Thursday 8th August 2019 Prayer Devotion
Scripture Reading:- Exodus 33:12-33
Topic:- God Manifesting Himself To Moses [4]
Text:- Exodus 33:18
It deserves special notice here that the answer given by God to Moses shows in what his glory really consists. The glory of the Lord, then, consists in his goodness. It is not as some seem to suppose some dazzling splendor, some effulgence of light ineffable and overpowering. No such thing as this seems to have been thought of; but Jehovah’s goodness–the intrinsic excellencies that compose his character.
And these glories of his character were brought before Moses when, passing along, he proclaimed those glorious and most expressive names. Every word in this description is full of most emphatic meaning. O how does it reiterate and amplify the precious thought that God is love.
O what a request this must have been for a mortal man to make! But what reply did the Lord make? Did he say, “Take care, Moses, take heed what you ask?” Let us see. O how ready, how infinitely condescending and gracious! I will make thee know my name. For by God’s name we are to understand his character, since all his names were originally significant, and each expressed some leading attribute of his character.
Thou canst not see my face, said he; thou canst not bear the view of my unvailed glories; no man can see me in this perfect sense and live. The Lord grants him all he can give. Moses was in a state of mind so disinterested and confiding that God could deny him nothing which was possible in his mortal state;–nothing which could be essential or useful to his success in the great work before him.
None of the Hebrew people except Moses seem to have gone through this preparatory process. They had not been thoroughly impressed with the awful majesty, purity and strictness of the holy law of God. Hence they could not appreciate these manifestations of his goodness and not another one of the whole nation was allowed to be present with Moses in this glorious interview with God.
It is important in this connection to notice the precise moral attitude in which Moses stood before the Lord. He was now commanded to prepare himself two new tablets of stone. The circumstances in which the two formerly prepared were broken, you will all remember. Moses had been with the Lord on the burning mount; had tarried long; at last returns and finds that the people had made a calf and were engaged in the grossest idolatry. His indignation was kindled; he dashed the stones to the ground and broke them to pieces. The Lord seems not to have rebuked Moses for this outburst of indignation; it appears to have been under the circumstances entirely proper and acceptable to God, as was also his subsequent conduct in calling on the Levites to take the sword and slay those of their brethren who were leading that horrible iniquity and would not desist.
In all this, the Lord seems to have fully accepted Moses. Let us now pursue the thread of our history. Moses prepares the two tables of stone, and goes up early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him and lo, the Lord descends and meets him there. What an interview was this for a mortal man to hold with the great God! Think of the circumstances there was God!
Prayer Point:- Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Happy 2019 T.A.C.N. LAWNA International Thursday Convention! www.timogundelejesu.com
