Now show me your glory

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”’  Exodus 33:18 (NIV)

If you want to know the heart of a man, listen to what he requests in prayer. And I am not talking about his public prayers for it is difficult for a man to be naked in public. But if we could eavesdrop on what a man prays for when he is alone with God, then we can have a peep into his heart’s pursuit. That is the privilege we have in this passage in seeing Moses’ heart from his prayer.

One cannot help but wonder at this request:

‘Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”’

Think of the audacity of this request! Why did a man dare to ask for such a thing? Where did he learn that from? Indeed such things are only learnt in the school of God for those with hungry hearts. That’s why one cannot but marvel at the heart behind this prayer. Notice that this request comes immediately after God had said, in the preceding verse, that Moses’ earlier request that his Presence should go with them, was granted. That should have been enough to satisfy any ordinary man – God was guaranteeing that he would go with Moses and his people and was going to distinguish them from all other nations. But that was not enough for this ‘man after God’s heart’ – he longed for much more than anything God could give him – he longed for God himself hence the cry:

“Now show me your glory”

In these days when the most spiritual among us are waiting for what will drop from God’s hands, may the Lord grant us hearts that cry, “Now show me your glory!” It is not a matter of saying these specific words to the Lord, for there are many who use these words, but the Lord knows that they are not asking for the same thing that Moses was . They do not understand what the glory of God is. ‘God’s glory’ is one of those terms that is used much by Christians, but so often not fully understood.

What did God understand Moses to be requesting when he said, ‘Show me your glory’? We can tell from his response:

‘And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”’ vs 19 & 20 (NIV)

Let me rephrase God’s response to Moses: ‘You cannot see all of me. You can only see a part of me since no mortal can see me in my totality and continue to live here on earth.’ So God understood that Moses was asking to see God in his fullness. Just like the glory of a man is the man in his fullness, void of any impediment, so too the glory of God is God in his fullness – God as he is without anything to veil him from us. The glory of God is, God in his essence – it is God himself. So what Moses was asking for here was not what God can give, but God himself!

Of course, as the Lord goes on to say here, this is beyond what any finite mind can see, yet notice that God does not deny him his request, but rather grants Moses as much of himself as Moses could bear. God is pleased for a man to seek his glory, and those who seek like Moses did, are never disappointed by God, for God wants to reveal his glory to those who long for it.

So this was the prayer of Moses – the cry of his heart – ‘O Lord, reveal yourself to me as you are. Show me who you are. I want to know you. Intimacy with you is what I long for.’

I pray that the Lord will grant me, and you, a heart-cry like that.