Smoodock's Blog

Moses once asked God to show him his, i.e. God’s, glory.[1] If we would make the same request of God today, what would we expect to see? Would it be a manifestation of his power? Do we think we would see God seated upon the throne in heaven? Perhaps we may perceive it to be the glorious victory of God over evil when finally all is brought under his authority. What is God’s glory, and what would we actually see, if God chose to reveal his glory to us?

When Moses saw the glory of God, God caused his goodness to pass before him (Exodus 33:19), declaring:

“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth, who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:6-7 ~ NASB).

So, when Moses worshiped God in his glory (Exodus 34:8), he didn’t see God on his throne; it wasn’t God triumphing over evil, or any manifestation of his almighty power. No, it was none of these things. What Moses saw was God grieving over man’s condition, his patience with man’s consistent rebellion, and his forgiveness for the evil man does but through discipline, lest his forgiveness be taken as license.

This is what Moses saw, but even it was not a perfect vision of God’s glory, because we are told in Hebrews 1:3 that it wasn’t until the coming of Jesus that we find God’s glory perfectly expressed in human form. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. How bright is God’s glory?—as bright as Jesus! How great is God’s glory?—as great as Jesus! He is the radiance or what we are able to see of the glory of God, just as all we are able to see of the sun are the beams of light it produces. All of what we are able to know of God is found in the face of Jesus (2Corinthians 4:6). Therefore, the glory of God is found in the face of the One who was so marred that “He didn’t even look human—a ruined face, disfigured past recognition” (Isaiah 52:14 ~ Message).

I need to pause here and consider more closely what these Scriptures are telling me. The glory of God, seen in the face of Jesus, is mercy crushed by the unmerciful; it is love disfigured by the hateful; it is forgiveness brutalized by the pitiless; it is kindness crushed by the insensitive; it is faithfulness betrayed by one’s friend! Is this the vision we would expect to see as we try to understand the glory of God in the face of Jesus? I’m not sure that I do. I often see his love and acceptance, and I should see these things there, but I believe I overlook the scars that are also there—scars put there by me, whom he calls friend! The glory of God is such that he made himself vulnerable to someone like me who is and has been unmerciful, pitiless, hateful and insensitive, betraying every good overture God has ever made to me. There is nothing that has touched my life that does not bear the imprint of my ungodliness. Yet, he has redeemed it all lest I be found crushed, hated, brutalized and be found without a Friend.

It is the glory of God to hide a matter, but the glory of man is to uncover what God has hidden (Proverbs 25:2). God has hidden his glory in the face of Jesus, and I have been overcome, not by God’s almighty power or his supreme authority; instead, I have been overcome by his grace, by his mercy—when he caused all his goodness to pass before me in the face of Jesus, my Savior.