THE LOVE AND GLORY OF GOD
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We are not very interested in the glory of God. Instead, we are desperate to know and experience the love of God. This had been my story for many years as a Christian, who failed to see the connection between these two attributes of God.
Moses had sought the glory of God during a time of great disappointment. He had just spent 40 days with God on Mt. Sinai where he had received the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile, down below, Israel had made the Golden Calf and were partying. As a result, for the first time God’s anger broke out against Israel, and many died of a plague.
Consequently, Moses requested to see God’s glory. God’s answer was probably not what Moses had expected:
∑ "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:19-20 NKJV)
Instead of a visual display of His glory with lightning and thunder, God disclosed Himself to Moses:
∑ And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6-7)
Moses seemed satisfied with His self-disclosure and worshipped (Exodus 34:8). Instead of seeing God’s face – and the face best reveals the identity of the person – Moses was only permitted to see the backside of God. Nevertheless, the sight of God’s backside had satisfied Moses, and he worshipped God after seeing His self-disclosure. After all, Moses had earlier requested that he would be given a greater understanding of God:
∑ “I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.” (Exodus 33:13)
God, therefore, revealed His “way” to Moses but not completely, not His “face,” the most revealing part of His Being. This was protected at the threat of death. (Nevertheless, God did reveal His “face” to His people but carefully and at the smallest increments.)
What would His face have revealed? Something that Israel was not ready to see. It was hidden away at the threat of death! Why death? Along with this hidden aspect of God, there was also an object concealed within the Holy of Holies that carried the threat of death to anyone who would look upon it.
It was obscured by the massive wings of two cherubim who were mounted above it. The Holy of Holies could be entered only once a year by only the High Priest on Yom Kippur. Even he was warned that if he looked upon this object, he would die. Therefore, when he was permitted to enter, he had to enter with great billows of smoke lest he would be struck dead by inadvertently seeing this object.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the Ark of the Covenant, its contents (including the Ten Commandments), or the Law, which brought death (Galatians 3:10-12; Matthew 5:21-22). Instead, the forbidden object covered the Ark and its contents – the “Mercy Seat,” also called the “Atonement Cover” (Romans 3:25), the thing that symbolized life and mercy (Leviticus 16:13) the great and carefully guarded mystery of our Savior!
How are we to understand this great mystery? I think that the account of Joseph hiding his identity from his brothers sheds light on this mystery. Joseph too had concealed himself from his brothers when they came to buy grain in Egypt during the famine. Perhaps 27 years had transpired since his brothers had sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt. However, because of the grace of God, the Pharaoh had made Joseph the administrator over all Egypt and their life-sustaining grain, which Joseph had carefully stored for the seven years of famine.
Attired as Joseph was, the brothers did not recognize him. Meanwhile, he made them jump through painful tests over the next years. Finally, when he was convinced that they had passed his tests by demonstrating that they had become men of character, Joseph broke down and could no longer conceal his true identity:
∑ Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Make everyone go out from me!" So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. (Genesis 45:1-2)
Joseph had understood that he could only reveal Himself if such a revelation would benefit all of the parties. His brothers had to be ready to receive Joseph’s self-disclosure. Jesus’ mission had also been concealed. It was only at the end that He began to reveal it more fully:
∑ But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:23-24; 13:31-32)
What glory had our Lord been hiding for millennium? That He loved us so much that He would die the most horrid and humiliating death to prove His love for us, even while we were still His enemies.
Why would He conceal the centerpiece of His glory? There are many reasons for this (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). It took me years to learn that ordinarily we cannot bear the truth. When I became a supervisor at the New York City Department of Probation, I had the naïve idea that if I revealed to my officers my good intentions for them, they would reciprocate. However, they took my kindness for weakness and acted-out. As a result, I had to bring disciplinary actions against two of them. Consequently, they hated me, and I hated them.
Subsequently, I learned (but very slowly) that I first had to teach my subordinates my sternness before they could possibly receive the revelation of my tenderness.
The Law had to precede God’s grace. God had to first convince Israel of His holiness and righteousness before they would ever be able to receive His all-surpassing love, a love that we still cannot fathom. Therefore, Paul prayed that Jesus’ people would know
∑ …the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)
MESSIANIC PROPHECY
Messianic prophecies can be very compelling for those who are truly seeking. Swiss-French theologian, Rene Pache (1904-1979), had argued that they are so compelling that those who reject them are without excuse (Romans 1:20):
∑ It is impossible for every sincere soul not to see there an extraordinary proof of the divine inspiration of the holy Scripture. (The Return of Jesus Christ, 24)
To illustrate his point, Pache provided a small list of those prophecies that Jesus had literally fulfilled:
∑ Jesus was born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22, 23).
∑ In a family of David (Isa. 11:1; Luke 1:32).
∑ At Bethlehem (Micah 5:1; Matt 2:4-6).
∑ On this occasion, little children were massacred (Jer. 31:15; Matt. 2:16-18).
∑ The Child Jesus was carried away into Egypt, from which He was brought back later (Hos. 11:1; Matt. 2:15).
∑ He grew up in Galilee (Isa. 8:23; 9:1; Matt. 2:22, 23).
∑ He was anointed of the Spirit (Isa. 11:2; Luke 4:17-21).
∑ He took upon Him our maladies and our infirmities (Isa. 53:3; Matt 8:16, 17).
∑ He made His entry into Jerusalem seated on an ass (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:4, 5).
∑ He was betrayed by one of His intimate friends (Psalm 41:10; John 13:18).
∑ His disciples abandoned Him (Zech. 13:7; Matt. 26:31).
∑ He was sold for 30 pieces of silver which served to buy the Potter’s field (Zech. 11:12, 13; Matt. 26:15; 27:7, 10).
∑ He was delivered to spitting and buffeting (Isa. 50:6; Matt. 27:30).
∑ He was offered gall and vinegar to drink (Psalm 69: 22; Matt. 27:34, 48).
∑ Not one of His bones were broken (Exod. 12:46; John 19: 33, 36)
∑ His feet and hands were pierced (Psalm 22:17; John 20:25).
∑ His garments were divided and drawn by lot (Psalm 22:19; John 19:23, 24)
∑ He was put to death among malefactors, and He had His tomb with the rich men (Isa 53:9; Matt. 27:38, 57-60). (23-24)
Even with this impressive list, there were many prophecies that Pache didn’t list for one reason or another. Here are just a few from the Book of Genesis:
∑ He is the promised seed of the woman who would destroy the source of evil (Gen. 3:15).
∑ He is the seed of Abraham through whom the whole world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3).
∑ He would come from the tribe of David (Gen. 49:50).
However impressive these explicit messianic prophecies might be, I find myself more drawn to the implicit ones. Actually, there are cryptic portraits of the Messiah contained in such accounts as Jacob wrestling with the Angel, who turns out to be God (Gen. 32), or the mysterious portrait of God being struck down by Moses because of the sins of Israel (Exodus 17).
Both types of prophecy illustrate the fact that the Bible is about the Messiah. In the Old Testament, Israel looked forward to His coming; in the New, we look in both directions – back to what He has done for us and ahead to His return.
