I.          I Thought This Sermon Would Be Easy…A few weeks ago I actually thought this sermon might be easy to preach.  As soon as I thought about preaching a series on what the men and women of God have most deeply wanted, this passage leapt to my mind.  Show me your glory!  Moses cries.  So God places him in the cleft of a rock on His holy mountain, covers him with His hand, if you will, and then passes before him.  As God passes by He speaks, He speaks words, as we will discover, that strike to the heart of the gospel, words that reveal the very heart of God.

When Moses hears these words he falls down flat on his face and worships.  In Exodus chapter 33 and 34 we find one of the greatest men in the Bible, one of the greatest souls in all of human history, asking God for the greatest thing in all of life.  Something so great, so high and holy, so overwhelming, that it can’t quite be given, even to a man like Moses. 

I really don’t know why I ever thought this would be an easy sermon to preach.  What do I know about this?  I understand Solomon asking God for wisdom.  Though I am no Solomon I can imagine what it’s like to receive wisdom from God.  I understand Naomi crying out for help in the midst of her trials and tribulations.  I know what it is like to yearn for God’s salvation and to be saved.  But what do I know about this prayer of Moses and what he experienced up there   on the mountain?  How do I turn the flashlight of my experience toward the sunlight of God’s glory

shown to Moses? May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.  Amen. 

II.         The Tent of Meeting

Before I say anything about Moses on the mountain I want to read about Moses in the tent, because that is where it all began. Exodus chapter 33, verse 7.

            Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away,

calling it the ‘tent of meeting’.  Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.  And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped each at the entrance to his own tent. And the LORD would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

Apparently, it was Moses habit, his regular experience, to meet with God in a tent he had pitched outside the camp and his encounter with God in these meetings was quite extraordinary.  As soon as Moses walked into the tent, a fiery cloud would come down, covering the entrance, filling the tent with light.  This was the same cloud that came down at the edge of the Red Sea, protecting the nation of Israel from the charging chariots of Egypt, shining through the night as the people crossed over on dry land.  It was the same cloud that then led the people from that sea crossing all the way to the mountain of God.  It was the same cloud that descended on Mount Sinai when God appeared to His people and spoke the Ten Commandments in the midst of fire andlightning and thunder and smoke. 

This fiery cloud is the visible manifestation of the invisible God.  In that tent of meeting, in that place of encounter with the living God, the LORD would speak to Moses like a man speaks to a friend.  When Moses left the tent, we read later in chapter 34, his face would be literallyshining with the afterglow of God’s presence.  You and I can only imagine.  We can only stand at the edge of our tents, if you will, looking on with amazement. 

I have experienced the presence of God in many and sometimes marvelous ways.  I have heard his voice speaking in the Words of Scripture, 13,000 feet up, in the midst of the glory of the Colorado mountains.
I have heard God speak in a still, small voice in the quiet of my chamber in the middle of the night.  I have encountered Him in the communion of saints in the midst of worship and I have met him in the morning sunrise.  But this feels like something more, something more direct, more personal, more amazing.  This is the original.  Mine is the copy, the echo, the reflection.  This was Moses habitual experience in the tent of meeting.  It was in that tent of meeting Moses uttered the cry, Show me your glory!

Give Us Your Presence!

But before he said that something happened, something tragic.  The people of Israel committed a grave sin, a sin that called their whole existence as a nation into question, a sin that brought them to the edge of destruction.  Just days after hearing the voice of God proclaim, from the midst of the fiery cloud on Mount Sinai, Make no graven images!, the people made a golden calf—called it The LORD, and bowed down before it. 

God’s anger burned.  God sent a plague to punish them; God commanded the Levites to take swords in hand and pass through the camp executing some 3000 of their brothers.  Then God declared, That’s it.  I will not go with these people into the promised land.  I will not dwell in their midst, lest I destroy them.  In response the people mourned, the people grieved, the people repented and Moses went into the tent of meeting.  The cloud came down, and Moses prayed, verse 15:  Oh Lord, if your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.  For what else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth but your presence going with us? 

You see, Moses understood something, something very important.  It is not the blessings of God that God’s people most deeply need.  It is not a land flowing with milk and honey.  It is not freedom from disease and protection from their enemies.  It is not even the blessing of children and grandchildren and descendants that outnumber the stars of the sky.  It is not health or wealth, honor or success, or any other earthly thing.  No.  What God people need, what gives purpose and meaning and joy to their lives, what makes them uniquely God’s people, is the presence of God.  Not the gifts but the Giver of all good things. 

But you knew that, right?  We know that friendship with God is the greatest and best of his gifts.

We know that if God does not love us and live with us, teaching and guiding and opening our eyes every step of the way, then all will be lost.  That’s why we seek his presence, day after day, night after night in the tent of meeting like Moses.  We do don’t we? That is why we daily draw near and why we keep drawing near even when things don’t go our way, when we don’t receive the gifts we thought we would receive.  That’s why when things are going well, we don’t forget to thank Him and praise and prefer him above all else.

We know that it is the Giver not the gifts that we most deeply need.  We do, don’t we?

Well, Moses did, and therefore he cried, Oh God, give us your presence.  Do not leave us or forsake us, whatever else you do.  Even if you must judge us.  God heard Moses prayer.  Verse 14. My Presence will go with you, He said, and I will give you rest.  And at that point we might have expected the prayer meeting in the tent to be finished.    But Moses is just getting started.

Encouraged by what God has just said, Moses dares to utter one more prayer:  Now show me your glory!

IV.       Show Me Thy Glory!

What exactly is Moses asking for here?  Hadn’t God already shown Him His glory?  Hadn’t God appeared to him in the burning bush way back at the beginning?  Hadn’t God shown His glory in the plagues of Egypt and the Passover?  Hadn’t He showed him His glory at the crossing of the Red Sea?  Hadn’t He showed Him his glory at Mount Sinai in the midst of fire and lightningand thunder and smoke?  Had not God showed Moses His glory day after day as He appeared before him in the tent of meeting?  The answer is:  Yes, He had.           

If God’s glory is the outward expression of his inner being; If His glory is His goodness shining like the sun for everyone to see, then, yes, God had shown Moses & the people His glory.

But apparently, God hears in Moses’ prayer a request for something more. God hears in Moses’ heart a yearning that I would put this way: Oh God, I want to know everything about you.  I want to see and experience the fullness of who you are.  I want to be face to face with you in all your glory, all of it!  I want to be as close to you, as intimate, as I can possibly be. 

This is the yearning of love.  Someone who has tasted the goodness of God day after day in the tent of meeting and He wants more.  Someone who knows enough to know he can’t ever get enough.  Someone who loves the LORD his God with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength and mind. And how does God respond to Moses’ plea?  With a resounding Yes and No.           

Yes, verse 19, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name…in your presence.  I will reveal the glory of who I am to you, Moses, my friend.

But No, verse 20, I will not give you what you ask.  I will not look you full in the face.  I will not manifest all my glory.  You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.  So here is what I will do, verse 22, I will put you in a cleft of the Rock and cover you with my hand, until I have passed by.  Then I will remove my hand and you will see my disappearing back.   That will be enough for you.  That is exactly what God did in chapter 34.   He invited Moses up onto Mount Sinai a second time.  Once again the fiery cloud came down and enveloped the whole mountain.

Hidden in a cleft of a rock, God passed by.  As he passed by He spoke these words, I am the LORD, the LORD.  I am the I AM, the I AM.   

That was the name that God had declared to Moses in the burning bush, His memorial name for all generations.  In this name God is proclaiming that He is the eternal One, Lord and Maker of Heaven and Earth. The One upon whom everyone and everything depends.  I am the I am, God says to Moses.  Then he said,            I am compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and covenant faithfulness, forgiving sin and showing love for a thousand generations. Yet I will not leave the guilty unpunished.

When Moses heard these words, and when he had the sense of being in the manifest presence of God, it says in Exodus 34:8, he bowed down to the ground & worshipped.  On that mountain that day everything was at stake.  The people had sinned a great sin.  They had violated the commands of God with his voice still ringing in their ears.  Moses did not know nor did the people know whether God would forgive.  Had He not sent a plague to punish them?  Had not 3000 died by sword?  When God manifested His glory, what Moses experienced was a God so awesome, so holy, so righteous and pure that he could not look at his face and live.  He could only bow down and worship.  He could only tremble in reverence and awe.  He could only wonder, will we survive?  Yet the words God spoke to Moses were words of forgiving love. 

The eternal I AM, the One and only God who dwells in light unapproachable and full of glory is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.  Yes, God says, I will punish sin.  I will purify my people.  But I will also forgive them for a thousand generations.

In that moment Moses experienced, perhaps in a way he had never experienced before, the God of Holy Love.  He experienced the gospel, 1300 years before Jesus Christ.  He experienced it, according to Paul in Romans 3, because in that moment God the Father was speaking through God the Son and looking forward to the time when he would punish our sin in His Body on the cross.  All Moses could do, and all we could have done if we were there, was bow down with our faces to the ground and worship.
           

V.        So, What Do You Want?

Sometimes I ask people:  So, do want to experience the presence of God?  Do you want to dare to draw near, to walk in his light, to hear his voice and know his heart?  Most people, most Christians anyway, say Yes, I do.  I do. Are you sure?  Our God is an awesome God, a God who dwells in light unapproachable and full of glory.  In Him, the apostle John tells us, there is no darkness at all.  He is high and lifted up, and around His throne the fiery seraphs never cease to

cry, Holy, Holy, Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty.  No one can see His face and live.

As far as I can tell, when people in the Bible encounter this God, not the idea of this God but His reality, when they catch a glimpse of his glory they are unnerved.  They tremble and fall down.  They draw back in fear.  They cry out in the words of Isaiah, Woe is me!  Woe is me!  I am a sinner. 

Even the righteous, like Moses and Isaiah, Peter and John, fall down on the ground like the tax collector Jesus told us about, beat their chest, and cry out, Lord have mercy on me a sinner!  Lord have mercy!  To be in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, even partially revealed, is to experience the blinding light of His righteousness and to feel a piercing sense of our smallness and sinfulness before Him.  It is to be threatened.  It is to know that if someone doesn’t protect us, if someone doesn’t save us, we will die.  But to be in the presence of the Holy One of Israel who is also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be saved.   

It is to hear these words, I AM the I AM…and I am compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving the sin of my covenant people to a thousand generations.  So what do you want?  What do you most deeply need?  Do you want and need the giver of all good things or just the gifts He gives?  Do you want and need to be in His presence even if His presence brings the light of judgment upon your sin?  Or would you rather pretend that God is not holy and bow down to a false god, an image of your own making?

Do you want and need to be forgiven, to repent and bow down?  Exodus 34, verse 8 and 9:

Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped.  O Lord, if I have found favor, grace, in your eyes, he said, then let the Lord go with us.  Although we are a stiff necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance.   

Let me close, as I invite us to worship, with these words from a 4^th century Bishop of the church, Gregory of Nyssa:

            To regard falling from God’s friendship the only thing dreadful and to consider being God’s
           friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire, this is the perfection of life.