Exodus 33:18: And he (Moses) said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
Moses was asking God to show him His glory. What is God’s glory? It's God's magnificence, His holy presence. Then, God answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Exodus 33:19).
God wanted to grant Moses his request. However, there was one problem.
The problem was Moses would surely die in the face of God’s glory and holiness! If the glory of God was to be shown to Moses, God said he would die (Exodus 33:20). Why? God is perfectly holy and righteous, and man is sinful (every man is born with a nature to sin, ever since the first man, Adam’s fall). God cannot and will not condone sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death is the judgment on mankind for disobeying or sinning against God. That’s what God told Adam- if he sins (by disobeying God), ‘he shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:17). If there’s a way out, there must be a redeemer, a reconciler between God and mankind!
What was the solution for Moses then? The answer can be found in Exodus 33:21-22. God told Moses, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.” What is this ‘rock’ that God told Moses about?
Let’s now refer to Psalm 31:3-5. When David said, “for You are my rock and my fortress… into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Who is this 'rock', the one who ‘redeemed’ David? The answer is Jesus Christ. He is the ‘redeemer’ David wrote about. He redeemed us from the judgment for our sins.
Now let’s get back to Moses. In Exodus 33:21, God told Moses to stand on that ‘rock’, a ‘type’ of Jesus. In Exodus 33:22, God told him ‘while His glory passes by, He will put him in the cleft of the rock, and will cover him while the glory of God passes by’. The word ‘cleft’ here means ‘crack, or broken’. Some 2,000 years ago, this ‘rock’ (Jesus) was ‘cracked, broken’ on the cross to die for you and me.
While we were still sinners, He died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus was judged for our sins, instead of us being judged. We are now covered from judgment, just like Moses was covered at the cleft of the ‘rock’. Jesus has taken all our judgment upon Himself on the cross, His body broken, and His blood was shed for us.
Today, you can have a relationship with God and experience His glory, without reservation or worry, because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross. Our sins have been washed away, once and for all, and we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
It’s truly by God's grace that we’ve been saved from judgment and death (Ephesians 2:8).
My friend, there's this grace for you right now. What you need to do is believe and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. Believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord of your life (Romans 10:9), and you are already saved, by His finished works on the cross. God loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for you, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).
