Afterwords -- week 10
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14)
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March 1, 2022
Dear friends,
The glorious capstone of God's attributes, I believe, is his goodness. Were it not for his grace, mercy, love, patience, and faithfulness (summed up in "goodness"), we would despair ever of being able to approach a holy, all-powerful God. In love he sent his Son to fulfill his holiness and justice on our behalf, to bear our judgment and guilt, so that forgiveness could be freely given to us. The power of God may cause us to fear him, but it is his goodness that leads us to trust him.
When Moses saw God's glory in Exodus 33-34, we are not told what he actually saw. He would receive a revelation of all of God's goodness passing before him, as God proclaimed "his name" (that is, declaring who he was), all while Moses was being protected by God from God.
As I studied this passage, I wondered what Moses experienced. It certainly wasn't about more smoke, or thunder, or lightning, or quaking, or plague of judgment, things which he had already seen. It was something else. It was the experience of God's pure infinite goodness. I don't think you could quite reproduce that in a movie with special effects!
My own thought experiment on this was a "what if"... What if in thirty minutes time, I saw or remembered every occasion of God's goodness toward me in this life? And so, compressed into a 30-minute experience, I would recall every good thing the Lord has done in my life: every blessing, every act of kindness, every mercy received, every sin forgiven, every word of encouragement I received, every good friend provided, every act of faithfulness, every healing given, every deliverance, every accident spared from, every good embrace, every answered prayer, every pain eased, every tear wiped away, every hurt comforted, and every beautiful song, majestic sunrise, warm sunshine, cool breeze, and good meal? This experience, of course, would be limited to only the good things regarding my own life, one person. Moses saw into the very goodness of God himself.
What I realize -- despite my own limited perspective -- is this: "The Lord is good..." (Nahum 1:7). He alone is good (Luke 18:19). And “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 ESV)
One day all of creation will be filled with the knowledge of the goodness and glory of God (Hab 2:14). The glory of God is his perfection, excellence, greatness, and beauty. We not only want to glimpse it, we want to experience it fully. C. S. Lewis wrote, “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” (The Weight of Glory) Amen, come, Lord Jesus!
The sermon series I recently gave on the topic of the glory of God can be found here: https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=bcf
Have a good week!
Sandy
Photo above taken by me at Topsail Island with a Nikon L810.