We are not very interested in the glory of God. Instead, we
are desperate to know and experience the love of God. This had been my story
for many years as a Christian, who failed to see the connection between these
two attributes of God.
Moses had sought the glory of God during a time of great
disappointment. He had just spent 40 days with God on Mt. Sinai where he had
received the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile, down below, Israel had made the
Golden Calf and were partying. As a result, for the first time God’s anger broke
out against Israel, and many died of a plague.
Consequently, Moses requested to see God’s glory. God’s
answer was probably not what Moses had expected:
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"I will make all My goodness pass before
you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall
see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:19-20 NKJV)
Instead of a visual display of His glory with lightning and
thunder, God disclosed Himself to Moses:
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And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed,
"The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and
the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6-7)
Moses seemed satisfied with His self-disclosure and
worshipped (Exodus 34:8). Instead of seeing God’s face – and the face best reveals
the identity of the person – Moses was only permitted to see the backside of
God. Nevertheless, the sight of God’s backside had satisfied Moses, and he
worshipped God after seeing His self-disclosure. After all, Moses had earlier
requested that he would be given a greater understanding of God:
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“I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight,
show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your
sight.” (Exodus 33:13)
God, therefore, revealed His “way” to Moses but not
completely, not His “face,” the most revealing part of His Being. This was
protected at the threat of death. (Nevertheless, God did reveal His “face” to
His people but carefully and at the smallest increments.)
What would His face have revealed? Something that Israel was
not ready to see. It was hidden away at the threat of death! Why death? Along
with this hidden aspect of God, there was also an object concealed within the
Holy of Holies that carried the threat of death to anyone who would look upon
it.
It was obscured by the massive wings of two cherubim who were
mounted above it. The Holy of Holies could be entered only once a year by only
the High Priest on Yom Kippur. Even he was warned that if he looked upon this
object, he would die. Therefore, when he was permitted to enter, he had to
enter with great billows of smoke lest he would be struck dead by inadvertently
seeing this object.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the Ark of the Covenant, its
contents (including the Ten Commandments), or the Law, which brought death
(Galatians 3:10-12; Matthew 5:21-22). Instead, the forbidden object covered the Ark and its contents – the “Mercy
Seat,” also called the “Atonement Cover” (Romans 3:25), the thing that
symbolized life and mercy (Leviticus 16:13) the great and carefully guarded
mystery of our Savior!
How are we to understand this great mystery? I think that
the account of Joseph hiding his identity from his brothers sheds light on this
mystery. Joseph too had concealed himself from his brothers when they came to
buy grain in Egypt during the famine. Perhaps 27 years had transpired since his
brothers had sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt. However, because of the grace
of God, the Pharaoh had made Joseph the administrator over all Egypt and their
life-sustaining grain, which Joseph had carefully stored for the seven years of
famine.
Attired as Joseph was, the brothers did not recognize him.
Meanwhile, he made them jump through painful tests over the next years.
Finally, when he was convinced that they had passed his tests by demonstrating
that they had become men of character, Joseph broke down and could no longer
conceal his true identity:
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Then Joseph could not restrain himself before
all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Make everyone go out from
me!" So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his
brothers. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.
(Genesis 45:1-2)
Joseph had understood that he could only reveal Himself if
such a revelation would benefit all of the parties. His brothers had to be
ready to receive Joseph’s self-disclosure. Jesus’ mission had also been
concealed. It was only at the end that He began to reveal it more fully:
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But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour
has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but
if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:23-24; 13:31-32)
What glory had our Lord been hiding for millennium? That He
loved us so much that He would die the most horrid and humiliating death to
prove His love for us, even while we were still His enemies.
Why would He conceal the centerpiece of His glory? There are
many reasons for this (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). It took me years to learn that
ordinarily we cannot bear the truth. When I became a supervisor at the New York
City Department of Probation, I had the naïve idea that if I revealed to my
officers my good intentions for them, they would reciprocate. However, they
took my kindness for weakness and acted-out. As a result, I had to bring
disciplinary actions against two of them. Consequently, they hated me, and I
hated them.
Subsequently, I learned (but very slowly) that I first had
to teach my subordinates my sternness before they could possibly receive the
revelation of my tenderness.
The Law had to precede God’s grace. God had to first convince
Israel of His holiness and righteousness before they would ever be able to
receive His all-surpassing love, a love that we still cannot fathom. Therefore,
Paul prayed that Jesus’ people would know
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…the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)
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