the groom walks out the back door of the church and drives away alone, leaving the bride standing at the altar. The reception would be a strange and sad event, to say the least. Well, for most people. Some guys would say, “Hey, there’s food here, it’s not a total loss.”

What is the point of a wedding if the two do not become one? What is the point of a Promised Land if God is not there? What is the point of heaven if the Son of God is absent? The people in the wilderness understood where their sin had put them with God, and they responded with humility. They mourned this proclamation. When Moses told them God had said they were stiff-necked (aren’t we?) and they should take off their ornaments, they did so. In fact, the Bible says they “stripped themselves of their ornaments,” indicating forceful removal of their Egyptian jewelry. It was an outward act of inward humility. 

To hear that the Lord would not go with them to the Promised Land was terrifying. And to hear that God would not go for fear that he would destroy them because of their sin is even worse. I remember in high school when I challenged a guy that was twice my size to a fight after school because he was going out with a girl I liked. She couldn’t have cared less about me, but then, what does logic have to do with hormones? Word spread fast in the school that day and a crowd gathered to watch the slaughter. We faced off and then David said, “Fox, I’m not going to fight you.” I grinned and said, “Hah! So you’re scared!” He said, “Yeah, I am. I’m scared I might kill you.” 

Let’s be clear. God was not scared. He was resolute in his judgment of a rebellious people, and that judgment included mercy. This is a story of redemption from beginning to end. How can a holy God dwell in the midst of an unholy people? He cannot. But because of his mercy, He will once again hear the cries of the mediator, Moses, and will renew the covenant with His people.

The sad truth is that many choose a “god” that promises much and demands little. To the One who created them they say, Give me all the promises of God, but don’t bother me with having to try to get to know him. Or hang out with his people on Sundays and other times. And learn about his commands? Nah, all that stuff cramps my style. Yeah, sign me up for the “low-involvement” package, please.

We have to hand it to the Israelites. They didn’t respond that way. Instead they mourned the news that God would not go with them. In humility they surrendered their will to His. 

What does it cost to have God’s presence? Jesus paid that cost. Our part is faith, and surrender. Which, praise be to God, we only do either by the power He gives us through the Spirit.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory!

When Moses saw the people worshiping an idol, he smashed the tablets of the law, ground the idol into powder, and made the people drink it down. Then he confronted his older brother, the high priest. His reproach against Aaron started with a question that seemed at first to give Aaron the benefit of the doubt: “What did this people do to you…”  But it also clearly laid the blame at Aaron’s feet. “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” On the one hand Moses seems to be conceding that the people must have abused Aaron in some way. “I mean, they must have made you do this, right Aaron? Was it a spear pointed at your head until you gave in to their demands? On the other hand, big brother no matter what the people did, you are guilty. You did this, Aaron.” It reminds me of the classic analogy of a ship’s captain whose vessel is run aground by a lieutenant in his charge. The lieutenant is guilty, but the captain is responsible. Aaron was the person in authority in Moses’ absence. The people were guilty, but Aaron was responsible. It works the same way in the home. A home without godly leadership will run aground quickly. As will a church. 

Aaron’s response to Moses’ question is classic denial. First, he seems to blow it off. Hey, don’t be so angry about this, Moses. He seems to have no sense of the significance of his sin, and calling him “my lord” does not soften the charge. Second, Aaron shifts the blame. You know these people and how much they love evil. Ahh, the first priest of Israel sounds a lot like the first priest of the garden. Why did I eat the fruit? This woman, which by the way you gave to me, handed it to me! When confronted, Aaron made excuses. Philip Ryken writes, “There’s always somebody to blame: “My parents didn’t love me.” “My husband didn’t care for me.” “My wife wasn’t meeting my needs.” “My elders didn’t handle the situation right.” “My boss didn’t treat me fairly.” “They went behind my back.” “Everyone was doing it!”

Third, Aaron actually spoke the truth. “They told me to make gods for them because you were gone and they didn’t know when you were coming back.” That was true. Aaron then said he told them to give him any gold that they were wearing. That is also true. Good job, Aaron. But wait.  Fourth, Aaron spoke a bald-faced lie while looking Moses straight in the eye. Calf? What calf? Oh, you mean that one? Pssh. I just threw all the gold they gave me into the fire and that’s what came out! Again we wonder why Aaron wasn’t a made a greasy spot right then, by the wrath of a just God. It is simply that by the mercy of God, because of the intercession of Moses, Aaron was spared. But the damage was done.

This story is a photograph of the sinfulness of sin and the consequences for it. Three thousand men died that day for their part in the idolatry. It is also a picture of the mercy of God. He did not destroy them all. He heard Moses’ offer to take their place: “take my name out of your book!” God had a plan for redemption, for someone who would stand in the place of sinners. There is only One who could.

It wasn’t Moses.  

The story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 is a familiar one. The people who had seen God’s mighty power and felt his mercy and grace got tired of waiting for Moses to come down from his 40-day meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. So they asked Aaron to make them a god, to build them an idol they could worship. When God saw it, he told the leader of Israel that he would destroy the nation and start over with Moses. That is when Moses “implored” God not to do that. The word is rich in meaning. To “implore” pictures a person who is weak and sick, grieved and bent over with the weight of intercession and entreaty. We see a clearer picture of that in this same story as Moses told it in Deuteronomy. That account adds even more weight to Moses’ plea for mercy. When God told him what was going on below, Moses went down to see what the people were doing. When he witnessed their idolatry, he threw down the stone tablets and broke them. He wrote, “Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.” 

Do the math. When idolatry broke out below, Moses had already been on the mountaintop with God for 40 days. Add another 40 of brokenness and intercession, and that means Moses went 80 days without bread or water. He was supernaturally sustained by God. But more importantly, look at his intercession which he gives us in the text in Exodus 32. His argument in defense of God’s people is an appeal to God’s great favor he has shown them already many times. First, Moses appeals to a God’s great love for His people that showed itself in mighty deeds. “You brought them out with great power.” Second, Moses appeals to God’s great name and character. “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains.’” Third, Moses appeals to God’s great covenant with the patriarchs. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self…I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven.” Notice Moses calls Jacob “Israel” which is what God changed Jacob’s name to when the deceiver finally and fully surrendered his will to the Lord. 

What happened? God relented. You could say he “gave in” to the exact plan he had all along. And Moses was the man who stood in the gap. Psalm 106:23 says, “Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.”

Two challenges I would leave with you. Just as Moses had to go down and intercede to stop God’s wrath, the greater intercessor, the Son of God had to come down and stand in the gap for God’s people. And he did that with his own blood. Paul writes to those who believe, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The first challenge is simply a question, then: do you know Him? Have you bowed your head and accepted the yoke that Jesus offers? He say to you this morning, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

The second challenge is this: For whom are you interceding? You can make the same appeal that Moses made. Ask the Father to show his love to that one who has not yet come to repentance. Cry out to God for his own name’s sake and ask him to save so that others will see and proclaim his glory. Finally, appeal to the covenant God has made with the world that because of the finished work of Jesus his Son on the cross, men and women can be saved. You can pray, “Add this one, Lord! Open his eyes. Show her your kindness and mercy. Save them, O God!”

What can we do? We can pray. We can intercede. We can ask our God who is unstoppable in his love and mercy to change the hearts of our loved ones and friends. So what are we waiting on? 

Let’s pray.