Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.”Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.And he said, Show me, I pray thee, thy glory.
4 sermons cite this verse
And see, what you have to understand if you read the whole chapter, Moses is trying to figure out God's name because God has only told him that I am that I am. And he says, I want to know you. I want to have a deeper relationship. You have known me. I want to know you. So the Lord says, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'm going to say that again because a lot of people don't understand that. God makes up his own mind who he chooses to bless. God will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Get out of my business. That's my business. Leave that up to me. I choose. I decide. I make the rules. Am I not the potter and you the clay? God is saying, I do what I want to do. If God gets ready to bless you, let him bless you. …
… Now, today we're looking at this fascinating spot in verse 11 where it says, The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. What's friendship with God? Why would God dare call himself our friend? And let's ask the question of the text like this. Why is friendship with God so important? So why is it so important? Then secondly, what it is? And thirdly, what it brings? And lastly, how we get it. Why it's important, what it is, what it brings, how we can get it. Now, number one, why is it important? You have to understand this incident here where Moses goes out to the tent of meeting and gets things from God. You see, for example, it says, whenever Moses would go out, all the people rose and stood at the entrance of the tent. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would ask Moses, and then Moses would go into the tent, what is this all about? It's very simple. …
"And he said, I beseech You, show me Your Glory." Exodus 33:18. THAT was a large request for Moses to make. He could not have asked for more. "I beseech You, show me Your Glory." Why, it is the greatest petition that man ever asked of God! It seems to me the greatest stretch of faith that I have either heard or read of. It was great faith which made Abraham go into the plain to offer up intercession for a guilty city like Sodom. It was vast faith which enabled Jacob to grasp the Angel. It was mighty faith which made Elijah rend the heavens and fetch down rain from skies which had been like brass. But it appears to me that this prayer contains a greater amount of faith than all the others put together! It is the greatest request that man could make to God—"I beseech You, show me Your Glory." Had he requested a fiery chariot to whirl him up to Heaven. Had he asked to cleave the water-floods and drown the chivalry of a nation. Had he prayed the Almighty to send fire from Heaven to consume whole armies, a parallel to his prayer might possibly have been found. But when he offers this petition, "I beseech You, show me Your Glory," he stands alone—a giant among giants—a colossus even in those days of mighty men! His request surpasses that of any other man—"I beseech You, show me Your Glory." Among the lofty peaks and summits of man's prayer that rise like mountains to the skies, this is the culminating point. This is the highest elevation that faith ever gained—it is the loftiest place to which the great ambition of faith could climb—it is the topmost pillar of all the towering structures that confidence in God ever piled! I am astonished that Moses himself should have been bold enough to supplicate so wondrous a favor. Surely, after he had uttered the desire, his bones must have trembled, his blood must have curdled in his veins and his hair must have stood on end! Did he not wonder at himself? Did he not tremble at his own boldness? We believe that such would have been the case had not the faith which prompted the prayer sustained him in the review of it! …
"And he said, I beseech You, show me Your Glory. And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And He said, You cannot see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is aplace by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while My Glory passes by, that I will put you in a cliff of the rock, and will cover you with My hand when I pass by: and I will take away My hand, andyou shall see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:18-23. IT has frequently happened that good men in times of great trial have asked God either to give them a signal token of His love, or a special Revelation of Himself, that they might be strengthened and encouraged thereby. I suppose of many here present it is true that when called by the Master to great labor or deep affliction, you have been conscious of the same inward desire—your heart has craved after some extraordinary dispensation of Grace to counterbalance the extraordinary visitation of suffering that has overtaken you. Were you indulged with singular nearness to God and unusual glimpses of His Glory, you feel it would then be easy to leave all matters in His hands and acquit yourselves valiantly—strong for service, whatever there is to do—and patient in enduring whatever there may be to bear. That prayer, "I beseech You, show me Your Glory," is a natural yearning, a spontaneous impulse of the soul. Albeit, I know that there is a grievous incredulity, a sinful unbelief which asks to see signs and wonders—and without them men will not believe— yet I think there is a desire which springs up in the breasts of Believers from an earnest childlike feeling of dependence upon the great Father God which is not sinful, and which God accepts—and to which He often sends a gracious reply. …