Seeing God

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Seeing God

Exodus 33-34 Justin Deeter — August 16, 2015

Introduction Isn’t the aim of every religion to see God? Isn’t that our greatest hope—to see the face of God, to know him and to be known by him? Isn’t that what our restless heart long for? But how can we know God? How can we see him? Is there no question more important? As we look at our mundane lives, do we not long for something more? Do we not long for deeper satisfaction? As St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” But there are two problems. The first is that we are blind. Sin blocks us from seeing the truth. Like a blind man standing over the glories of the grand canyon, we can not see it and we can not comprehend the beauty. Though God himself might be right in front of our face, we do not have the spiritual sight to see him and know him. But there is a second problem that keeps us from seeing God. God is distant from us. Our sin both blinds us and distances us from God. God is holy, perfect in his radiant glory. For a sinner to step into his presence, he steps into death. As a result, God has distanced himself from us. God kicks us out of Eden and we can no longer walk with him. The relationship between God and humanity is fractured. So how might those two problems get fixed? Well the different religions of the world seeks to solve them in different ways. If you are a Muslim you are called to work through obedience and claw your way through your own righteousness to where Allah is. If you are buddhist you are called to empty your mind to nirvana. Through self-denial and introspection your blind eyes

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can see transcendent realities. Our how about the religion of moralism (Even a pseudo-Christian type of moralism), so common in our country which tells us that the way to see God is to be a good person and do the right thing, then you can see God. Which way is right? How can we really see God? Well all of these religions and philosophies of living never get to solve those two problems. The reason is simple. Human beings cannot solve the problem of spiritual blindness and separation. It can only be addressed by a gracious act of God. It is as foolish as trying to surgically cut a deadly mass of cancer out of your body by yourself. You can’t do it, you need a physician to do that for you. The same goes for a sin, except it not human doctors will do, we need the great physical named Jesus. As we look at Exodus 33 and 34 today, we are going to see just how sin separates us from God, but also how God by his grace brings us near into his presence to see his glory. My prayer for you today is that you would see the glory of God, and that you would love his holiness and that you would be brought near into the satisfying presence of God through Jesus Christ. You will remember from last week, the people of Israel majorly failed. The people broke the covenant with God by creating and worshiping a golden calf. This act of idolatry destroys God’s relationship with the people. In fact, we see that God is ready to destroy them in his holy and just wrath. In these two chapters today we will see how God renews the covenant relationship with his people, and how that covenant is renewed by grace.

1. Sin Separates Us From God (Ex 33:1-11) The first truth we must understand is that sin separates us from God. At the start of Exodus 33 we see that God is ready to let the people go on their way without him. He charges the people to leave from Mount Sinai. God will send one of his angels to lead them and bring them into the land, but his presence is not going to go with them. Now you have to remember that it is God himself who has led the people to this place. He is the one who crushed Pharaoh in the plagues. It is the

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presence of God that led the people through the wilderness by a cloud of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, the comforting and powerful presence of God is going to abandon them. The great hope of a tabernacle in which God will dwell in the midst of his people seem to be fading away. God is distancing himself from his people because of their sin. The people mourn in response to this news. God is rejecting them because of their sin. So they take off their fancy clothes as an indicator of their grieving and mourning over this news. The people are distressed and anxious that God has decided not to go with them. We are also told that the tent Moses would go to to meet with God was placed far off and outside the camp of Israel. In contrast to the tabernacle which was supposed to be in the center of God’s people, and indicator of God’s presence in the midst of the people, now the presence of God dwelt outside of the camp. It is physical description that describes the spiritual realities. Whenever Moses would go out to that tent of meeting to meet with God, the people would rise up and stand by the entrance to their tents and watch in expectation. As they watched Moses go to meet with God, they knew that Moses was going to intercede on their behalf. Could Moses convince God to go with them? Could their sin be forgiven? Could the covenant be restored or is all hope lost? There is great heartache that comes from separation from God. Even though you might not even believe in the existence of God, you feel that heartache. There is a longing in your soul that cannot be explained. Their is an anxiety for peace that you do not understand. There is a restlessness in your heart even though you may possess the riches and pleasures of the whole world. Though you might have it all, in the quiet of your soul, when you lay in bed at night staring into the thick darkness of the room, there is a longing for something more. You see, we were made to see the face of God. The longing in your heart is to love and be loved by God. You were made to

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find your satisfaction in him. That sinking feeling you sense in your soul is the pain and agony of your sin-caused separation from him.

2. We must Long for God’s Presence (Ex 33:12-23) A second truth we must long for God’s presence. So Moses continues his ministry of intercession, again modeling for us how Jesus interceded on behalf of the church. Moses goes before God and asks God for help. If God is not going to go with the people into the promise land, that means Moses will be on his own as the leader. The people have already demonstrated they are stiff-necked and sinful. Moses is anxious about leading the people without God’s help. So Moses begs that God would be with him as he leads the people. Look at Exodus 33:15-17, “And he said to him, “‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?’ and the lord said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’” (Exodus 33:15-17) So God tells Moses that I will be with you as you lead. Even though my physical presence will not be with the people, God tells him I will be with you. You see, God has a fond affection and love for Moses. God tells us that he knows Moses by name. Now, obviously God knows Moses’ name, so what does God mean? Well it means that God and Moses have a personal relationship. Moses spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend. Apart from Jesus, no other man in the people had such a personal and intimate relationship with God. God promises he will be with Moses as he leads. Yet, Moses is still a little anxious. He needs something solid, a sign of God’s promised power. He knows how difficult it will be to lead the people, so he asks God, “Please, show me your glory.” Now Moses had seen more of God’s glory than anyone else. He regularly speaks to God and enters into the cloud

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of smoke where God’s presence is. Yet, Moses longs for more of God. He wants to know God better and he wants to experience more of him! How few there are who truly long to see God! Even among Christians it is such a travesty that so many seem to have no hunger for more of God. How few there are who diligently seek him and who pray such prayers as Moses, “Please, show me your glory.” We may be hungry for a sandwich or eager to know the latest sports scores or the latest news, but how few of us who seek God with such intensity. It seems to me that many of us are more obsessed about learning about the personal lives of celebrities than we are about knowing God. We keep up with the DOW, the latest trends on twitter, or the latest updates on the presidential election, but how few have a zeal to know God. Like Moses, may we long to know God and to see his glory! God tells Moses that no one can see his face and live. For a sinner to gaze at the unrestrained glory of God is to die. Yet, God tells Moses that he will allow Moses to see his back. He puts Moses in the cleft of the rock and passes by. Moses gets to see the backside of God. Moses, who possess such a unique and personal relationship with God, is still a sinner. He cannot see God face to face. Even though Moses longs to see the face of God, he cannot handle it. We need a great intercessor who not merely sees the back side of God, but his very face. We need an intercessor named Jesus who not only sees the face of God, but who is the face of God.

3. God restores our relationship to him by Grace (34:1-28) A third truth we must remember is that God restores our relationship to him by grace. In Exodus 34 we see God restores and renews the covenant promises by grace. God instructs Moses to get new tablets, like the first ones that were broken. The covenant of God with his people will be renewed. All of this is by the very grace and mercy of God. Look at Exodus 34:6-7,

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“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the inquiry of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” (Exodus 34:6-7) So the Lord chooses to have mercy on his people. He is the gracious God who shows forgiveness to his people. This is an important truth to understand. In order for our relationship with God to be repaired it is not dependent on us, but it is dependent on him. There was nothing Israel could do to cause God to renew the covenant. They had broken it, and God was under no obligation to restore the covenant. He didn’t have to forgive them, but God did so. The same goes for us. If we hope to see the face of God, it is going to take his initiative and his doing. Salvation is dependent on God who has mercy. As the Lord says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19). So salvation then is not dependent on the will of man, but on the gracious will of God. So Moses has already asked that God would be with him as the leader, since God will not be going with the people. Now, Moses begins to ask God that he would come be in the midst of the people. In Exodus 34:9 Moses asks, “If now I have found factor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” Moses is begging the Lord to go with them. Then God by grace says yes! God then restores the covenant. It is the exact same covenant as the one before, but God willingly establishes it again. In Exodus 34:10-28, we get a brief summary of the covenant code we read earlier in Exodus 20-23. Though Israel did not deserve to have the covenant restored, God by his own

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gracious initiative gives the people forgiveness and promises he will be with them.

4. Through Jesus we see God with Unveiled Faces (34:29-35) When Moses comes down off the mountain after being up there for forty days and forty nights, he came down with his face shinning with the glory of God. His radiant face was so frightening that the people were frightened by it. What does Moses’ shinning face teach us about what it means to see God? First, men and women can know God intimately and personally. You can actually see the face of God. This happens through Jesus Christ alone as we are under a new and better covenant. Through the blood of Christ we are granted access by faith into the presence of God. For those in Jesus, we have been gifted with the Holy Spirit. So now, the presence of God is not some external thing outside of us, but God dwells within our hearts. This means that we are able to know and see God. Second, when a Christian sees the face of God, it changes him, often without realizing it. Moses came down the mountain unaware that there was something different about him. Yet when Aaron and all the people looked at him, the knew something was very different about him. There are people in our lives, men and woman of God whom we know, that we can just tell that they know God. The character and glory of God just seems to reflect off of them in their speech and in their actions. We can tell that they have been in the presence of God. When we as Christians begin to long to see God more and more in our life, we are transformed. To be in the presence of God is to be transformed into his likeness. As we seek God daily through the personal study of the Scriptures and through prayer, that time of seeking God begins to transform us. We are shaped and molded into his image, often without our conscious realization. Perhaps the reason there are so many immature Christians who seem just as carnal as the world is because so many are not daily seeking after the face of God.

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In your own devotions it is very easy to get discouraged. Seeking after God is not easy work. It takes discipline, courage and patience. Opening up the Bible every day to hear from God and getting on our knees in prayer takes great work. Sometimes it feels as if you are wasting your time or you are not getting anything out of it. But do not give up! Seek him; be like persistent Jacob who while wrestling with God would not let go of the Lord until the Lord gave him his blessing. We will do well to remember the words of Jesus, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Now, how are we to understand Moses’ shinning face in light of the new testament. How do we understand Moses’ shinning face and the people’s terror at Moses, and why did Moses need to veil his face? Well to do that we must turn in our Bible to 2 Corinthians 3, where the apostle Pauls helps us to understand what this means. (Preaching the Bible has to be one of the greatest jobs in the world, but also one of the easiest, especially when the Bible interprets itself. It is like having a cheat sheet!) Lets look at 2 Corinthians 3:7-12: “Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For its what was being brought to an end came with glory much more will what is permanent have glory. Since, we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.” (2 Corinthians 3:7-12) So what is Paul tellings us here? Well he is telling us that the Old Testament Covenant at Sinai was certainly a glorious one, but it was unable

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to really change the hearts of the people. Rather the Law simply brings upon us condemnation, because we do not have the ability to keep it. We see this in the whole golden calf incident. Our sinful hearts are unable to keep the covenant of God. So Paul’s reasoning goes like this. If there was glory in the Old Covenant that brought condemnation, the ministry of the new covenant brought by Jesus is that much greater. In fact, the glory of the Old Covenant was fading and its glory came to an end. And now we have a new covenant written in the blood of Jesus that gives a permanent glory. This is is why Moses veiled his face. Because, the glory radiating off his face was fading. It was temporary. His face was veiled so that Israel might not understand that this covenant was but a temporary covenant that was being brought to an end when Jesus comes. Lets keep reading and see the point Paul is making starting in 2 Corinthians 3:14-18. “But their minds are hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:14-18) So Paul says, the new covenant brought by Jesus fixes the real problem. As we have stated, it is a problem of spiritual blindness that keeps us from seeing God. Paul says that as the Jews read the law of Moses their understanding is veiled, they cannot perceive and understand how the Old Covenant points to the more glorious covenant through the death of Jesus. You see, Jesus not only pays the penalty for our sin and makes us righteous through his blood, but Jesus gives us eyes to behold the glory of God. The veil of spiritual blindness is only taken away by the grace of God in Jesus. For those who turn to Jesus, they are able to truly see. They are given

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spiritual sight to gaze upon the face of God! It is the Spirit that does this work and this new spiritual sight gives us great freedom to see God as He is. So now as Christians, saved by Jesus, there is no need to veil our faces, because the glory of this new covenant is unfading. It is permanent! As Moses comes off the mountain, the glory of his face faded. That is why his face was veiled. But the veil has been dropped. Now, you can gaze upon the face of God with an unveiled face, permanently finding satisfaction as you are transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to the next! You see, Jesus solves those two problems we outlined at the start. Jesus brings us close to God by paying the penalty for our sins on the cross, so now in Jesus separation from God is no longer an issue. But Jesus also solves the problem of spiritual blindness. By the sovereign grace of God, our eyes are open to see the beauty of God’s holiness and glory. So if you are in Jesus Christ, you can see God. Not just one day when you go to heaven, but right now, today you can experience the glory of God in a way far better than that of Moses, because you do not need a veil. The presence of God permanently dwells within you through the Holy Spirit. So Christian, gaze upon the face of God today. God has opened your eyes to be able to see the gory of God in Jesus Christ! You can behold the King in his beauty! (Isaiah 33:17) The day is coming Christian when one day we will stand before God in his glorious presence and we will not have to look at his backside, but redeemed and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus we can gaze upon the face of God. We can see him. We can know him. We can be satisfied in him. The way we see the face of God is by looking into the face of Jesus. He bridges the gap and he opens our eyes.

Final Thoughts If you do not know Jesus today, I pray that you’re eyes are open. If you are not in Christ, you are blind and you need to see. But like a blind man you

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cannot make your eyes open and you cannot restore your sight. Neither can I open your eyes this day to see the glories of the beauty of God’s holiness. Only God himself can do that. And it is my prayer for you this day, that the veil over your eyes might be lifted by God and that you would see the beauty of his glory and come to Jesus in faith for forgiveness, salvation, and joy. I do want to ask a question to the Christians in this room, well at least to the professed Christians. Do you love and long to see the holiness of God? If the answer to that question is no, then there is no way you are a Christian. True Christians find the beauty of God’s holiness so attractive they cannot help but to seek him and love him. So do you love the holiness of God? Notice the question is not, “Do you want to go to heaven”. After all, who doesn’t want that? But, has God given you eyes to see his beauty, and a passion to know and experience his glory? I am afraid that there are many professed Christians in our day and perhaps some in our church whose only aim is simply not to go to hell. You may have great fear of God, but you do not love him. You may understand God’s sovereign judgement, but you do not see God as attractive and beautiful. To truly be a Christian means that you have been given a spiritual sight to know and love the excellencies of Christ! If you call yourself a Christian, do you have this God-given spiritual sight, or are you just a moral church going person, who comes to worship just to check off some self-righteous check-list, as if that could save your soul? If you have no love for God and if you do not see the beauty of God’s holiness, my prayer for you is that God would first lift the devil’s deception in order to prove to you that you are not a Christian. Then, it is my prayer that God would give you this spiritual sight and cause you to be born again in true saving faith. Perhaps some of you just need to confess today, “I’m still blind, God give me sight.” For those of who are truly in Christ, let me encourage you this day in your pursuit of seeing and knowing God. You will be transformed into one degree of glory to the next. As you long to know God more fully, God will one day bring you into his presence and will fulfill the great desire of your heart. One day you will see God. © 2015 Forest Hills Baptist Church

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