Friday, April 26, 2013

Exodus 33:12-23/v.18 – “Wanting More”


As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

18And he said, “Cause me to see (na) Your glory.”

I’m reminded again that this passage makes a person want to take off their shoes; “For the place whereon you’re standing is holy ground!”

As I’ve tried to ponder Moses’ request, and as I’ve read others’ ponderings, there are a lot of ideas as to exactly what Moses is asking for and why he’s asking it. I suppose to some extent such questions are and always will be purely speculation, since the text doesn’t specifically tell us these things. On the other hand, the Lord chose to include this dialogue in the Scriptures and then told us “the things that are written are for your admonition, upon whom the end of the ages has come.”

Probably the two views which are sort of at opposite ends of the spectrum would be that 1) the request exhibits a lack of faith, like Gideon’s fleece; that Moses, having just heard God’s promises, wants something “more” to assure him that the Lord really will go with them, or 2) the request exhibits great faith, the expression of a man who, having experienced much of the Lord, only wants more.

I am inclined to side with the second option. There is nothing in the text or in the Lord’s answer to imply that the request was inappropriate. Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, wanted something “more” to believe the angel’s promise of a son and the Lord responded by leaving him mute until the child was born. “How can I be sure of this?” he asked, and the angel responded, “You will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words” (Luke 1:18-20). In the text before us, the Lord does not rebuke Moses in any way, but answers his request to the full extent possible. On the basis of these observations, I will proceed on the understanding that Moses’ request, “Cause me to see Your glory,” is an expression of faith.

I love what Spurgeon said here:

Allow me to refer you to the 13th verse of this chapter, where Moses speaks unto his God—"Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way." Moses asked a less favor before he requested the greater. He asked to see God's way before he prayed to see his glory. Mark you, my friends, this is the true mode of prayer. Rest not content with past answers, but double your request and go again. Look upon your past petitions as the small end of the wedge opening the way for larger ones. The best way to repay God, and the way he loves best, is to take and ask him ten times as much each time. Nothing pleases God so much as when a sinner comes again very soon with twice as large a petition—"Lord thou didst hear me last time, and now I am come again." Faith is a mighty grace, and always grows upon that which it feeds. When God has heard prayer for one thing, faith comes and asks for two things, and when God has given those two things, faith asks for six. Faith can scale the walls of heaven. She is a giant grace. She takes mountains by their roots, and puts them on other mountains, and so climbs to the throne in confidence with large petitions, knowing that she shall not be refused. We are most of us too slow to go to God. We are not like the beggars who come to the door twenty times if you do not give them anything. But if we have been heard once, we go away, instead of coming time after time, and each time with a larger prayer. Make your petitions longer and longer. Ask for ten, and if God gives them, then for a thousand, and keep going on until at last you will positively get faith enough to ask, if it were proper, as great a favor as Moses did—"I beseech thee, show me thy glory."

Amen and amen. This reminds me again of Psalm 116:13, which asked, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? … I will call upon the Lord!” What is a proper response to answered prayer – to go back and ask for more! We noted under that passage that we too easily presume the Lord is like people – that you have to “ration” your requests, not ask too much or too often. But rather the Lord is more like a mother who so delights to care for her children she wants them to ask for more. It is actually a form of gratitude and even praise, having been blessed by the Lord, to return and ask for more. As Spurgeon says, “Nothing pleases God so much as when a sinner comes again very soon with twice as large a petition…”

In Moses’ case, I would suggest this goes even further. It is a great and glorious thing to ask and receive and ask for more from the Father of lights. But it isn’t just material goods or livelihood for which Moses is asking. Here is the one with whom God speaks “as with a friend, face to face;” and what does he ask for? “Show me Your glory.” This man who already knows God far more intimately than most – what is it he wants? To know Him better!

Frankly, I don’t know exactly what it is that Moses is asking for. What is he wanting to see when he says, “Show me Your glory?” In the short run, I would suggest it doesn’t matter. What it teaches us is that genuinely knowing God will only make us want to know Him better. Even if it could be true of us that God speaks to us “as with a friend, face to face,” we will not be “satisfied.” We will want more. And that is a good thing.

Let us then lay hold of whatever is today our relationship with Him, nurture it with the Word and prayer, and let Him give us a holy discontent longing only to know Him better. “For this is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent” (John 17:3).

Before I quit, I have a couple of other thoughts to add.

First, I would suggest that all of this is simply the nature of real relationships, of real love, is it not? Who was ever “satisfied” to love someone else? Is it not true that to love someone is only to want to love them more? What husband ever spent a weekend with his wonderful wife, then didn’t feel a sense of loss having to leave her to go back to work on Monday, wishing he could be with her forever? What father ever got to see his beautiful daughter and didn’t ache to see her again? What man ever got to help his adult son fix his fence and didn’t long to stay and help him more? As we’ve noted before, love breeds love. And may I suggest that is what is going on between Moses and the Lord and what should be going on between us and Him – a love relationship. I want to know You more. I want to know You better. Your grace is so amazing. With Jeremy Camp my heart would cry ‘Give me Jesus! You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus … then give me more!”

Finally, I want to inject some perhaps esoteric thoughts I’ve been pondering on this thing of “seeing God.” Obviously, as the Lord told Moses, “You cannot see My face, for no man may see Me and live.” We, as created physical beings, cannot look with our physical eyes and “see” God, who is an infinitely glorious Spirit. Jesus is the physical manifestation of God whom we can “see.” He of course is the “radiance of God’s glory and exact representation of His being” (Heb 1:3). The Word of course “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). To “see” Jesus is to “see” the Father. In one sense, this is speaking of the physical business of “seeing” God, which Jesus, having become a man, makes possible.

That being said, I have always noticed verses like, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8) and presumed that was either being figurative or perhaps speaking of eternity when we really will literally “see” God. Then I would notice verses like Psalm 27:8, “My heart says of You, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.” To me, this passage doesn’t seem to refer to eternity, but rather to the here and now. Once again, you can take this figuratively, in the sense of sincerely seeking to know Him, or, is it possible we really can “see His face?” Once again, it is obviously not possible for us to look with our physical eyes and “see” God the Spirit as some kind of form or shape, but here is my esoteric thought: Is not “seeing” someone’s face more than physically observing a form? Is there not a profound difference between “seeing” someone’s face and then, on the other hand, “looking them in the eye?”

I would suggest that “seeing” someone’s face is largely a purely physical event, the reflection of light upon someone else’s features which then enters our retinas, and which stimuli are then processed in our brains, registering an image. That is all purely physical and can even be mimicked photographically. But is it not something entirely different to “look them in the eye?” I would suggest something entirely spiritual happens when one living being looks into the eyes of another living being. There is a spiritual connection, a spiritual exchange which occurs, which in a sense has nothing to do necessarily with this material world. There is a sense in which we “connect” with that person spiritually.

As we gaze into each others’ eyes, we communicate love and compassion or perhaps displeasure and anger, but not just by the look “on” our face. Is there not something “more” going on, something at a very deep spiritual level? If you’re reading this, do you know what I mean? Do you sense that “something more” that occurs when you go from simply “looking at someone’s face” to actually “looking them in the eye?” If you do, then ask yourself, “Could it be possible to experience that ‘something’ without including the eyes?” Could you make that “connection” in a purely spiritual sense? Could that spiritual connection occur without physical sight?

It is precisely at this point I suggest that in fact we can “see God” in this world. I can “look” with my heart and make that spiritual connection with Him, experience that same spiritual bond of “looking Him in the eye.” Whatever that is and whatever it means, it does (or can) actually happen, that as I pray and commune with Him, I “see” Him. My spirit “connects” with Him that same way it does when I go from looking at someone’s face to actually looking them in the eye. It is not a matter of an image but rather a spiritual “connection.” May I suggest that is the primary meaning of Matt 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”? And may I also suggest that is what David meant when he said, “My heart says of You, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

I am suggesting this “seeing” is possible. On the other hand, it is something that one must “seek.” One has to want to “look God in the eye.” That of course is a grace thing, as my immediate response is, like Adam and Eve, to want to hide, too painfully aware of my sinfulness and failure. But grace that is greater than all my sin was purchased by My Savior and I can now come before my God covered in the blood of Jesus. Because of grace I can rise above my shame and “look Him in the eye.”

Having studied these things, and pondered them, I have lately become aware of this “seeing God” or “looking Him in the eye.” I still feel it is a feeble thing on my part, that I still see Him “darkly, as in a glass,” but I do “see” Him. And the result of this “seeing” is that I want to see Him more. I long to speak with Him “as with a friend, face to face.” I believe that, as I nurture my relationship with Him I really will “see” Him better … and not just in a figurative way, but genuinely making that spiritual “connection,” whatever it is, that something that occurs when we look each other in the eye.

And then I find it profoundly encouraging to realize that if it can ever be true of me that God speaks to me “as with a friend, face to face,” I will not be “satisfied” but only want “more.” I might even exclaim, “Show me Your glory!” and find I do know what it was Moses was asking for!

Lord, show me Your glory. Then show me more!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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