All Beholding Beauty devotionals are written as short, worshipful reflections to help you meditate on God’s Word.
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” – Exodus 34:6-7
A double blessing! Not only did Moses have the LORD pass before Him, but He also received a message of good news (gospel) from Him. Just one chapter earlier, Moses pleaded with God to show him His glory (Exodus 33:18), and the Lord chose to grant Moses’ request.
Could you imagine this scene? Moses climbed to the very top of Mount Sinai, and the Lord descended upon the mountain by means of a cloud, and “stood” there with him. He then passed by Moses and proclaimed a beautiful message about Who He is! After repeating His Name twice (Yahweh, translated as LORD in English), He then reveals some of His glorious attributes to Moses.
He tells Him that:
- He’s a God of mercy (refraining from giving to others what they do deserve);
- He’s a God of grace (giving to others that which they don’t deserve);
- He is slow to anger (ever-so patient with stiff-necked sinners);
- He is forgiving (pardoning us of our sins and not holding them against us); and
- He is just (rightly punishing sin and not just overlooking it as if it never happened).
Perhaps what I learn the most from this passage is that God answered Moses’ request to see His glory by revealing His attributes (His nature) to Moses! So Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory!” And the Lord answered that request by revealing His character to him.
Do you realize what this means, Christian? It means that you, too, ought to be seeking the glory of God! And it also means that we “see” God’s glory in the same way that Moses did: by “hearing”! Moses “saw” God’s glory by “hearing” the glorious nature of Who God is!
So how do we see God’s glory? It’s by hearing Him in His Word, where we can gaze upon His Son (who is the radiance and the glory of God) by His Spirit within us. And it’s there in His Word that we will see (through hearing) that Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the very description that we read in Exodus 34.
Jesus Himself is the image of God, the One who is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, the forgiver of iniquity and the rightful judge against sin!
Related Article: Who is Jesus?
Do you wish to see God’s glory as Moses did? Then set your eyes on Jesus Christ, and you, too, will behold the glory of God through eyes of faith!
Did you know? We publish a new Beholding Beauty devotional each week! View all Beholding Beauty devotionals.
Matt became a joyful follower of Jesus at the age of 21. He is very grateful to be a husband to Lindsey, and a father to four boys. He is an ordained minister (teaching elder) in the PCA. He previously served as a pastor of biblical counseling and is currently a corporate chaplain in southern Delaware. Matt received his Master of Divinity degree in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and holds an advanced certification in biblical counseling from the Association of Biblical Counselors. In his free time, he loves playing with his boys, traveling with his wife, and reading (and buying!) books.
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