I BESEECH THEE, SHEW ME THY GLORY

In communion with God in prayer Moses had been assured of God’s continuing presence and of the rest which that brings. The steps ahead will still be unclear but with his hand in God’s all will be well. Emboldened by this promise, and enjoying this closeness to God, ‘thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name’, v. 17, Moses now prays, ‘shew me thy glory’. What he wanted was not only to see the majesty of God but to understand Him fully. The primary meaning of the word ‘glory’ is width, breadth, or possibly, height. What Moses was after was an understanding of the dimensions of God, or the ‘weight’ of God.

We know that God is without limitation and that He cannot be fully known. It is impossible to look on the effulgence of His glory; it is impossible, except in His Son, to understand in measure who He is and what He does. God responds to the desire of His servant to know all by allowing him to know more. To Moses He promises to demonstrate His glory in His goodness, so that it will be possible to comprehend Him, at least in part.

No man can see God and live. While we cannot know Him fully, He is nevertheless anxious that we should make progress in divine things. God says to Moses in a beautiful phrase, ‘there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock’. There is a place even nearer to God than perhaps we are presently experiencing. That place is in the enjoyment of full fellowship with His Son, the Rock of our salvation. In the cleft of the rock, covered and sheltered by the hand of God, we can be acutely aware of His presence as He passes by.

From time to time, He may remove His hand and we have the opportunity to glimpse something of His goodness and glory - but to understand more fully we must wait for eternity.

Like Moses, we too need to make progress in our knowledge of God. We may do so much more easily than Moses as we can look upon the Son, who has made the Father manifest. Glory is not just an attribute of God; it is the outworking of His goodness through us. ‘Shew me thy glory I will make all my goodness pass before thee’. May that be our experience too.