Deo Gloria
Sermon for December 25, 2024
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Exodus 33:18-23; 34:5-7
Theme: Lord, Show Us Your Glory!
I don’t know which is more incredible: the fact that Moses asked or the fact that God granted his request. I mean, let’s not forget what just happened. While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments from God, the people of Israel had built a golden calf and worshipped it. Can you think of a bigger insult? After all that God had done for them, after all the miracles they had witnessed with their own eyes, after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt, after he parted the waters of the Red Sea for them so they could cross over to the other side and escape from the Egyptian army, after he provided water from them in the wilderness so they wouldn’t die of thirst—water from a rock no less, and this is the thanks he gets? They worship a golden calf? Talk about an insult! Talk about a slap in the face!
Needless to say, God was angry and he threatened to destroy the people. Moses was angry too, so much so that he took the two tablets of stone on which God had written the 10 Commandments and threw them on the ground, busting them into pieces. Then Moses interceded for the people, pleading that God would have mercy on them, pleading that God would not destroy them for their foolish and wicked sins, pleading that God would forgive them. Finally God relented and said he would not destroy the people for their sins. He did say, however, that he would no longer go with them to the Promised Land because he might destroy them along the way. Instead he would send an angel to accompany them. But Moses pleaded some more. “How can we go if you won’t go with us? How will we know if you are pleased with us if you won’t go with us? Remember these are your people, Lord, the people you chose as your own inheritance.” And once again God relented and assured Moses that he would indeed go with them as they journeyed to the Promised Land.
Obviously Moses was relieved. He was overjoyed that God forgave the people for their sins and was still willing to go with them to the Promised Land. And then, almost out of the blue, Moses makes this amazing request: “Now show me your glory”(33:18). “Really, after what just happened? Now you want me to show you my glory?” It was a pretty bold request. But God did not rebuke Moses for making it. In fact, he said he would do it. He said he would cause all his goodness to pass in front of him and would even proclaim his name, the LORD, revealing more about himself, helping Moses understand what a good and gracious God he is.
But there was one condition: He could not see his face, otherwise he would die. No human being could see his face and live. God is holy, sinless, completely set apart from sin. God cannot stand sin. He cannot tolerate sin. And that presents a problem for sinners. Even though Moses did enjoy God’s favor by faith, he still was a sinner and therefore unable to see God. So God came up with a solution. When he came down to reveal his glory to Moses, he would place Moses in a cleft in the rock and then place his hand over him until he had passed by. Then he would remove his hand and allow Moses to see his back.
So that’s what happened. The next day when Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to meet with God and receive a new pair of tablets with the 10 Commandments inscribed on them, God came down in a cloud and stood next to him on the mountain. He then put Moses in a cleft of the rock and put his hand over the top and then passed by. And as he did, he proclaimed his name:
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.(vv. 6+7)
Luther calls these verses God’s sermon on himself. Here God tells us about himself. He reveals to Moses and to us what he really is like. And what do we learn? That he is a good and gracious and compassionate God. This is his glory. Tom Brady’s glory is 7 Super Bowl rings. Michael Jordan’s glory is his 6 NBA championships. Taylor Swift’s glory is that she is a phenomenal musician and singer. God’s glory is that he is a good and gracious and compassionate God; a God who is slow to anger; a God who abounds in love and faithfulness; a God who maintains love to thousands, to millions, to billions of people even though, like the people of Israel, they don’t deserve it; a God who forgives, who doesn’t give us what our sins deserve, but who graciously forgives wickedness and rebellion and sin.
But there is the other side too, the holy side, the justice side, the side you don’t want to mess with. As a holy and just God, he does not leave the guilty unpunished, but punishes people for their unbelief and their wickedness to the third and fourth generation. Imagine how angry you would be if someone broke into your house and stole all of your Christmas presents. Imagine how angry you would be if that same someone took your Christmas tree, put it out on the driveway and drove over it with their pickup truck, so when you came home from church or maybe from visiting relatives later today, there it was smashed on the driveway. Imagine how angry you would be if that same someone used spray paint to leave your family a snarky note on the wall in your family room: “Have a Merry Christmas!” Would your blood pressure go over 200? Would your eyes be red and bulging out of their sockets? Would you be so angry you’d just want to explode? Now multiply that by about a million times and that might give you a little taste of how God feels about sin. His anger toward sin is both fierce and unrelenting. And you never, ever want his anger to fall on you.
OK, so what does all of that have to do with Christmas? I’m glad you asked. You see the amazing thing that happened with Moses on Mt. Sinai also happened with Mary and Joseph in a stable in Bethlehem: God revealed his glory. He allowed them to see his glory, in their little baby. But wait a second, Pastor Bentz. If that really was God revealing his glory, how come Mary and Joseph—and the shepherds later on, and the Wise Men too—how come they didn’t die? I mean, if Jesus really is the Son of God, then they actually looked at the face of God and they didn’t die. You’re right. They didn’t, because instead of doing what he did with Moses, instead of hiding them in the cleft of a rock or under a bale of hay, he hid himself. God hid himself in human flesh and blood. He concealed his glory in a form we humans could see and touch and feel and not be destroyed, in a form we never would have imagined, in a tiny baby born in Bethlehem.
And why did he do it? Why did he reveal his glory in a little baby named Jesus? Because that’s who he is. That’s what he revealed to Moses. You want to live in heaven someday, right? I know. I do too, but here’s the problem: You and I are sinners, sinners guilty of breaking God’s commands just like the people of Israel. No, maybe we never worshipped a golden calf like they did, but we have our own little “golden calves.” In fact, for many of us our “golden calf” is sitting right under the Christmas tree. Don’t believe me? Then let me ask you this: How many of you were more excited about opening your presents last night, or maybe opening them later today, than you were about coming to church this morning and worshipping your Savior Jesus? And even if that isn’t your little golden calf, there are plenty of others in our lives, things we often love more than our Lord, things we put before him and give them the time and attention he really deserves. Yes, just like the Israelites, we are guilty in the eyes of God. And as God revealed to Moses, he is a holy and just God, a God who does not leave the guilty unpunished, a God who will see to it that we get the punishment we have coming—death, eternal death in hell.
But God didn’t want to see that happen. He couldn’t bear to see that happen. You see, as he also revealed to Moses, he is a compassionate and gracious God, a God who is abounding in love and faithfulness, a God who loves to forgive. So in love he devised a way to spare us, to rescue us from our sins and the punishment we deserve and to give us mercy and compassion and forgiveness instead. He sent his Son to take our place. In love he had his Son become one of us so that he might be our substitute, that he might bear our sin and guilt, that he might take the punishment we deserved, and in return he might then show us compassion and grace and forgiveness. And as a result, one day we will see what even Moses never saw: the face of God in all his glory in heaven.
What a miracle took place on that very first Christmas! What an amazing sight for Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds, and for you and me as well! And what a wonderful reason to celebrate and give thanks to God! That baby lying in a manger is so much more than just a baby. He is the glory of God in human flesh. Amen.