Exodus 33 • In the Cleft of the Rock

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

One of the sweet ways that we see the Scriptures giving us Jesus is revealing His nature long before we hear His name. One of those places is Exodus 33 that I'll ask you to look at in your Bibles now, Exodus 33.



 You know when I was in elementary school, the place of terror was the principal's office.



 Sorry, Angie and Ken and Tom.



 But the place of mystery was the faculty lounge.



 I mean, who knows what lurks in the dark shadows and deep secrets of the faculty lounge?



 Well, the mystery of Exodus 33 is not the faculty lounge, but the tent of meeting.



 Before the tabernacle was built, Moses met with God in the tent of meeting, face to face and spoke to God as a man speaks with his friend. Let's see what they talked about. Let's stand honoring God's Word, Exodus 33 and verse 12.



 How did that conversation in the tent of meeting go?



 Verse 12, "Moses said to the Lord, "See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me.



 That you have said, I know you by name, and you've also found favor in my sight.



 Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order that I may find, in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.



 And he that is the Lord said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.



 And he that is Moses 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 have found favor in your sight, 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, and I know you by name."



 Moses said, "Please show me your glory."



 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 me where you shall stand on the rock.



 And while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of 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."



 Let's pray together.



 Heavenly Father, our prayer is not different.



 Show us your glory.



 And our requirement is not different.



 We know to see your glory, you must cover us with your hand.



 Providing for us forgiveness and pardon and softness of heart to receive the word that you give.



 We would not go from this place unless you would go with us. So guide us by your word and will and the love of your Son.



 We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.



 Please be seated.



 When Kathy's and my first child was born, we were living in rural, small town, southern Illinois, which is not the wilderness, but it was way out there.



 Which meant when that new baby came, the hospital in which he was born was a long way from our house. So after Colin, our firstborn, was birthed, I went home that night, but then got up very early the next day to drive to the hospital. And as I drove, I was anxious to see Kathy. I was anxious to greet our newborn son. And as I was driving back to the hospital through all those corn fields, I began to recognize the corn stalks were whizzing by pretty fast.



 Now I won't say I was speeding, but I was speeding.



 And as I was speeding, it suddenly hit me, "What will happen to Kathy and our child



 if something happens to me?"



 And that slowed me down.



 But also sent me down another highway of anxiety and worry. Because I began to think, "If something happens to me, what will happen to my child?" Yes. But now that I have another mouth to feed and medical bills to pay and a mortgage and college tuition and PTA meetings, I didn't just slow down. I began to pray.



 "Lord, I think I need some help here."



 It's not so unlike what Moses is doing in Exodus 33.



 It's what everyone does, who is a parent or a pastor or a grandparent or a Sunday school teacher or discipleship leader. If you are responsible for the spiritual care of others, you begin at some point to feel the weight of that and say, "God, I'm going to need some help here."



 How do you pray for that?



 How do you pray for God to help you with the spiritual care that you're supposed to give?



 Moses helps us. It comes quite early. He just says, "Lord, show me the way I'm supposed to go. If I'm supposed to care for other people, if I'm supposed to lead other people, show me the way." Verse 13, "Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight."



 I mean the Lord is saying to Moses, "You need to go from here, Mount Sinai, start heading toward that promised land." And there is just the problem of, "I need a map here."



 "Lord, show me the way."



 Because that isn't quite the words that are said.



 "Lord, show me your ways."



 As though Moses is not simply saying, "Don't just be a compass. Don't just mark the map for me." After all, Moses has the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. He doesn't really need map directions.



 What he needs is understanding of the ways of God, not so much the way to go as the way to live.



 After all, that is what the rest of verse 13 says. "Show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight." Show me who you are and what you require. And while we recognize that starts us down a whole other path of wondering, it is also a measure of comfort that to discover the ways of the Lord, we are not automatically called upon to summon miraculous pillars of cloud or pillars of fire. That the way in which God is primarily leading His people, even in Moses' time, is by showing them His ways, His nature and His name, what He's like and what He requires. Because even on that road being led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, there are hundreds, if not thousands and thousands of decisions being made by these people day after day and night after night. And they are saying, "Show us your ways. How do we live?" And that's not so much being exposed by a miraculous sign as by faithful living.



 I need to know that.



 My heart, my culture at times may be saying, "Look for a sign. Should you do this or should you do that?" But Jesus Himself said, "It is an evil and adulterous generation that looks for a sign.



 Instead we are not being led so much by the miraculous as by daily faithfulness.



 Lord, show me Your ways."



 Because I recognize if I am making righteous decisions according to Your Word, You direct the path.



 Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. If I am making decisions based upon righteousness, there really is no wrong path.



 Now people sometimes, even believers, get paralyzed. Should I go that path or that path? And I love being able to say, "Now is there something evil in your intention down either path? Are you being guided by God's principles and priorities?" Because if you are being guided by God's principles and priorities, there is no wrong path. Well, it might not be the one He wants me to go to. Well then He can easily redirect you.



 That's within His power and His providence. We don't have to become paralyzed in thinking, "I've got to have this miraculous sign."



 Faithfulness is God's means of guiding, taking us to the place that He wants us to go. I think of how Kathy's father prayed all of his adult life that I knew their family. It was even at every dinner meal it might have gotten old, but he would sometimes say, "Lord, lead us and guide us. Make us a family after your own heart. Make our decisions, our priorities daily faithful because that's how we believe that You will guide us." And it's not just guiding us in God's ways. We begin to recognize, as I am guided in God's ways, I begin to discover His person, which is ultimately what Moses is praying, "Also, show me your ways so that I may know your name, so that I know what you require. I begin to discover who you are as I follow your ways."



 We live in an older home right now, which means at this season, time of year, I have to change some of the settings on the HVAC by going up into the attic and actually changing some of the wiring in our system as we move from cooling to heating.



 Now the first year we were here, I must tell you, this is not my expertise, is fiddling with wiring. And so as I went up into the attic and began to say, "All right, how do I move this plug to there and which, you know, which is really the exhaust fan for the winter and which is for the summer?" And as I began to show my line up toward the plug and the electric outlets to figure it out, suddenly I saw that the previous owner had written directions for me, as if to say, "Plug it in here, dummy." No, it really wasn't that at all. It was actually a sign with fingers saying, "Winter setting, summer setting."



 Now I appreciated the instructions. I began to appreciate the person who'd gone ahead of me. I began to understand something not only about their intelligence and their ability and their skills but their heart, to show me the way.



 And it begins to tell us why, as Moses is praying, not only show me your ways, he's actually saying, "God, show me your person too, because if I'm following your ways and I'm doing what you intend, I'm willing to do it because I know who you are and I'm beginning to discover who you are by following your ways."



 All of her childhood, Kathy was raised with her grandmother living next door.



 That's the grandmother that so much wanted to be a missionary to China that through her young adult years, she not only went to college studying to be a missionary to go to China but read accounts of missionaries in China, wanted so badly that she just immersed herself in the accounts of missionaries in China.



 But because of health issues, never got there.



 Yet in her senior years, when her mind got a little fuzzy, she actually believed she had been a missionary to China.



 But that's not all that she believed.



 Because she had been a pastor's wife through the Great Depression, there had been difficulties for them as they had pastored small churches in Illinois and Iowa. Not much income, not much availability.



 And she lost her husband at an early age and then lost a son and then by a brain tumor lost much of her physical ability, which is why she lived next to Kathy's parents all of their adult lives.



 But by living next door, Kathy and all of her siblings spent a lot of time with that grandma.



 And the thing that all of them would cite as most typical of her, the thing that most resonates in their memory from her, who had suffered many things in this life, was the smile that would greet them and say goodbye simply expressing, "The Lord has been faithful to me."



 Wait, don't you know the problems? Don't you? She well knew.



 But she believed as she had walked God's path, what he was doing was revealing himself, the one who provides comfort and peace and strength to bear. And that God had been revealing himself to her in this broken and difficult world. And for that reason, she believed profoundly that God was still directing her life and that she could trust him because he had proven himself trustworthy in the way that he had provided the safety net and the family and the love and even given her the mission to children and grandchildren. And I look at my life as now I've married her granddaughter and been given the privileges of ministry. And I'll just tell you, because of the privileges of this church, in 2020, I will go to China and I will minister in what is the largest worldwide Chinese conference to those who gather in Hong Kong. And I think this grandmother would never have known her prayers, her God, her way was being unfolded in a way she could not have anticipated.



 But the Lord was being faithful to her.



 And as we begin to understand that, we see these words so differently. Verse 13, "Not just Lord revealed your ways and revealed your person, but ultimately this is in order," says Moses, "to find favor in your sight." Lord revealed your ways?



 So I know your person, so I win, no he didn't say that, so that I see what is favorable in your sight. Now, some of your Bibles do not actually translate that word favor.



 Some of your Bibles say, "In order to see your grace."



 It's a Hebrew word that could be translated either way, but what you begin to recognize is Moses saying, "Lord, I'm not just praying that I will know what to do to bribe you with my good works.



 I'm praying that I would see where you are leading me. I'm asking that you enable me to trust you into the path of grace that you are planning for my life. Give me your ways.



 Tell me who you are so I can follow you into the grace that's intended for me."



 A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity with my sons and a son-in-law to hike in Yosemite in California. Not been there before. So on that first day, we went up a very steep incline, going through dense woods, many switchbacks, so that it was hard to go. And at times it just seemed we were going exactly the opposite direction that we were intending to go.



 But when we ultimately got to the final tunnel of trees and out into it open, we suddenly looked out over Yosemite Valley, blue sky, huge snow-capped mountains surrounding the valley, beautiful, beautiful bushes flowering, waterfalls pouring into the valley. It was this beautiful, amazing sight that while we were on the path going up, we never knew it was there. But suddenly we saw all this great provision that no human hand did or could have planned. This great exhibition of the glory of God. And I think what we do as we are praying to God, "God, I don't know all that is needed, but God, show me your ways and help me to understand who you are because I believe that you are leading me outward into a path of your favor. Tell me to trust you enough that I take the path, even at times where I seem to be going a different direction, to trust your ways that you are leading me to the grace that you intend all along."



 I must tell you, I say those words looking out at people who have grown very dear to me. And I recognize for some of you the switchbacks in life have been really tough.



 Children's health, so difficult. The marriage, not what you intended. The children not going the ways that you intended. A spouse who's turned away from the Lord. And through it all, you're wondering, "What does God want from me? And what God is still saying is, "Walk in my ways. I've not gone away. I've not abandoned you. Walk in my ways." And I recognize this may be dark for us for a time. I recognize there may be switchbacks. It seemed like you're going a direction you never intended to go, and even seems to be against my own nature. But I am leading you to the place of my full expression of grace, either by your maturity in this life or by the heaven I'm preparing for you, or those who are witnessing your life around you in your life. Walk in my ways and I will show you my glory.



 It's got to be tough at times. And we know it's going to be tough if we're just walking by ourselves.



 And so that's why Moses prays for all of us the words of verse 15. Not just, "God, show me your ways." Remember verse 15? "Moses said to the Lord, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here."



 All right, God, I may understand that there's a good end to all this. I may understand that you have a purpose greater than I can see.



 But don't send me that direction. Don't send me that way.



 If you won't go with us, I need to know that you are with us on the way.



 Last week I was in Washington, D.C. for a pastor's conference, and that gave me opportunity to visit with my oldest daughter and her family in their new home in Washington, D.C. And also time to spend with their son and my grandson, Gabe, who is kind of a tottery two-year-old.



 But I wasn't in the house for 30 seconds when the parents said to Gabe, "Gabe, show Papa your room."



 And Gabe, like, made a beeline, racing to the stairs, looked up the sharp incline, and recognizing there was some danger, looked back with some anxiety and anticipation and said, "Papa, go with."



 And as soon as I came and took his hand, energy and strength and zeal to shoot up the stairs,



 which worked for a while until I'd seen every book and every toy and every corner of that room. And then the parents, recognizing that not only was I wearing out, but he was wearing out, said, "Gabe, you want to show Papa your trains?"



 So we raced to the basement stairs, and Gabe looks down the stairs to the dark basement



 and looked back and said, "Papa, go with."



 And when I took his hand, the stairs were still steep and the basement was still dark, but he was able to go.



 Sometimes the world and even believers get it wrong.



 They believe that what we are offering in a relationship with the Lord Jesus and His Father God is a world without difficulty, a life without problems, ease, no more problems. We believe actually the opposite.



 We believe that we live in a fallen corrupted world, and until Christ comes, we live by the strength of God, not by the ease of our times. And the consequence of that is, I recognize and you recognize, there are great difficulties that God calls us to face, whether it is faithfulness to children who are wandering, whether it is faithfulness to a spouse who has turned their back on the Lord, whether it is faithfulness to God in the time of our own health's failing or age's corruption.



 We say, "I will live for the Lord because He is with me, and because He is with me, I can face whatever I need to face because He is Immanuel."



 And the same God who met in that tent of the meeting would ultimately come in the person of a son and He would be with us. And His promise would be that by His Holy Spirit, He would maintain His presence with us regardless of what the world throws at us. He's with us.



 And so when my daughter and her husband rejoice in Gabe, always there is the background of my knowing and their knowing. This is the child who was born with just one kidney.



 And because of the atrophied other kidney, in his first many months of life, had to take the repeated trips to the hospital, had to go through the tests that were so difficult for child and for parents and for grandparents.



 And even now we have the regular checkups saying, "Are things okay? Are things okay?"



 And now we're just weeks away from a little sister coming for Gabe, who in all the tests that the doctors do these days has also given us a scare or two.



 But what will we believe?



 God show me Your ways.



 You want faithfulness now for Gabe's sake, for neighbor's sake, for family's sake. You show us that You are the God in a fallen world. But You will never leave us or forsake us. We believe You are with us. And for that reason, we can walk with You wherever You call us to go. And it's this awareness of not just the presence of the promise of God, but God Himself saying, "I will be with You," that gives us strength and gives us witness in a world. We are not saying to the world, "No more problems if you're a believer." We are saying, whatever the world throws at you, here comes the God of all comfort, the God of all providence, the God of all grace, who is preparing eternity for those who love Him, who is doing what is exactly right so all things work together for good. So we trust Him and we walk with Him because He will walk with us.



 Somewhere in the human heart there are instincts that treasure that reality. Whether or not people claim to be Christian in all their understanding.



 On Facebook ten days or so ago, there was a friend who posted, just gave my name at Starbucks, the name she gave.



 The Lord be with you.



 So that when the order was ready, the barista cried out, "The Lord is with you." And half of Starbucks responded, "And also with you."



 I doubt if all understood what they had said, but they treasured the meaning enough to say it.



 Our hearts long for the Lord to be with us and treasure it and are comforted by it so that in this church there's a very dear, godly woman who is known by her neighbor to walk with the Lord.



 And so when the neighbor was diagnosed with a serious cancer, she came to talk to the godly woman in our church and said, "Would you pray for me because I know you're tight with God.



 He's with you."



 And there's value in that and there's goodness in that. So much so that when the godly woman in our church was herself then diagnosed with cancer,



 the two of them come together to pray, "God be with us."



 Because if you're with us, we believe we can face anything.



 Meet every commission, meet every trial, do what you're calling us to because you are with us. And the great exhibition of that is you sent your son to be with us and to give himself for us so that we could be with you forever. It was your design, it was your plan, it was your declaration that you would be with us. And we know in this broken world, in this fallen creation, we desperately need a God who will be with us wherever we have to walk.



 But there will be no value in that if there is no greatness in Him.



 And for that reason, Moses adds a dimension to his prayer, verse 18.



 Moses said, "Please show me your glory.



 If you're really with me, if I'm really entering into your grace, show me your glory."



 So I have confidence to live for you and comfort in the hard things.



 Such a simple prayer.



 Show me your glory.



 One little problem that God Himself notes, verse 20.



 But the Lord said, "You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.



 Show me your glory."



 I can't do that. If I show you the full radiance, the intensity of my holiness, you will surely die.



 We recognize already in this very same chapter, we have been told that Moses has spoken to God face to face in the tent of meeting. But God was appearing in that pillar of cloud, not the full intensity, not the full on glory.



 And you may remember back in Exodus 24, the elders and Moses saw God, but it was through



 that sapphire translucency that we don't quite understand, as though God had put on the safety glasses for His people, that they could see Him without the full intensity of the glory. But now, even as you read your verse, verse 18, Moses said, "Please show me your glory." The word in some of your Bibles is actually translated "abundance," because the word glory there is that of the full measure, the full glory. The word, don't filter it, don't insulate it.



 Show me the whole wad.



 Give me everything.



 And in that, the Lord says, "I can't do that, but I can do this."



 Three things are offered, verse 19.



 First, the Lord 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 on whom I will show mercy on whom I will show you my goodness."



 Now, we don't know fully what that means yet, but I'll, not full glory, but I'll show you goodness whereby you will know my name, which by the way, remember, is Yahweh, which means what? I am who I am, who I am.



 And I will show you my nature.



 I'm gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'm merciful to whom I will be merciful. So I will show you goodness so that you know I am merciful and gracious. I will show you that goodness. What else will I show you? Verse 21, "The Lord said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on a rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I pass by. I will show you my goodness. I will show you my protection."



 We love the image, don't we? That there is the glory, the intensity, the judgment of the holiness of God on display.



 And God says, "I'll cover you so that that would not destroy you, my holiness and my judgment."



 One more thing is revealed, verse 23, "Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.



 I will show you my goodness. I will show you my protection, and now I will show you my grace." Now I know it doesn't say grace.



 It says, "I will show you my back." And do you mind my telling you the theologians have debated for centuries what that means?



 I mean, is it showing the behind of God? Or as most, I think, commentators would say now, is it showing the afterglow as though the Lord passes by? And in the valley there is such remain of the glory of God on display that there is this shimmering, radiant glory even in the afterflow of God's passing.



 A few years ago I had the opportunity to raft the 200 miles of the Grand Canyon. And one particular morning we had camped out in a fairly narrow portion of the valley, and that meant as the sun rose over the valley, that the far wall of this narrow little channel began to just be glowing in golden hues of the morning sun. But as the sun rose a little higher, it began to hit the turbulent water beneath the wall, which meant it began to set up brilliant flashes of sunlight as well. So we had this beautiful golden valley in front of us, and then these flashes of light. And I was thinking, "I wonder if that's what Moses saw."



 I actually think it was even dim compared to what Moses saw. There was this radiant glory, this great exhibition of the goodness of God.



 And that's what you actually need to hear me say.



 There was this great exhibition of the goodness of God. That's what God promised. He did not say, "I will show you the glory full on."



 What He did promise is, "I will show you the goodness of God. I will display my grace to you because after all, what is grace but glory under the control of goodness?"



 In a way that may sound provocative but important for us to know, what is God actually demonstrating here?



 Moses is protected by God from God.



 I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my... I will make a covering for you. I will make atonement. I will cover you.



 Moses is protected by God from God.



 The reason you and I need to hear that is we will look at these biblical accounts and say, "Boy, wouldn't that have been great?



 Wouldn't it be great if Moses' experience had been my experience and your experience that we would have been able to be protected by God from God hidden in stone?"



 You've seen something even greater.



 What God did for you and me is not reveal His grace in stone but in flesh.



 For what He did in sending Christ Jesus to this world to pay the penalty for your sin and my sin to take the guilt and the punishment that we deserved on Himself was God was doing what?



 He was providing us the protection that we needed by the Son that He provided by God.



 He was protecting us from God.



 And that is the goodness of God in true spectacle, in true display and true comfort to our hearts.



 God, show us your ways.



 I will.



 Show us your person I have.



 Go with us.



 I will never leave you nor forsake you.



 Show us your glory.



 I have done better than that.



 I have shown glory under the control of goodness.



 And for that reason, you know you can trust me and turn to me and I will be with you.



 What we're ultimately praying, whether parent or pastor or Sunday school teacher or aunt or uncle or grandparent or discipler or neighborhood leader, we are praying, "Lord, fill my vision with Your goodness so that whatever I have to face, however difficult it may be, I trust You and walk with You and am being led out into the valley of the greatness of Your grace so that seeing it in full display, I know how good is Your heart.



 Be Thou my vision, Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me. Believe that You art, waking or sleeping, by day or by night. Thy presence always my light, heart of my own heart, whatever befall, be my vision,



 O ruler of all.



 Show me Your glory."



 And when we have vision that that is revealed in His goodness.



 We have the heart for His calling and the heart for His people. Father so bless us that we who still walk a world of mountains steep and valleys deep



 would know that You are with us.



 And the one who is with us has declared His name and His nature. I am gracious and merciful to all who call upon me.



 So fill our vision when other things threaten to do it. Our trials, our fears, our temptations, eclipse them with the reality of the Savior who came for us so that we seeing Him would trust You, turn to You, and have new strength from You. Grant this blessing of Your grace, we pray, in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.