Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
Exodus 33:18
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 NASB
The revelation of God’s glory moves from one level of understanding to a whole new level between the time of Moses and Jesus. When Moses asked God to show him His glory as recorded in Exodus 33:18, the Lord’s response was very instructive. God defined His glory as a manifestation of His goodness, the proclamation of His name, and the expression of His grace and compassion. Moses was privileged to witness a visualization of the glory of God but was restricted from seeing “the face of God” (Exodus 33:23).
When the Word, Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among people, John 1:14 states, “we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.” All that was true of the glory of God the Father is true of the Son, with the exception that Jesus was able to be seen by virtue of the Incarnation. So when Philip asked Jesus to show him and the other disciples the Father, Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” (John 14:9).
In Jesus we have the visible and physical representation of the glory of God. He is the personal manifestation of the goodness of God’s character. He is the One who bears a name that represents all that God is and does. And through His willingness to go to the cross in our place, Jesus expresses and extends a grace and compassion that invites us into a relationship that allows us to bring attention to God’s glory in a physical and visible way by all that we say or do that adequately and accurately reflects Him.
©Image by Wes Talbott