Intercession (8)
Moses desired to
know the ways of God, to see the glory of God; Moses wanted more than to see
the acts of God, he wanted to know God intimately. Yahweh promised Moses that
when Moses returned to the mountain that He would reveal Himself, in a measure
(Ex. 33:20 – 23), to Moses. Thus we read:
Let’s note three
things before we continue with 34:5 – 7:
“Then Yahweh
said, Behold, there is a place with Me, and you shall stand there on the rock…”
(33:21). This “place” and this “rock” speak to us of our Lord Jesus Christ – it
is ever and always in Jesus Christ that we have koinonia with God. Moses experienced
a measure, a dimension, of this koinonia and its glory, but a greater glory was
coming.
“So be ready by
morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there
to Me on top of the mountain.” (34:2). Our lives are to be a continuing
offering to God, and this should be an earmark of every morning of every day of
our lives (Romans 12:1 – 2). We are not our own, we have been bought with a
price, and every morning we should be “ready” and “present our bodies a living
and holy sacrifice,” not “conforming ourselves to this age,” but rather we
ought to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds," so that we may
live out the "will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Carnal
Christians, those who live according to the “flesh,” get up in the morning and
do what they want to do, setting their own agendas and trajectories. However,
those sons and daughters living and led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14), acknowledge
every morning that their lives are not their own but belong to Jesus Christ, presenting
themselves – heart, mind, soul, and body – to God every morning, as living
sacrifices in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, proclaiming that
by the Cross of Christ they are crucified to the world and the world is crucified
to them (Galatians 6:14).
The third thing
to note, is that in Jesus Christ we receive the fullness of God and we “see” the
glory of God (John 1:14 – 18; 14:6 – 9). This fullness is ever expanding within
us, ever growing, ever transforming us (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). This means, among
other things, that as glorious as Moses’s experience and understanding was (see
Exodus 34:29 – 35), that compared to the glory of Jesus Christ and His Gospel,
that it has no glory:
“For if the
ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of
righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no
glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was
with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.” (2 Cor. 3:9 – 11).
The life of
Moses is a pattern of “greater things” yet to come, as is the history of Israel
(1 Cor. 10:11). If we are not learning
to see beyond the history, then we are not reading and understanding what we
call the Old Testament as it is meant to be read and understood (Luke 24:27, 44
– 47), for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings reveal Jesus Christ.
Are we content
to just know the acts of God? Or do we hunger to know God and His ways? Are we
looking for exhilarating experiences, or are we seeking His Face so that we
might know Him intimately? Is our knowledge and relationship with God based on
externalities, or are we living in union with Him? Consider the dynamics of the
New Covenant:
“After those
days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them
on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
(Hebrews 8:10).
“Jesus answered and
said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love
him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23).
O that we would
know what it is to cry, “Abba Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6)
