BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

to conceal and cloak Himself, so they could come as close to Him as possible. What did the people do? They did not come close. Instead, they said to Moses, "You go talk to God for us and pass along to us what He says." So, that's what Moses did. He wasn't at all reluctant to meet with God on Mount Sinai. He wanted to do it. Rather than being put o by the power of God's presence, Moses pressed into it. Joshua followed him part of the way up the mountain and then stopped because he couldn't handle the manifestation of God's glory. But Moses went all the way to the top. It wasn't the last time he did so, either. Over the years, Moses continued to press into God's presence. As he did, his hunger to experience more of God kept increasing to the point where, in Exodus 33:18, he cried out to the Lord, "I beseech You, show me Your glory!" (Amplifi ed Bible, Classic Edition). He wasn't saying, "I want to see mist, more clouds and sparkles." Or "I want to see a miracle or some spectacular sign and wonder." He'd already seen plenty of those things. In Egypt, Moses had seen with his natural eyes more of God's power on display than any of us have ever seen on this earth. He saw God's wrath poured out on His enemies and His mercy manifested miraculously on behalf of Israel. In the wilderness, he saw water come out of a rock and manna come from heaven. His request wasn't for God to show him more of what He could do; He wanted to see God Himself. He wanted to know Him. He wanted to be engulfed in His presence. As an unborn-again man, however, such close contact with God would have killed Moses. So, God had to hold him back. He did reveal more of Himself than ever before, but He told Moses that to do so He would have to hide him in a rock to protect him. I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim My name, THE LORD, before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy and loving-kindness on whom I will show mercy and loving-kindness. But, He said, You can not see My face, for no man shall see Me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place beside Me, and you shall stand upon the rock, and while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen (verses 19-23, Amplifi ed Bible, Classic Edition). The King James Version says God showed Moses His "back parts." What does that mean? It certainly doesn't mean He showed Moses His back end! No, He showed Moses what was behind Him, in the past. Moses' record of what he saw became the biblical record of Creation. How else do you think Moses knew about Adam and Eve? He saw and heard God create them! God is alive in eternity (Isaiah 57:15). He is alive in the past, in the present and in the future. He is not boxed in by time, so He opened Moses' eyes to see what He had already done. In the process, He gave Moses a picture of what He would one day do through Jesus. Jewish scholars teach that God revealed Himself to Moses only as much as Moses had capacity to see, which was His goodness. What Moses really wanted, though, was more of God Himself. He wasn't satisfi ed to relate to Him only as a divine Person on a throne. Even simply knowing the Law, His Word, wasn't enough. Moses wanted to know Him as a living Being, to experience as fully as possible the reality of His presence and have a vital, intimate, personal relationship with the God who created and upholds the universe. I want that too, don't you? And even more important, it's what God wants. It's why He sent Jesus. Not just so we can learn the mechanics of faith and get answers to our prayers, but so we can apply those "mechanics of faith" and have what Moses so passionately desired—to be in the Father and have the Father in us. 1 2 : B V O V

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