boldness

Interestingly enough, I found myself in Exodus 33…maybe it wasn’t an accident, maybe it wasn’t. But Moses boldness resonated in a new way as I read this time.

God is speaking to Moses as a friend, and this is how the conversation ensues…

Moses wants to know whom God was going to send with him…he knows that God is sending him, but he wants details…and then Moses also reminds God of what He has spoken to him in the past, “Yet You said, ‘I know you by name and you have also found favor in My sight.’” So Moses boldly asks, in light of what God has said, that God would then show him His ways…that He would make known to Moses what He was doing…so that he would know God more deeply, understanding who He is more clearly…and then, in spite of already proclaiming this truth, Moses again asks for favor in God’s sight (which God has already told him multiple times that he has). Moses asks, whether it was because he doubted or was just neurotic I am not sure…but I could imagine the wrestling with lies and fears and doubts was very intense.

God’s response (v.14): “My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

It was not a revelation of all God’s plans…it was better. It was His very Presence and the rest of His Presence.

Moses in essence admits his fear, of God sending him without He Himself going. Moses wanted to be where God was…and God’s promise to him was that He would go with him. So now Moses knows that God is sending Himself, yet he wants more. He wants evidence of this, essentially saying in v.16, “Ok God, You say You are coming with me, but how will I know?”

God’s favor Moses, to us, is His very Self…but Moses still wants more. And in His graciousness, God again reminds Moses of his favor in His sight, that God knows him personally and by name, and basically will allow Moses to tangibly know that He is with him.

This part got me. Again, Moses boldly states, “Show me Your glory.”

God’s reply, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and proclaim My name.” God revealed His glory upon Moses courageously but simply asking!

Why can’t I ask this? God wants our childlike faith and the bold simplicity of that…to come before Him and ask...seek…persistently knock…to show me Your glory!

I think Moses believed God’s promises to him to be true yet they were still intertwined with shreds of doubt and fear…yet ultimately he wanted more of God…so he asked to know God more, to know what God was doing, and to see His glory manifested. I also think Moses knew that to see God’s glory was to deeply know His promises. So God, in His grace, did this. He allowed Moses to see the extent of His glory that was humanly possible. And even in this, God’s glory is so great it could have killed Moses…but God’s grace was more, and protected him while still granting his “asking, seeking, knocking.”

So I too ask…show me Your glory Father! Show me Your glory in Your working out Your plan and promises…and in doing so, show others Your glory, whether they know it or not. Show me Your glory God…not because I am testing You or for my purposes but because I believe You and I know what You have spoken and that You will glorify Yourself.

Show me Your glory.