The Glory of God
Download MP3Invite you to open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. We've been going through, the gospel through the life of Moses, and we're gonna do that even though this is Advent season for a number of reasons. One, I hope you have seen it by now that the life of Moses, the entire book of Exodus, all of scripture points to Jesus. All of the Bible is Advent.
Jeffrey Heine:All the Old Testament is Advent, looking forward to when he comes. In John 546, Jesus said, if you believe Moses, you would believe me for he wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. John 539, one of my favorite scriptures. Jesus looks at a bunch of people and he says, these are the religious leaders of the day, and he said, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have life, but these scriptures testify about me.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. And these are people who are guilty of reading their scripture, reading their Old Testament, their Bible for more for moralistic teachings, for something to make them feel religiously superior. And Jesus said, no, they talk about me. It points to me. In Luke 24, after Jesus had risen from the dead and he's talking with the disciples, he said to them, everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
Jeffrey Heine:He looked at the law, the 10 commandments, The the law that we looked at a couple weeks ago, and he said, the law talks about me. Its ultimate fulfillment is me. And it's one of the reasons that we've been going through the book of Exodus. And we're gonna read all of chapter 33. I was trying to think of there was anything we can leave out and there's not.
Jeffrey Heine:And so you can read along with me. The Lord said to Moses, depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt. To the land of which I swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob saying, to your offspring I will give it. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Hevites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people.
Jeffrey Heine:When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are stiff necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments that may know what to do with you. Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.
Jeffrey Heine:Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp. And he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.
Jeffrey Heine:And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man would not depart from the tent. Moses said to the Lord, see you too see you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
Jeffrey Heine:Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. And he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us from here. For how shall it be known that I found favor in your sight?
Jeffrey Heine:I and your people. Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do for you have found favor in my sight. I know you by name. Moses said, please show me your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by where you shall stand on the rock And while my glory passes by, I will put you on a cleft on the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord, I ask that you would speak for so much of the law that we have read is about life and giving life and I can't give that Lord, my words are death, but your words are life, so come and speak life through your spirit. I ask that my words would fall to the ground, that they would blow away, that they would not be remembered by anyone. But Lord, let your words remain and may they hit their mark and change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. There is a lot to unpack here. My hope is that God will use this message to unpack in particular the word glory. The word glory. God, he desires that this word glory becomes so much more to us than than just something we casually pray about or we we offer up in song about his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:My desire is that, like Moses, we would pray, God show me your glory. That that would be the cry of our hearts. You know, we sing a bunch of songs with the word glory in it, and we all know scripture like, first Corinthians 10, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Here we've done the Westminster Confession of Faith in which the very first question, what's the chief in a man? And it's to glorify God and enjoy him forever, but that word glorious, vague.
Jeffrey Heine:This chapter helps us understand what it means. Chapter 33 begins with God telling the Israelites to leave Mount Sinai. Leave. They just worshiped the golden calf, and he said, leave. They've just committed idolatry.
Jeffrey Heine:And Moses, he goes up and he pleads with the lord to forgive the people their sin. And actually the text says that Moses, he went up there and he tried to make atonement. In chapter 32 verse verse 30, it says, he went to make atonement for the people. And he didn't bring any sacrifice with him, which is very unusual. You can't go and make atonement if you don't bring a sacrifice, and it's because Moses was offering himself as a sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:He said, blot me out of the book. Take me. Let me atone for these people, and God looks at this offer of substitution and he says, no. No, Moses. No.
Jeffrey Heine:I will visit their sin upon them, And we'll look at more of this at the end. God tells them to go, and then look at what God promises them. Look in verse 2. He says that he's going to send an angel before them, an angel. Now notice that this is not the angel that we have seen a number of times in scripture where whenever you see the angel, that's pretty much synonymous with the Lord himself.
Jeffrey Heine:It is his presence. But here he says, I'm gonna send an angel, just an angel to go before you, to lead you into the promised land. But I am not going with you. My messenger will take you there. Now Jewish scholars have often understood this to mean that what Jesus is actually saying is the whole tabernacle thing that that we're gonna look at next week, but the the whole tabernacle that I've told you to build, and I've given you all these meticulous instructions about how to build it, forget it because you don't want my presence.
Jeffrey Heine:Just go. You don't have to worry about the tabernacle. You don't have to worry about worshiping. You don't have to worry about all the sacrifices. Go to the promised land.
Jeffrey Heine:I'll send a messenger to take you there. Make sure you get there safely, but I am not going with you. I'm not going with you. What God is saying is, based on what I just saw that you did with the golden calf, it's obvious you do not want a relationship with me, which is what this was about. So go.
Jeffrey Heine:Enjoy all the fruits of the land. I give you all that stuff I promised you. I'm just not gonna be there. And I want you to pause and just really think at what exactly God is offering the Israelites here. He he's offering them everything they want without him.
Jeffrey Heine:He's offering them heaven without my presence. You can have you can have it all just without me. You can you can have that great house. You can you can have the the the spouse you've dreamed about. You can have wonderful kids.
Jeffrey Heine:All of the wealth, the promotion you want. You can have all of that stuff, and you don't even have to worry about going to church on Sundays. You don't have to worry about prayer. You don't have to worry about feeling guilty about any of that because I won't be there. You don't have to worry about me.
Jeffrey Heine:You can have it all. And if you think about it, man, wow. It's like the American dream. That's what you labor for. That's what you would long to have.
Jeffrey Heine:All of that stuff, and we don't have to go through all the labor of worship. Now look at their response to this. Verse 4. When the people heard this disastrous word, disastrous word, My my family has a season pass at the Birmingham Zoo. When you have kids, you need to get a season pass because kids only wanna be there 15 minutes and then they go crazy.
Jeffrey Heine:And if I didn't have a season's pass, I'd be saying you're getting your money's worth, we're staying here for hours. But now we can just kind of come and go. And my kids always want to go. Now one time several months back, I I told our kids, alright, you don't really wanna go to the zoo. You wanna see the sea lions, which is their favorite, or the monkeys, and they're getting so excited.
Jeffrey Heine:And I said, okay, I don't really wanna go, so I'm just gonna drive you there and drop you off, and I'll pick you up in an hour. Okay? And and y'all have fun. And I would not I would not do that. I'm I'm not that kind of dad.
Jeffrey Heine:Wouldn't even cross my mind, but you should have seen their faces. It's like, the the zoo without you? And I got to realize that the zoo is just an excuse for them to be with me. You know, for our fun Fridays, Fridays are my day off, and for for us to be able to go and just, they have my attention and they're with me, and it's the relationship they're after when we're at the zoo. It's not just seeing the animals, which is great, but it's not fun.
Jeffrey Heine:Unless they could say, daddy did you see? Daddy did you see? Daddy did you see? A 1,000 times as we go through. That's what they want.
Jeffrey Heine:The relationship. That's what Israel is finally realizing that they want. It's not so much the promised land, it's the relationship, and it's finally dawning on them. Him. I've said this several times over the past few months, but there's actually a word for getting everything that you want minus the Lord, and that word is hell.
Jeffrey Heine:It's hell. Hell is the absence of God's presence. Hell is when God says, have your own way. Go at it without me. Jesus experienced this when he was on the cross and he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken?
Jeffrey Heine:Why have you left me? Why can I not feel your presence? So when God offered everything except for him, basically saying, here's hell. Do you want it? And they sought for what it is, a disastrous word.
Jeffrey Heine:Now when Moses hears this disastrous word, he he rushes out of his tent, that he would keep outside of his camp to go and meet with the Lord. This isn't their tabernacle, this was just his own personal little tent here. And and verse 11 is really amazing. Look at this. Says, thus the lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to a friend.
Jeffrey Heine:Now just a few verses, you need to understand this. God says, no one can see my face and live. And so he's not talking literally face to face here, but he's talking about a relationship. When you are talking with somebody, you look them in the face. You don't look at their toes.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't look at their elbow or anything like that. When you're when you're having a communication, a personal communication, you look them in the face. And when it says, Moses spoke to God face to face saying that he had that kind of relationship, conversational friendship with the Lord. Just amazing. And all of Israel was to have this.
Jeffrey Heine:Deuteronomy 32 is an amazing passage of scripture says, but the lord's portion is his people. Jacob is his allotted heritage. He found them in a desert land, and in the howling waste of wilderness, he encircled them. He cared for them, and he kept them as the apple of his eye. This is what god does at Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:He says he kept them as the apple of his eye, which is a horrible translation. Apple of his eyes because Hebrew is a very visual language, uses a lot of idioms that just kind of don't come over well. Literally in Hebrew, it's, and he kept them as the little man in his eye or little eye in his eye, which is awesome. What what it's talking about is god is so close to the other person's face, he sees his own reflection. I see my eyes in your eyes.
Jeffrey Heine:I see my face in your face. You're the apple of my eye. You're the little man nigh. God said the same thing to David in Psalm 17, where David prayed this, he said, keep me as the apple of your eye, keep me as the little man in your eye. Keep me that close, God.
Jeffrey Heine:Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Now look at what Moses says to the Lord in verse 15. And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I found favor in your sight? I and your people is a knot in your going with us so that we are distinct?
Jeffrey Heine:I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth. Moses says, God, if you will not go with me, if your presence will not go with us, then we're just gonna stay here. We're gonna sit in the desert. We're gonna die. We're we're we're not gonna go anywhere if you don't go with us.
Jeffrey Heine:And you need to understand and not sorry. I don't mean to go into Hebrew that much, but the word for presence, if your presence is the same word as face, it's panim, if your face will not be with us. Moses who has had this face to face intimate relationship, and he says, if I can't carry that relationship, indeed if all of Israel cannot have that relationship, we're not going because we need to see your face or we'll die. In verse 16, at first sounds kind of arrogant. God, how are these people gonna know that you think I'm special, that you favor me unless you go with us?
Jeffrey Heine:And it really kind of sounds arrogant at first when Moses says this, the reason he wants God to come is so God's people will know that he's favored, but it's not that at all. He explains what he means when he says, god, your presence is the only thing that makes us different from every other people, every other nation on this earth. Your presence is the only thing that makes us distinct, and I don't want to be like every other person on the face of this earth. I want to be different. I want to follow your rules and your law.
Jeffrey Heine:I want to be generous with my wealth. I want to give up, wanting power so much. I wanna give up these things and I want to know you. That's what sets us apart. I want to show the world your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:And this text actually, you could say it tells us the meaning of all of life. You don't have to work so hard at trying to find out what that is. You don't have to climb some really steep mountain and, you know, talk to a monk in a robe to, to give you the meaning of life. It's right here. It's to know the Lord and appoint others to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Pretty simple. To know the Lord and appoint others to the Lord, and that's it. Moses said, if I cannot do that let me die. And all Moses really is asking, it's not that radical, he's asking for the chance to be human. Can I be a human?
Jeffrey Heine:Can I be who you created me to be? You created me to know you. You created me to point to you. Will you allow me just to be human? I was made for this.
Jeffrey Heine:Don't deny me this. And the Lord listens to the intercession of Moses and says, okay, okay, I will go with you into the promised land. And when Moses gets this answer, it, it emboldens him And look at verse 18. He says, please show me your glory. So he asked for this greater thing.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay. You're gonna go with us now since you're going with us. Show me your glory. Show me your glory. Now the Hebrew word, glorious kabod, and it means literally heavy.
Jeffrey Heine:A great seventies term that needs to come back, and it actually has some of the same, same weight to it. The heaviness, if something is serious, if something is like, woah, it's heavy. It's real. Man, what you said as substance. Very similar, the glory of God, heavy, weighty.
Jeffrey Heine:It can't be moved. This is solid, which is a another good 70s term making its way back. Glorious. Everything else is like vapor, but but God you're real. You're a rock.
Jeffrey Heine:You're glorious. My brother, he has this picture. He went off for one of his adventures to Alaska, and when he brought he brought back this picture, and it's of Mount McKinley, which is the tallest mountain in North America, and, it takes up the entire frame. I mean, it is huge. And there's my brother in front.
Jeffrey Heine:And next to him is a sign that says Mount McKinley, 100 miles away. 100 miles away. And it looks like he's standing at the base of it. That's the mental picture I have of glorious. Heavy.
Jeffrey Heine:Solid. You could run as fast as you could at that mountain, and if you hit it, it's going nowhere. It's reality. You're a vapor. You're nothing, and you just stand in awe of that.
Jeffrey Heine:Moses wants to see that. Now I've talked to a number of people over the years who actually have a problem with with God always wanting to show people's glory, or people to ascribe to him glory. The nations ascribe to him glory, and I guess the problem is that they think that sounds so shallow. It says as if God is, you know, up in a cloud and he's gonna do a few tricks here and say, are you impressed? Are you impressed?
Jeffrey Heine:Can I hear it? Come on. Come on. Tell me how good I am. Tell me how awesome I am.
Jeffrey Heine:And and it's almost like he just wants people to pat him on the back. Tell me I'm glorious. And it's a good question. Is this really what god is like when he says, he commands people ascribe to me glory? Don't I, you know, I'm gonna smite you.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a misunderstanding of God. God's not like us, he doesn't need to feel better about himself. He doesn't need our little pat, you know, on the back. Now, if he was one person that might be true that he would need us, But God exists in a trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in a perfect relationship who is always praising one another, who is always blessing one another, who is in that perfect friendship, and he needs nothing apart from that. He doesn't need any outside word.
Jeffrey Heine:He has all the affirmation he needs within himself. And praise does not benefit him, it benefits us. We benefit from God's glory. I mean, if you've ever been to to, you know, Niagara Falls, if you've ever been to Mount McKinley, if you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you're never going to stand there and just think, man, I am awesome. I mean, what are y'all looking at that for?
Jeffrey Heine:Look at me. I am awesome. You don't do that. I I've been to, Ireland 14 times, and every time I go there, if I can stand up on a 1,000 foot cliff, and I have never once stood up there and looked out and thought, man, I am something. Wow.
Jeffrey Heine:I forget all about myself. And I just want to look because it's glorious. Because I was made to behold, to take in glory. And when I sit there, I just go, woah. I'm doing what I was made to do.
Jeffrey Heine:And when I look at that and I'm all by that, I'm the one receiving from ascribing that as glorious. And praise is simply going, did you see this? Did you see that? That's awesome. That's praise.
Jeffrey Heine:And we were meant to praise because it gives us joy. And as much as the heavens and the earth declare the glory of God, those things are merely a reflection of his glory. What Moses is here is asking, I don't want to see the reflection. I want to see the real thing. Show me God your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:And I want you to picture this from Moses who had already been up on Mount Sinai with smoke and fire and trembling mountain and all of that stuff, and he says, yes, I've been there seen that seen that. I want more. Show me your glory. And there is no greater request, but at the same time, remember, he is simply asking to be human. Allow me to be who you have created me to be, someone who beholds your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, let's see how this happens. Look at chapter 34 verse 5. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord which is Yahweh. Anytime you see the Lord in all caps that is Yahweh. Proclaim the name of Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love for 1,000. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the 3rd and the 4th generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshiped. So what does God's glory look like?
Jeffrey Heine:All the things we've been singing about and praying about. Well, it says the Lord passes by. This is what his glory looks like. It says the glory the Lord passes by and he declares his name twice. Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh. And then he explains what he means. And this is where all of Exodus has been pointing, is towards this right here. You wanna understand the glory of the Lord, you got to understand this text. Real quick, let me read this part again.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for 1,000, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin God, but who will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and the children's children, and the children's children's children, and the children's children's children's children, I will see the iniquity on them. And you have here 2 completely contradictory statements when God declares his name. Says, you wanna see my glory? Here it is.
Jeffrey Heine:I am faithful and I forgive. I am merciful, and I will not let iniquity go unpunished. And I will take it on your children, and your children's children, into the 3rd and the 4th generation. You have 2 totally contradictory statements. I am forgiving, and I will be just, and I will punish.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what the glory of God is. Well, how in the world can God hold these two things here together. This points to Jesus. This so clearly points to Jesus. I can't walk through all of Exodus again to tell you how Jesus has been pointed to throughout.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me just go back a couple weeks. When Jeff preached on the golden calf. Have you ever thought why is it that God was so angry with him worshiping an idol, that image? And it's because there is only one true representation of God, and that's Jesus Christ. Even the law itself is to point to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:In Colossians 115, it says, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and there can be no other representation. And so when he gets so angry at this, he's saying, you're running it because this actually paves the way for my son. He will be the true image. If you look back to the beginning of this message, and we we saw Moses, he went up before the Lord in Exodus 32, it says to make atonement for him. And he didn't bring any sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't bring a goat. He didn't bring a lamb. He offered himself. God rejected him. Why?
Jeffrey Heine:Because it have to be a perfect sacrifice. Moses, I appreciate the offer, but your sacrifice does no good, must be perfect. The sacrifice must be my son. Jesus would later make the sacrifice of atonement for us. And here we see the glory of God passing by, and what I want you to picture is this points to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:John 114 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son of the father. Full of grace and truth. And notice that last little part, full of glory and full of grace, full of truth. Grace and truth, 2 contradictory statements right there.
Jeffrey Heine:Full of grace, full of forgiveness, full of truth, full of the law. Jesus holds both of those together. He's full of the same contradiction that we just read. Indeed, that contradiction points to him. And in Christ, we see both forgiveness and we see both punishment and his death.
Jeffrey Heine:And his death where God shows his absolute mercy and God also shows how he hates sin and inequity. And that is the blazing center of the glory of God is the cross. You wanna know what the glory of God about is study the cross. See what happens to Jesus. See what is taking place there.
Jeffrey Heine:God who is gracious. God who is faithful and merciful, abounding and steadfast love, and God who punishes those who commit iniquity. God can be both forgiving and demand punishment in Jesus. And by having his son down the cross, he reveals his glory. So every time we sing the word glory, every time we pray the word glory, I want you to picture the cross in which God there reveals his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord, the Lord. That's Jesus. That's Jesus. But I will by no means clear the guilty. That's the death of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the God that we serve. Pray with me. There is no God like our God. No God like our God. When the psalmist cried that out, he wasn't speaking in hyperbole, that is fact.
Jeffrey Heine:When we look at your name, the Lord, the Lord, and what you ascribe to that, there is not another religion that comes even close to the things that we believe and sing about. I ask that the word glory would become more than a word to us. It would become our hearts cry. Show us your glory, and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
