A Life Changing Look
Exodus 33:12-16, Exodus 12:37, Exodus 32:11-14, 31-32, Exodus 33:18, 20-23,
2 Corinthians 3:7
October 17, 2004
(Exo 33:12-16 NIV) Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, ’Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ’I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"
I. We see and anxious Moses plead for help. God, you tell me that to lead these people but you don’t tell me who’s going with me. Are you traveling with us or not? If you’re not going with us then let’s call the whole thing off.
A. Really, you can’t blame him. He was surrounded by grumbling Israelites who wanted to go back to Egypt. He was surrounded by a dessert full of parching winds and blazing rock.
B. Not long before this he had been a simple shepherd and now he was a leader of people, and commander in chief.
C. He needed assurance. He needed to know that he was not in the task alone, much like all of us are at times. And he got his assurance. God said I will do what you ask because I know you and I am pleased with you.
D. You’d think that would have been enough, but it is usually not enough for us so it shouldn’t surprise us that it wasn’t enough for him.
E. Moses hung around, maybe he was thinking about what God had said, "hmmm He did say I will do what you ask....maybe God will grant one more request", so he swallows hard, and makes his request.
F. What would you think he would ask for? He apparently has God’s attention, and God seems to be willing to hear his prayer. It does say that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face.
G. He senses the opportunity to ask for anything he wants, what will he ask for?
H. There are about a million things he could ask for, because that is about how many Israelites he saw when he looked back.
(Exo 12:37 NIV) The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
I. If there were about six-hundred-thousand men there were at least a million adults. A Million stiff-necked, unappreciative, cow worshiping, ex-slaves who grumbled with every step. Maybe Moses thought about asking if God would turn them all into sheep...at least sheep follow without grumbling.
J. I can almost see Moses thinking ahhh sheep. It was only a few months before that Moses was in this same dessert, near this same mountain, watching a flock. It was definitely different this time.
K. Sheep don’t make demands, and they don’t make a mess out of blessings. And, they don’t talk about going back to Egypt, and they don’t make Golden cows for sure.
L. And, what about the battles that are coming with the Hittites, and Jebsusites and all the other "ites" and a we complain about termites and cellulite.
M. Moses had to be asking himself, can I make an army out of this grumbling bunch of Pyramid builders?
II. Moses snaps out of it, what do I ask...first thought....can you just beam us to Cannan and have all the people there leave before we get there...nope better not ask that.
A. Moses knew what God could do, and the whole Middle east was still talking about Aaron’s rod becoming a snake, and him being crazy enough to pick it back up.
B. They remembered the Nile river running with blood, and gnats so thick that you breathed them, and frogs filling up all the houses, blackness in the middle of the day, and the funerals of the first born.
C. Everybody knew about the Red Sea parting, and the Egyptian army being wiped out.
D. I’m sure Moses hadn’t forgot about the very mountain that he was standing on moving. The mountain shook and I am sure that Moses’ knees did too, so Moses didn’t doubt what God could do.
E. But he didn’t doubt what these people were prone to do either.
F. Moses had a habit of calling them "these people" a lot and I don’t think it was a term of endearment.
G. He had already found them dancing around a Golden Calf. He was carrying the handwritten words of God in stone and found them dancing around a golden farm animal.
H. Aaand, he threw his clip board about then. See, its biblical. Not only that he melted the cow pounded it to dust and made them drink it.
I. God was ready to be done with them and do the Noah thing with Moses and start over, but Moses pleaded for mercy for them twice.
(Exo 32:11-14 NIV) But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ’It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ’I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’" Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
(Exo 32:31-32 NIV) So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."
J. I have wondered if Moses ever thought about that later and said, " What was I thinkin."
K. One way or the other, God was touched by Moses’ prayer and said I will see it through to the end.
L. But Moses needed one more thing what would he ask for? He asked for glory.
(Exo 33:18 NIV) Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
M. Nice choice Moses! When we make a request like that we cross a line. When the deepest desire in us, is not what God can give us, or His granting a favor, but God Himself, we cross over from self-focus to God focus.
N. We move from less about me to more about Him. Show me your radiance God! Moses was basically saying show me your muscles daddy so I will know its all right.
O. Let me see your heart stopping ground shaking power. Let me see you!
P. Forget money, forget power, forget the strength of my youth, I can deal with an aging body, but I can’t live without you!
Q. I want an extra helping of God. I want to see more of your glory!
III. So why did Moses want to see God’s greatness, because he wanted to know that it was going to be all right. He wanted to know that there was something more to it all than what he saw. He wanted to know that there was more to life than dessert.
A. Moses pleads show me your glory. Stun me with you strength! Stagger me with you wisdom! Steal my breath with the presence of yours! Give me just a peek at who you really are!
B. And, sure enough God answers the request. He puts Moses in a crack in a rock and he says you can’t see my face, because no human stand that, I am going to put my hand over you. What must that alone have felt like to be under the hand of God?
C. Then God said, I am going to take my hand away and you will see my back.
(Exo 33:20 - 23 NIV) But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."
D. So Moses crouches in a crack in a rock with his pulse racing until God gives the signal, and Moses gets a glimpse of the heart and center of the Universe.
E. Because, a glimpse of God was worth more to Moses than anything else, and the effect of it can be seen. His face glowed.
F. It was unknown to Moses, but it freaked everybody else out.
(2 Cor 3:7 NIV) Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
G. The people who saw Moses, didn’t see anger, they didn’t see worry, or pain, even with the circumstances the way they were. THEY SAW THE GLORY OF GOD!
H. Did he have reasons for anger, reasons for worry, reasons for pain? You bet he did.
I. A dessert and forty years of challenges ahead of him. Grumbling people, and wars, and heart ache waiting, but that’s not what they saw when he put looking on God’s face above all else.
J. And having seen God’s face he can face anything, even a couple of million Israelites.
IV. Let me ask you something. Shouldn’t Moses’ desire be your desire, my desire?
A. Yea we’ve got problems, we live in a dying body, on a decaying planet, we have falling economies, wars, terrorism, cancer, and disease.
B. These are no small issues, so do we need a small God? I don’t think so! We need a what Moses got, a glimpse of the glory of God! And, a glimpse can change us forever!
C. We need to put seeing God’s face above everything else in life, and come into the presence of God. We can see his face in a way that His glory changes our appearance.
D. And, when we see His glory, his glory will radiate from our face and people will want to know what it is that we have, and we can tell them and they will be changed and we will never be the same again.
E. Show me you glory, God! That should be our request, not just so we can say I’ve seen the glory of God, but so that others can see that we have seen the glory of God without us saying a word.
F. Make your priority in life seeing the glory of God and you will be able to face anything that you come up against and people will see God in your face.
G. Forget the other stuff, and shoot for what really counts, make the focus of your life Moses’ request. GOD SHOW ME YOUR GLORY!
